Canada: US person to Canada for a Plan (Monthly vs Pre paid) Fido?or others? Costly!

[Motel75]

Originally Posted by VladS

Your better option is 7-11 mobile. For $100 you get a basic phone (Nokia 1102) and a SIM prefilled with $105. Airtime rate is $0.20/minute.

Slightly OT, perhaps, but 7-11 does offer 365-day expiration, with the caveat that they cut off your service if you don't use it for 120 days (and it doesn't offer roaming anywhere else to allow users outside Canada to keep it active).

Vlad, or anyone: Is there a workaround here, such as checking one's voice mail, that would keep 7-11 Mobile active during long stays outside Canada?

Petro-Canada is another theoretical option, but you can't just recharge it every 180 days using a foreign credit card (AFAIK) you need to enter the code available only at Petro-Canada service stations into the phone itself.

[GadgetKen]

Originally Posted by Motel75

Slightly OT, perhaps, but 7-11 does offer 365-day expiration, with the caveat that they cut off your service if you don't use it for 120 days (and it doesn't offer roaming anywhere else to allow users outside Canada to keep it active).

Vlad, or anyone: Is there a workaround here, such as checking one's voice mail, that would keep 7-11 Mobile active during long stays outside Canada?

Petro-Canada is another theoretical option, but you can't just recharge it every 180 days using a foreign credit card (AFAIK) you need to enter the code available only at Petro-Canada service stations into the phone itself.

7-eleven and PetroCanada wireless resellers are actually run by the same ZTar outfit(same customer service center):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleve...k_Out_Wireless

7-eleven Canada official brochure:

http://www.7-eleven.com/products/doc...ochure_can.pdf

According to this unofficial blog, no US roaming yet with 7-Eleven Canada (although there is a US version that runs on Cingular/AT&T-GSMor Sprint-CDMA). :

http://www.speakoutwireless.ca/#number15a

This might change though, because the underlying Rogers/Fido prepaid network now allows US roaming(my prepaid Fido card works in the US).

In answer to the question on something to keep the 120 day useage going from outside of Canada(other than possibly roaming in the US in the future), it could be possible to leave a voicemail message for the cellphone, and then retrieve it from a landline (either the access number for voicemail or dialing your own cellphone without the sim chip in it and pressing #). Assuming a voicemail message even if the sim isn't live on a network would keep the 7-eleven sim chip alive.

[PhotoJim]

Well, 50 cents (payphones have gone up in price here - hardly anyone uses them ), but I get your point.

[eieio]

To the good, smart folks here:

thank you all for being so incredible knowledgeable and helpful!

may i ask if this following course of action would make the most sense for someone who's vast majority of calls will be from the pay as you go cell to a onesuite.com 866 or local access number in order to call the USA?

Upon arrival in Vancouver, purchase from "Rogers Plus" store a Rogers SIM card ($25 with self activation, or add $15 for store assisted activation) and $40 of INITIAL TOP UP. the current "bonus" is a doubling of the initial top up value UP TO $40. Therefore, i will pay out of pocket $65 for $80 worth of calls.

$80 less 12 days at $1 per day leaves $68. $68 divided by $0.30/min = 226 Mins = roughly 3 Hours and 45 Mins of calls at 30 cents per min. (unlimited calls evenings and weekends, i'll have only 1 weekend in my 12 days there so effectively, my 3 Hours of calls will be apportioned over 12-2 = 10 days, that's only 22 mins per day). My fear is that as my itinerary is Vancouver 604/Calgary 403/Kananaskis 403/Lake Louise 403/Jasper780/Banff 403, it will get rather complicated.

changing area codes imply changing cell numbers. not changing area codes imply great cost when others call, right? though i do not expect to make many Canada to Canada calls as i do not know many people in Canada.

thanks!

[snaimon]

Unless you plan on making lots and lots of calls on the cell phone, I would not invest in the top up right away. You can always add more time/money if needed.

You don't indicate if you are staying in hotels or with friends for the nights you are there. The onesuite card will work just fine from any phone in Canada. A hotel might charge for 800 access so you would use the cell. Or will you be camping and without access to a landline phone?

TRUE, it would be a pain, but you could ask your family or friends, the ones you wish to call back home, to call YOU in the hotel or where you are staying. Just give them a quick call and let them know your room #. I find 30 cents per minute a bit steep for calling the US on top of what onesuite will demand. If they used you onesuite # & pin to reach you in the hotel, that would be more economical.

When we were in Germany, our son called us a few times and that was at a lower rate than if we had called him. Wife insisted we call back home, however.

Bon voyage.

Stan

[eieio]

hello Mr or Ms snaimon:

thx for your posting. well, as my itinerary is Vancouver/Calgary/Kananaskis/Lake Louise/Jasper/Banff, the only sure place to be able to get a "voucher" to refill my prepaid is Vancouver! (we're not spending any time in calgary).

they do NOT allow using a US credit card to refill a prepaid sim phone card!

i really don't understand that!

i'm thinking that i'll do the $40 initial top up to take full advantage of the bonus double initial top up which has a maximum of up to $40 for the initial top up, so a $40 top up is equal to $80 in my prepaid account.

in Kananaskis / Lakie Louise / Jasper / Banff, there's no assurance that they will have the right kiosk/store that carry thiese vouchers and there's no assurance that i'll be near them! maybe i will be near them, maybe i won't.

this is quite complicated!! ugh!

[PhotoJim]

I expect you'll be able to get vouchers in Banff, Jasper and Lake Louise. Most gas stations have them.

[eieio]

PhotoJim: thx for informing me that most gas stations have them. we'll be traveling on a "bus" that has a tour guide. we found a good tour operator that uses high quality buses and high quality hotels and people have gone on their trips and they are not "icky" at all, au contraire, they are very fine and of high quality.

having said that, i won't be "filling up" my gas tank!! so how would i find places to buy vouchers? it is EXTREMELY odd that in Canada, one is not allowed to top up and refill one's pay as you go cell phone via a US-issued credit card!! how can that be? it is SO inconvenient.

with $40 plus the "bonus" of $40 for my initial top up in Vancouver (4 nights), i'll have an idea when i arrive in Kananaskis on the 5th day how much i need.

[PhotoJim]

A lot of companies won't accept foreign credit cards. They do this to limit credit card fraud. I can't use my Canadian credit cards to top up my UK O2 service either.

If you aren't in walking distance to gas stations from your hotel (and you ought to be), I imagine the concierge at your hotel can arrange to get a card on your behalf easily enough.

[eieio]

So...i checked with the hotels in kananaskis and lake louise in order to see how easy/difficult it would be to get these "vouchers" for topping up.

well...in kananaskis, it is 20 miles, yes, 20 miles (!) from the store that has it. we're there with a bus tour / motor coach tour, so we aren't that mobile. at lake louise, the nearest place is a Petrol Canada place, which i actually took the trouble to call. it's 3+ kilometers from the hotel we'll be at. not far, but not that close without your own car. then again, maybe the bus will be kind enough to stop briefly...with the entire 40+ people waiting in the bus while i run in to get a top up voucher??!?? maybe, maybe not. who knows if they are willing to do that.

this is so much trouble for the simple thing of getting a cell phone to use for 12 days!! yikes!

never thought that that would be the case!