US Plans

[Rlummerding]

Hello,

My daugher is going to be in the USA for 3 months and I need a plan for her.

How do I get something for 3 months. doing an add-on every 15 days is insane and too expensive.

IF and ONLY IF

I change to a new carrier can I come back in the fall with the same plan and phone number I currently have? without losing any rewards???

Thanks

Robert Lummerding

[dust2dust]

I'm very happy with the ebay Red Pocket Mobile I have for average of $2.50US for 30 days paid annually ($30US). I'm a low usage user so it's a great little service. Has volte and vowifi (if you ask for it) too. Uses T-Mobile.

[Nezgar]

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@DennyCrane wrote:

Check out Ubigi. They have daily, monthly, and annual plans for the US. Very reasonable. It's only data though.

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Looks like eSIM only, so not an option for non-eSIM capable phones. Also, looks like data only, so no calls or SMS? Data rates look good though!

[DennyCrane]

Check out Ubigi. They have daily, monthly, and annual plans for the US. Very reasonable. It's only data though.

[Nezgar]

I've been looking into some decent SIM's for use in the USA, and these are a few options I've come up with:

• mintmobile.com - cheapest option per month, but need to commit to at least 3 months
• lycamobile.com - SIM cards can be purchased at retail outlets like walmart, target, CVS, 7-eleven and can buy 30 day plans activated once installed in phone.
• tello.com - similar to lycamobile, not sure if you can buy a sim at retail, but you can do eSIM

Also, any carrier that offers eSIM allows you to activate without having to acquire a physical sim which means you might be able to even sign-up and activate before you enter the USA, but it likely needs to at least activate while connected to USA mobile network. Afterwards, if your phone supports VoLTE, usually Wi-Fi calling comes along for the ride and you might still be able to make/receive calls to/from the USA number when back in Canada over Wifi.

[hTideGnow]

HI @Rlummerding   as @hairbag1 said, make sure to reactivate before day 90.  But I would try to activate couple days before day 90.  There could be all kind of different things that can fail you if you leave it till very last day

[hairbag1]

@Rlummerding 

just make certain she re-ups her plan before day 90.

[Rlummerding]

Thank-you Everyone.

I will talk to my daugher about getting a SIM card inthe USA and suspending her account here for the summer!

Thanks again for all your suggestions and help

Robert

[dust2dust · Accepted solution]

If the plan she's on is no longer available then no you would not have the same plan if you changed to a new carrier. The worse loss would be rewards if she's on those. Porting out kills the sim and everything in the account. She would need to come back to a new account, new sim which would mean being placed in the new points system.

But maybe the 3 month suspension would be just the right amount of time to reactivate the account. She wouldn't have the use of her number from here in that time though.

[DennyCrane]

Public Mobiles roaming options are some of the cheapest out there, unless you get a plan that includes US roaming as part of the core plan (I'm not sure how common those are anymore).

You're probably better off getting a local sim as others have suggested. You can keep your PM active if you want, or you can suspend it for up to 90 days.

If you cancel your PM plan you might not get your current plan back, if it's not being offered at that time. That's why suspension might be better.

[pmbc]

@Rlummerding if you want to retain the PM number suspend the account and make sure you renew before 90 days to keep the account active.  But for a long duration like that yeah go for a local SIM/carrier like Mint.

Just reread your msg and yes you can come back to the same plan but you need to renew it before 90 days from the last time you paid.  So downgrade to $15 plan and renew that every 80ish days.  If you had any benefits from the current plan as far as promotion you'll lose those.  Does anyone know if you have addons like the Christmas time data and intl mins, will those be retained on a suspended account?

[dabr]

@Rlummerding    15 day roaming is all that is available from PM so for longer trips, you might want to get a local SIM as the plans with data are much cheaper, anyhow.  Your daughter could also download TextNow for free calling and texts as an alternative.

edit:  BTW, she can suspend her service by removing any payment card which will give her 90 days before the payment would be needed to stop her account and number being lost.  Of course, make a payment before the 90th suspended day (85/86th) to not lose the number.

[Handy1]

@Rlummerding  Honest probably best to get a local SIM card for the duration of trip , might be cheaper and definitely more reliable