Bill_S

Inspired by rivingtonpike's thread, but not wanting to distract from his question, I'll ask mine here.

I live in the US, have family in Canada. At the moment I have a dumb phone on Verizon Wireless. When visiting Canada I can roam on the local CDMA network. Price is steep, but I'm not a big talker so I live with it. But the aforementioned dumb phone is old and ready to go Tango Uniform. I'd like to replace it with a smartphone but the roaming charges for data are horrendous. Opinions vary as to how easy it is to turn all data signals off when traveling.

My brilliant idea was to pick up a PAYG phone in Canada to use for voice when I'm visiting (a few times per year). But the options seem pricey and not really convenient - minutes expire in 30 days, phones must be kept "topped up" to preserve account and phone number.

According to Rogers' website their sim cards do not expire. Does anybody know if you can maintain a zero balance on a Rogers PAYG phone for a considerable period? Eg, I get the cheapest Rogers phone I can, put 20 bucks worth of time on it, then let the minutes expire when I'm home in the US. On my next trip, say six months later, can I top the phone back up or will my account be closed? I believe Bell closes a zero balance account after 120 days but the Rogers site appears to be silent on the matter.

It could well be that there's no cheap, effective solution for what I want. If so then I'll carry my new smartphone in a lead box and only take it out in case of emergency!

dbd33

I have a BlackBerry, when in the US I switch off roaming for data but leave roaming for voice on. That's easily done.

fledermaus

The lead box won't work because as soon as you take it out of the box all those emails will come flooding in. When I went to the UK I put a block on all emails with attachments and only opened emails that I really needed to. Text was OK on the roaming thingy.

Can't help you with the other questions though, sorry.

CanadaJimmy

Some companies offer international data plans. I know Rogers does. You could also look at getting a phone with wifi and just use skype whenever you want to talk near a wifi hotspot. Good if you're trying to meet someone at the airport.

Bill_S

Thanks. I can put BlackBerry on the list, then. I was thinking about one of the Android phones, and opinions in internetland are mixed with respect to turning off data roaming. Some claim to have done it, others have had trouble (switched off various settings but the phone managed to pull data anyway).

Bill_S

Yes, Verizon does have a global data plan, but it's an extra $65 per month. Great for business travelers but suboptimal for occasional use.

Now I understand why British expats moan so much about mobile phone charges in North America!

lins and Stef McLachlan

I have a Canadian PAYG Fido phone and we only ever use it when we are in Canada. I just phone up from the UK and ask for it to be reactivated and they do that for me, and I use a credit card to top up about $20. Any credit on the phone at the end of the month is lost though and if you don't use it for a couple of months they deactivate it, but that has not been a problem for us in the past 5 years
lol
Stef

PMM

Hi


Buy $100 worth of time from Rogers. It lasts for a year, so if you don't use it you don't have to top it up.

dbd33

Be ready for the thing to go absolutely bonkers when you get near the border and the service in the home country starts bombarding it with stored emails.

Wannabe

Same thing for Virgin - 100 bucks is valid for a year.

rich07

If you use an iPhone, you can switch data roaming off, I used this last time I was in Canada and nasty surprises when I got home, unlike the previous visit where bill was in excess of £200.