Please help with trip to US

[Adamwojo]

I am going to the states for 2 weeks and am basically looking for texting and calling back to Canada, as well maybe just a little bit of data because I can use the wifi at the hotel. Can someone please let me know what the best deal to get all this would be and if anyone knows how much the Sim cards are at walmart.

Thank you 

[Acekiller]

For non PM user, it is probably best to use knowroaming or freedompop

[mimmo]

Thanks Shawn, Fixed the link.    this link found on the shownotes is atually pretty informative aswell https://mobilesyrup.com/2017/08/03/best-roaming-options-for-canadian-travelers-2017-edition/ 

[ShawnC13]

@mimmo, your link to the Tech Talk show notes wasn't working for me.  Not sure if it is just on my work computer or what.  www.shownotes.ca that should work

[mimmo]

@Adamwojo being a new cutomer you would need to first sign up for a canada plan 30 day talk and text i think it costs around $27/30 days + $10 sim card + the USA Addon x2or3  so unless you are actually planning to switch to PM for good im not sure its your most prce efective option.

who are you with currently?  what is their  roaming options. 

Another option is to buy a sim card in the USA when you get there and get a local mobile company.  I do that when i go to europe

Checkout shownotes.ca and click on travel tips.   there might be some ideas there.

[Adamwojo]

Thank you for your help, I am a new customer, may sound like a stupid question but the $20 us roaming plan would include talk and text back to Canada because that is the main thing I need.

Above the 10 days I guess my only option would be to get another $20 plan for another 10 days? I guess there is nothing to get that would cover the extra 4 days?

[Dan]

I think the best solution for this kind of trip if you are no already a PM member is to register for the FreedomPOP LTE SIM card, and have it delivered to your name at the hotel. You get free 200MB (can go up to 700MB with freedom friends) a month and you can have freedom friends give you a few more hundred MBs (you can be your own freedom friend as well if you have more accounts with them). You pay the SIM card and the one time $5 topup that allows you to disable the autopay feature and downgrade the account from premium to free. On the free account, using their app you get 200 North America minutes, 100 international minutes to certain destinations and 500 north america text messages.

For a 2 week trip to the US for about 25USD you get all roaming. If you remember to start the app every 30 days and send one text, you keep the account forever and whenever you travel to the US, you're covered.

See: https://forums.redflagdeals.com/freedompop-us-us-only-sim-free-talk-text-data-us-only-lte-gsm-sim-0-...

[ShawnC13]

@will13am, great catch.  I just posted the Walmart SIM card price as he asked.

[will13am]

@Adamwojo, are you an existing customer?  The way @ShawnC13 responded, it is as if you are trying to activate a new account just for use in the US.  The US roaming features are add ons.  As such, I don't think you can select those features without having a plan to add on roaming features.  In any event, the add ons for US roaming are found in the link below.  As suggested, it looks like the $20 talk, text, 250 mbytes, 10 days add on would be the best suited option.  Since these add ons starts as soon as they are paid for, it would be wise to purchase on the day of travel and no sooner.

https://publicmobile.ca/en/on/plans

[ShawnC13]

@Adamwojo, the SIM cards are $10 at Walmart.  The best deal would be the $20 talk text and 250MB of data.  They plans are only for 10 Calendar days so if you are there for 2 weeks you would either need to get 2 (second one can't be purchased until the 11 day) or go a few days without service if you only want to purchase one addon.