Hello All

wbexpat, nikki dreaming and others gave me loads of tips for my recce in May and one of them was to have the use of a mobile phone.

Now I have established that my mobile is triband - but I can't unlock it as I have not been with my network for more than 12 months.

Before I go any further this end, I thought I would find out about just buying a mobile when I arrive on my recce. How much would a cheap payg phone cost in NS and do you think it's worth doing?

Thanks for all your help.

Rubie

x

Hers a link to rogers payasyougo:http://www.rogers.com/web/link/wirel...=PAY_AS_YOU_GO

As you can see not as cheap as they could be!

Virgin do similar deals but I'm too lazy to find their site!

hth

PC financial has them pretty cheap - no contract as low as $29 I think

That would be the way to do it cheap and chearfull and a 15 dollar top up card, its what my wife and kids use no messy contracts, just buy a Presidents Choice phone from the supermarket, The phone top up is only good for a month, but you can reacticvate it on your next trip.

do you have rellies in canada? asking, 'cos what we did was sis-in-law in calgary got us a phone, which we used as a pay as you go for our recce trips and continued to get top ups for several months until we arrived out here......son has it now.....'cos sis-in-law is citizen and has used telus for donkies years, she got it v v v cheap from telus.....just a thought for you to consider.....

I bought a (not very exciting) Nokia phone with Virgin - PAYG - for about $60 I think (with $10 credit included). It's still going strong over two years later.

If you are only here for 2 or 3 weeks, this won't be an issue, but remember that each value of top up card has an expiry date, ie, $10 only last for 30 days, or $50 for 90 days, etc. $100 lasts for a year.

Just get your phone unlocked, don't go through your network to do it though, plenty of places will unlock it for you.

That's exactly what I was going to suggest, we did the this when we came over on our recce last year, there are lots of places that you can get them unlocked I think it cost me about 20 pounds and it was done in 5 mins! I just use my same phone now we are here, it is pricey with the pay as you go cards, and as already mentioned they do have an expiry date on them. You can always get a contract later on when you get here for good. Another option is to get an international calling card when you arrive, we still use one now especially for ringing back home they are alot cheaper than using a normal phone, hope this helps

Hi

This has reminded me to get my own phone unblocked before we head over so I can just get another sim card for the short term. Just called O2 and they gave it to me for nothing I am on PAYG

Just thought I would let you know incase anyone else is with O2

Thanks for your all your help.

Think I'll see about getting mine unblocked elsewhere. Probably be the best option.

Rubie

x

I was with Virgin in the UK and made sure was covered International calls and had no problems when I came over last year house hunting was connected to Rogers

Hi Silverdragon

I checked with my network and yes I can use my phone for international calls as they will use the Rogers network as yours did- however the call charges were something ridiculous like 1.50 p/minute or something.

Gonna hijack my daughters phone I think and buy a sim - hers is already unlocked.

You will probably find you can get a phone for free basically. I did this with Fido. I forget the precise details, but for $50 I got a phone and SIM and $25 of credit. The SIM alone would have been either $25 or $35, so I decided to have the free phone even though I had an unlocked UK one.

Hi nikki dreaming, i use O2 PAYG and found it didn't work in NS, mind you i did get the phone unlocked later so i 'll let you know if it works this time.

Stuart

ok thanks, It would only be for a short while, if it doesnt work I will prob just buy a cheapy one instead! If I can I would like to try and keep my current phone as I like it!!