U.S. Visits

[wwest5829]

I am planning to retire to Thailand this year. I will make, perhaps, one or two trips to U.S. per year.

Does anyone have any experience with maintaining a U.S. occasional SIM chip?

What is the best way to go without paying monthly fees for unused time?

[sfokevin]

I know both ATT & True have prepaid sims that can be used at a rate of 10 cents a minute...

If you top them up with $100 it will have a validity of 1 year...

[lomatopo]

T-Mobile and AT&T both offer pre-paid/PAYG (Pay As You Go) SIM-based calling plans.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans-overview.aspx

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/pyg-cell-phone-plans.jsp

There are other options, especially in the bundled area, where you buy the phone with minutes on it already. http://www.tracfone.com/got_a_tracfone.jsp

Challenges include having the right mobile; GSM 1900; expiration dates; coverage, managing the account.

You could port an existing number, home/mobile, to an AT&T or T-Mo pre-paid account if you wanted.

Before I moved here I ported my AT&T mobile number to T-Mobile pre-paid and have maintained that. If you put $50 $100 on the SIM you get Gold Rewards* and 1 year validity. I think the rate is $0.10/min nationwide. I use unlocked tri/quad-band GSM phones, GSM1900, and usually ride on a T-Mo network, although sometimes I roam on AT&T. I pay $1.49 per day for 2G (GPRS/EDGE) data. I go back ~ 5 times per year. Both AT&T and T-Mo allow for web management of the account.

*Once you have Gold Rewards any top-up extends the validity to 1 year from the top-up date for the entire balance.

Edited May 4, 2011 by lomatopo

[4evermaat]

another option is PagePlus. just use a pay as you go plan. but you need cdma (verizon) phone. amd they limit certain high-end phones, such as the iphone as so not to compete with verizon retail.

But the problems will occur when you want to sync contacts. Much easier to do with GSM phone.

[wwest5829]

Thanks for the ideas. Guess I'm spoiled to my o2 European pay as you use and my Thai True pay as you use.

No need to post $100.00 that you loose after 1 year. Guess $100.00 per year really is not that much to loose

to maintain my number.

[lomatopo]

Thanks for the ideas. Guess I'm spoiled to my o2 European pay as you use and my Thai True pay as you use.

No need to post $100.00 that you loose after 1 year. Guess $100.00 per year really is not that much to loose

to maintain my number.

With T-Mo it is not $100/yr but rather $100 gets you the best calling rate and Gold Rewards status, which means any subsequent top-up extends the 1 year validity. So a $10 top-up on day 364 means you paid $55 for 2 years. I think you can see the trend?

With a fair amount of calls and even data you can use this up quickly.

Also you cannot roam internationally with these pre-paid plans which sucks vis-a-vis SMSes. You'll have to check voice-mail.

Also maybe advisable to sign up for Google Voice number while in the U.S.

[4evermaat]

Thanks for the ideas. Guess I'm spoiled to my o2 European pay as you use and my Thai True pay as you use.

No need to post $100.00 that you loose after 1 year. Guess $100.00 per year really is not that much to loose

to maintain my number.

With T-Mo it is not $100/yr but rather $100 gets you the best calling rate and Gold Rewards status, which means any subsequent top-up extends the 1 year validity. So a $10 top-up on day 364 means you paid $55 for 2 years. I think you can see the trend?

With a fair amount of calls and even data you can use this up quickly.

Also you cannot roam internationally with these pre-paid plans which sucks vis-a-vis SMSes. You'll have to check voice-mail.

Also maybe advisable to sign up for Google Voice number while in the U.S.

I did sign my father up with a T-Mobile pay per day plan. $10 gets you 90 day validity. It was bought for him to use outside USA when he travels; he's not a mobile phone guy. But he does like that he can travel away from home and call people on the road, which he rarely does unless going long distances.

I think he still has like $30 credit and he's had the # now for almost 2 years. Not sure if you can auto-renew if the credit is already there or if you must apply top up yourself before 90 days from previous topup.

Page Plus is much different, but I believe the validity is long time. Not sure if there is a deactivate period if xx days of inactivity.