# Pre-paid cell phone question (US) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171 "2009-05-03T14:07:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/1 "2009-05-03T14:07:52Z")
I’ll be making two trips to the US this year, which is very unusual for me. This summer I’ll be heading to Pennsylvania, and then this autumn I’ll be going to Disney World. Lucky girl? You better believe it. While we’re at Disney World, we’d like to have a pair of cell phones so that if our group splits up, and there’s an emergency, we can get in touch with each other. Since some members of the group are talking about going to Sea World, and others to the Universal parks, walkie-talkies won’t do the trick - it’s cell phones or nothing. We live in Norway, which uses the standard European cell phone frequency band, and that’s different than the one used in the US. Only one of the group has a tri-band cell phone and no one wants to buy a new phone just for this trip - not to mention the roaming charges! I’ll have a lot more time for shopping while we’re in PA than in FL. Would it be possible for me to buy two cell phones that use pre-paid cards while we’re in Pennsylvania, and just keep them in the boxes until we get to Florida? As in, will they work? Will the call charges turn out to be obscene? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/2 "2009-05-03T14:49:57Z")
:: rereads OP, sees walkie-talkies are out :: There goes my idea. 🙂 Perhaps you could get a few used and unlocked GSM-1900-only phones on eBay or Kijiji or whatever? They’d be fine for populated US areas, and might be cheaper because most phones these days are multiband. Then you could stuff a prepaid SIM in each one. I just looked on eBay and you can sort the phones there by all sorts of features. There are also SIMs. ---
**Author:** ![zwede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ac91a4/32.png) [@zwede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwede)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/3 "2009-05-03T16:01:13Z")
Not sure how prepaid does roaming, but why not get two prepaid phones once you get to Florida? I did a quick search and found a refurb phone including $25 prepaid airtime for $29.99. With the $1/day prepaid plan you get unlimited mobile-to-mobile. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/4 "2009-05-03T16:43:56Z")
> [@zwede](#): > > why not get two prepaid phones once you get to Florida? We won’t have a car in Florida, which will make shopping for phones more difficult than if I got them in PA. ---
**Author:** ![Fritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Fritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fritz)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/5 "2009-05-03T19:40:12Z")
[Walmart](http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10714717) Tracfone for $14.88. Local, long distance, roaming and international calling included. ---
**Author:** ![JasonArcher2008](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@JasonArcher2008](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JasonArcher2008)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/6 "2009-05-03T20:18:07Z")
Fritz is right a tracfone style of prepaid is the best way to go. With this style of prepaid they are generally pretty cheap. $15 for a cheap model as Fritz mentioned. They are usually basic. You can call and text and thats pretty much it. They still have the a calling list so if you bought two you can program the number for your other party into it so remembering the number shouldn’t be an issue. As for activation some phones will have a limit to the amount of time that the phone will stay active. Net10, one style I used to have, would only work for 90 days before you needed to buy a minute card. (The minutes would add active time.) The way around this would be to get the phones in PA and then activate them in FL. These style are sold all around the US and they will ask you what area code you would like them to be assigned to. With mine it asked for a ZIP code. They way that these phone will get you though is the minutes are generally expensive but with your application that shouldn’t be an issue. Having a long distance relationship at the time I would run out of minutes quickly. You could probably buy two 30 or 60 minutes cards and be fine. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/7 "2009-05-04T07:24:32Z")
Thank you! Adding two tracfones and some extra minute cards to the shopping list for this summer… ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/8 "2009-05-04T18:20:50Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > Thank you! > > Adding two tracfones and some extra minute cards to the shopping list for this summer… Sounds like everyone has chimed in with exactly the same sort of stuff I would have said… but I did want to comment that there are other prepaid phones out there. We’re looking at a pair of T-Mobile phones for the kids (for emergency contacts etc.). Those are also quite cheap (the web price for their most basic phone is about 20 dollars apiece) and readily available. I don’t recall what the differences are for Tmobile vs. Tracphones as far as costs go; I know Tmobile was better as far as how long your unused “minutes” last, than Verizon’s prepaid. You’ll definitely want to make sure whatever you pick allows texting (I think all phones do nowadays) - when in the various parks, it can often be noisy enough that it’s tough to hear a phone conversation (or even to hear it ringing). Texting was a tremendous help when we were there a couple of years ago. ---
