Please note that US Roaming add ons start immediately after purchase so you can add funds to your account balance to prepare for your purchase but wait until departure or arrival in the US to actually purchase the US Roaming add on. Here is more info on US Roaming add ons....
While you have to have an active plan to purchase and use US roaming add ons the type of plan you have does not affect the roaming add ons features.
US roaming add ons start the moment you confirm and submit your purchase in your self serve account and expire 240 hours later (10 days×24 hours).
You can pre-load the funds needed to purchase the add ons in your self serve account so you only have to log in, select the US roaming add on and then confirm and submit your purchase.
Wait til late as possible to purchase since they are immediately valid so on free wifi at the destination airport or stopping shortly before the border at mcd's or timmy's to buy the add on while on free wifi.
If you are staying longer than 10 days you must wait a minimum of 24 hours to purchase the same US roaming add on or contact the CSA/moderators to add it before the waiting period ends.
If you have two US roaming add ons with a talk feature that overlap the talk feature basically gets disabled. Avoid this....but you will have to get one removed by a CSA/moderator to get your calling feature back if this happens.
After purchase reboot your phone and manually select either at&t or T-mobile to get better reception. Some areas have better coverage by either provider so when travelling around the US you will be better served by choosing the provider with better signal strength by locale.
You will recieve incoming texts without any US roaming add ons. Adding the fongo app and textnow app (a voip provider) for use on wifi are good to use for a back up plan or you could call forward your pm phone # to your voip # before you leave Canada and purchase just the US data roaming add on. A voip app also works on mobile data (1 min=0.5mb/100 min=50mb) so you could still recieve incoming pm texts, recieve incoming pm calls to your voip #/app, outgoing calls from your voip # and outgoing texts from textnow(any voip app w/free texts) for free or small fee from fongo. (call forwarding will be cancelled in the US if the pm SIM card connects with a US cell tower this option only works with a local sim card.)
All US roaming add ons have either unlimited text, talk or both. Only data has limits depending on your purchase 250mb/500mb/1gb. Once the data is consumed it will just stop you could then purchase different roaming add on, wait 24 hr to buy or contact the CSA/moderators to buy the same US roaming add on again. (* except talk as previously mentioned.)
Happy travels and Stay--Safe!
Please note currently due to the decommissioning of the 3G network in the US by pm's roaming partners at&t has already begun this process but as of March 3rd 2022 still has some areas that are still served by the 3G network. T-Mobile has an end date of July 1st 2022. This will affect the ability of pm customers to send and receive voice calls and emergency service such as 911 while in the US and using pm's US roaming add ons. The current work around is to download a voip app such as textnow or fongo for use while on wifi or mobile data for voice calls when in areas no longer served by the 3G network which will eventually include all areas served by at&t and T-Mobile.
And info on redemptions if you are a new customer after January 24th 2022 or a customer who unknowingly switched to the points program you may have enough points to redeem for the discounted US Roaming add ons offered in the redemption catalogue.
For example if you purchase the $20/US Roaming add on bundle w/unlimited talk+text+250mb of data and you consume all of your data by day 5 you could redeem points for the US Roaming $20/1gb data add on=15pts, $15/500mb data add on=10pts or $10/250mb data add on=5pts to carry you thru the final 5 days of your Roaming bundle or bridge the 24 hour waiting period before you can repurchase the same US Roaming add on.
To purchase a US Roaming Add-On using your Self-Serve account, follow these steps - please try to time the purchase very shortly before going to US as it's only good for 240 hours once added:
Click on ‘Purchase Add-Ons’ on the Overview tab and scroll down to the Add-On calculator.
Click the plus sign (+) to add and the minus sign (-) to remove selected Add-ons.
When you’ve added the desired US Roaming Add-On, click ‘Buy Add-Ons’ or ‘Make a Payment’ below the calculator:
You will see ‘Make a Payment’ instead of ‘Buy Add-Ons’ if there are not enough funds in your account to make the purchase.
If you don’t have sufficient funds to purchase the Add-Ons, you will be asked to make a one-time payment equal to the price of the Add-On, less your current available funds. Click ‘Submit’, then ‘Go back’: now the button below the calculator will say ‘Buy Add-Ons’.
Select ‘Confirm my purchase’, and you’re done.
Some users have found that rebooting the device is required afterwards.
Yes this is a silly "glitch" in the system. But it's actually about buying the same add-on. You can buy different add-ons. Don't buy any additional add-ons that have talk when you have an active talk add-on. The add-ons are good for 240 hours so maybe think about buying at the top of whatever hour so that it expires at the same time in 10 days. Then you can buy a different talk add-on if needed.
Hi @russellr how long you would be in US? I usually say if over 2 weeks, get local Prepaid Data, unless you absolutely need to receive phone and text on your own PM number when you are there
You will be able to receive texts in the US. Not send or any calls (although there may be a couple free calls) without roaming add-ons. You can buy add-ons in the account or dialing 611 and adding money. You will need your 4 digit pin. You need to add the money then buy the add-on.
