Going To The U.S.? Gotta Get a GoPhone
Here’s how to radically reduce roaming charges while visiting in the U.S.
TALK IS CHEAP | Roaming. It’s such a romantic word— conjuring up carefree rambles in fields of flowers or unhindered journeys on the highways and byways with only the open road ahead. Well, that’s what I imagined until I opened up my Rogers Wireless bill after a short trip to the States to find a staggering $358 in “roaming” charges! That seems more like highway robbery than footloose footwork.
Thanks to a friend who travels to Seattle and Portland often, I’ll never again be gouged when I’m traveling and talking south of the border. AT&T’s prepaid GoPhone is the go-to solution for avoiding nasty roaming charges in the States. My friend made a quick stop at Bartell’s Drugstore in Seattle, bought her phone for $18.99 (on sale) and then signed up with AT&T’s $3 a day unlimited voice calls to anywhere in the U.S. (charged only on days you use the phone). For an extra $19.99 a month she got unlimited texting and could have had the options of data and international calling plans.
The beauty of the GoPhone is that you can cancel your plan at any time or use it for trip after trip just by adding to your account every three months to keep it active. The AT&T website (http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/go-phones/index.jsp) has specifics about current deals and how to refill the phone. The site also lets you enter the zip code of your destination to find local information before you travel.
Borrowing a friend’s GoPhone for your next trip to the U.S. is super frugal, but if you don’t have a frugalista friend, the one-time effort of stopping to get one won’t eat into your travel time too much and will save you a bundle, allowing you to roam free once more. —Terri Brandmueller
For GoPhone info visit http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/go-phones/; for Bartell’s Drugstore locations in and around Seattle check www.bartelldrugs.com.
Photo: 123rf
Why go through of all the trouble of getting an AT&T phone. Why not just get a roaming package, when you travel to the states, you can add it for a month, or how ever long you are travelling.
We are retired and go to Arizona for the winter. Tracfone (similar to go phone) has a branch called Straight Talk. For $30 a month get 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, 30 MB web access; for $45 per month unlimited access for everything. Can buy a phone for $29.99. Tracfone is also very good and cheap.
Thanks so much for telling us about this. Very Frugalbits!! We love it.—eds
The problem with getting a roaming package is you are still on the hook for big phone charges.
We got two T-Mobile prepaids and it didn’t matter where we were in the USA – it wasn’t long distance. All calls within the USA were considered local.
The T-Mobile phones are still active here in Canada only roaming charges are added when used here. Got to figure a way to get the phone unlocked and simply purchase Roger’s prepaid services to have spare phones in Canada.
777716 464361Thank you for your extremely great info and feedback from you. car dealers in san jose 999617
380368 422220Heya! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing many months of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any solutions to protect against hackers? 594647