**Author:** ![cmosdes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cmosdes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmosdes)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/9 "2009-05-04T19:29:53Z")
After reading this thread I went and checked the t-mobile site to look a their pre-paid plans. This brings up a bit of a hijack question for me. Given that t-mobile offers a pay as you go plan for $1/day that includes long distance, roaming and unlimited minutes, why would anyone get a service plan? At $1/day you are paying pretty much the same price as their cheapest service plan and you aren’t tied into a two year agreement. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/10 "2009-05-04T20:00:52Z")
> [@cmosdes](#): > > After reading this thread I went and checked the t-mobile site to look a their pre-paid plans. > > This brings up a bit of a hijack question for me. Given that t-mobile offers a pay as you go plan for $1/day that includes long distance, roaming and unlimited minutes, why would anyone get a service plan? At $1/day you are paying pretty much the same price as their cheapest service plan and you aren’t tied into a two year agreement. It doesn’t actually include unlimited minutes, per their site: [http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Prepaid-Plans.aspx](http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Prepaid-Plans.aspx) the dollar a day gets you calls that cost 10 cents per minute (the unlimited calling is not until after 7 PM). And of course text messages cost extra. But yeah, really good point, this makes the prepaid look a lot more attractive than a contract plan for a lot of users. We’ll be sticking with Verizon (and contracts) for the time being due to coverage issues (and their prepaid/pay as you go aren’t attractive). I’d say that anyone who uses their phone a lot would find a contract price is cheaper. More casual users can probably do better with prepaid. Lessee: we pay 60 a month for our 2 phones, and that includes 700 minutes. The prepaid from Tmobile, for daily use, would be 60 dollars for the buck a day for each phone. Say we used each phone only on 15 days a month, that’s 15/phone times 2, = 30 dollars a month. If we used 200 minutes, that’s another 20 dollars, so a total of 50 dollars. Cheaper. Use another 100 minutes, there’s breakeven (without adding extra daily charges). /hijack ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/11 "2009-05-04T20:04:16Z")
Your cell phone company may be willing to rent you some phones to use in the US. Verizon Wireless, a US company whose infrastructure is completely incompatible with much of the rest of the world, does that for customers traveling overseas. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-paid-cell-phone-question-us/495171/12 "2009-05-04T20:16:36Z")
From the Disney website “Moms Panel” a great resource. [Disney FAQ Moms Panel](http://disneyworldforum.disney.go.com/home.aspx) > [@](#): > > April, > > You are correct that Disney no longer sells Pal Mickey, and they do not appear to be replacing it with anything specifically like it. The good news is that if someone already has one, they continue to support the product by still having it work in the parks. > > While I have not heard of anything to replace it specifically, Disney has recently announced some exciting programs with Verizon Wireless, the cell phone company. People with a Verizon cell phone will be able to access certain special features including information from within the parks (like restaurant availability, waiting times, etc.), as well as fun interactive elements. I don’t know how many, if any, of these are active yet, but if you are a Verizon customer you should definitely ask when you enter any of the parks at Customer Service if they are active yet. > > I hope that this helps! > > Have a Magical Vacation! > [@](#): > > Kelly: > > You’ve got a couple of options for cell phones when traveling to Orlando: > > My first recommendation is to check with your mobile phone company and see if you can purchase a U.S. calling plan for just one month. When I travel internationally, I do this and it saves me a lot of hassle, plus I have my phone with all of its numbers! > > If you wanted to do a little research, you can have a Virginmobile phone shipped free of charge to your resort. Visit [www.virginmobileusa.com](http://www.virginmobileusa.com). > > You can pick up a pre-paid cell phone at the VirginMegaStore at Downtown Disney’s West Side–the cheapest one when I called today was $19.99. > > Or, if you are traveling to the US any time soon or will be renting a car while in Orlando, consider buying a Tracphone from Wal-Mart. There are several Wal-Marts in Kissimmee including one just off of 535. Activate it with an Orlando zipcode and your calls will be considered local. > > Wishing you a magical vacation! > > Whitney