iisaroe

firstly it is all legit etc etc with forces-(seen others on here not so much and people going at em)

does anyone know whats best to bring or leave behind- eg expensive items- bought a new tv recently- bring or just by another as cheap???

cell phones - does america do pay as you go- when first arrive will need a phone- or a sim in my phone- but a contract could be a large expense for us i hear as no credit rating etc so very high deposits! so trying to keep things in budget as possible as have quite a few outlays in first few weeks- car, things for house- finding a rental etc etc

any advice big or small happily read and taken in! never even once been on hols to America- so excited!!

thanks in advance

x

Octang Frye

Yeah, you can get pay as you go. I have a TracPhone for my kid.
The customer support is some call center in God knows where, but it's reasonable.

Leave all your electromological big box items. Like traffic on the roads, electrons travel in the other direction here, and with less zip, so they can't power your gadgets without converters.
Loan the TV to friends/parents whatever.

How long are you going to be here and on what visa? Congratulations, btw. Enjoy your adventure.

Bring tea bags. And biscuits for us all.

iisaroe

many thanks - yes i have heard i need to start liking coffee a bit more!!!!

Weeze

Robinson's orange squash please

Mummy in the foothills

And Ribena please.
I'd abandon the phones and buy a Tracfone pay as you go from WalMart then sort our what you want later.

fatbrit

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Should...rical_goods%3F

For cell phone, just grab a pay-as-you-go service -- Tracfone, Boost, Cricket, etc.

Bomjeito

Are you off to Nellis?

(I'm assuming 'forces' mean military?)

North Las Vegas is a scary place.

Leave everything electronic behind. Las Vegas' Craigslist is the best in the land for used everything. People coming and going, losing and winning. When I moved to Vegas, I bought most of my household off Craig's List.

I even bought my car from a Lutheran Minister off from Craig's List.

There is a British shop on Decatur and Twain. The local groceries do not carry anything British. You can online order pretty much everything.

If you get shipping (which if regular shipping, no foods, but if diplomatic or military, you may have a situation different) - bring what you can and like. Mostly condiments are what is missing, and bring all the tea you prefer, or switch to coffee!

Tracphones work easiest. Virgin mobile is .20 per minute or $25 unlimited per month, no contract. Yes, mobile service contracts are expensive! But you may decide to do that instead of installing phone service.

If you are moving to Vegas, feel free to PM me. I'm from there originally.

iisaroe

many thanks for your reply

craiglist sounds great! is there a web address from it?? yes military!!
buying a car seems the most daunting! 1 is price- mileage seems high and not diesel either so a scarey thought to get head round!! but ill maybe look at that craiglist too for a car as i know there are many different add on's at car garages!

we will prob need a landline phone i assume as want broadband/internet! so for the time prob just get a cheap mobile/cell phone virgin you say $25 dollars per month no contract sounds good

thanks for help!!!

Bob

Car is still new on 100K miles....diesal is expensive to buy and can be very hard to find.

You don't need a landline to get broadband, but most providers do provide a triple combo special deal on phone, internet and tv that'll usually run you $100 a month for the first year. With mobile phones, ask around before buying, because it's no point how great and cheap Virgin is, if it doesn't work on your street, and service can be very patchy here.

1chumly

HEB (superstore) not cheap mind you!

1chumly

OR

If you have an unlocked phone , you can get a SIM card at T Mobile and pay as you go. That's what I did as then it had all my info still on it.

Bob

Need a quadband phone for reliable service though...

TimNiceBut

If you're moving with the any branch of the armed forces, they sort out the move, correct?

Anyway, most computers etc work on both 120V and 240V, check this before bringing them though. Same for the TV - some of the newer LCD ones can digest both PAL and NTSC and work on 120V-240V. However I'd check this carefully, otherwise you're bringing a larger paperweight.

A mentioned, PAYG exists over here, apart from the companies that have already been mentioned, both AT&T and T-Mobile offer PAYG SIMs as well. Both use GSM so a tri- or quadband phone should work provided it's unlocked. Be prepared for the call cost to be noticeably higher than in the UK, though.

As to Internet, you can usually get that either with your cable TV or DSL, but it depends on where you are. Out here in the sticks, it's cable TV or dial up. You also don't tend to get the sort of competition you get in the UK and as a result, prices tend to be higher.

Buying a car - that's going to be fun... Before we moved up here from Vegas, we needed a second car so I went shopping for wheels. Keep in mind I'm a car guy and have never had a problem to find something halfway decent for very reasonable money in the UK. The amount of overpriced junk on LV craigslist was quite impressive - prices several grand over Kelley Blue Book (http://www.kbb.com/ - they already have reputation of valuing cars very much on the high side, that's why the trades loves them), obvious stuff being wrong (brakes tend to be handy) etc. Keep in mind that NV has no MOT equivalent, Clark County has smog checks and that's pretty much it. Oh, and make sure that you buy something that's still got a valid smog check, the usual "just needs smog" normally means it won't pass until you threw a few grand at it. That said, LV is slightly easier for finding a decent car than up here - I've been looking for at least six weeks now for something 4WD for winter and it now looks like I'll be going down to the Bay Area because the overpriced junk is even worse here.

As to Diesel vehicles, you can get them. Diesel isn't that hard to find IMHO but the cheap stations usually don't stock it and the station around the corner might not, either. That said, there isn't much choice in vehicles. With cars, you're pretty much stuck with either older Mercedes, the odd old VW Rabbit (aka Golf) and a bunch of newer but very expensive (in comparison to the UK) VW Jettas and Bettles. The situation is slight better with pickup trucks, the big three all have Diesels on offer but they're all 3/4 ton or 1 ton pickup trucks; none of the more popular and easy to find 1/2 ton trucks are available with a Diesel engine. Out of the larger pickups, the best one is reputed to be the Dodge with the 6cyl Cummins - the engine in those is good for 400k miles or more if looked after, but they like to lunch their transmissions if they haven't been maintained to schedule or rebuilt with heavy duty components. I haven't driven a GM turbodiesel yet but the Ford I drove a week back wasn't bad either (well, if it had had working brakes, that is). The Dodge especially is going to be fairly expensive to buy but they hold their value extremely well at the lower end of the market.

fatbrit

www.craigslist.org

TimNiceBut

Actually, the las vegas one is at http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/.

I'd also recommend http://www.craiglook.com/ for searching across multiple CL sites if you want to extend your search radius.