So I was in the States this past weekend and I had made a post before about How to Avoid Roaming Charges while in the USA. I said how much better it was, so of course I was going to test it out for myself. Once I was at the border and waiting in line obviously, I popped out my Fido sim card and put my T-Mobile sim in. Now I was set to go and make as many calls and texts that I wanted.
Here is the summary of usage on my T-Mobile To Go prepaid account:
Texts sent - 30 @ $.10 each
Texts received - 10 @ $.05 each
Calls made/received - 22 for about 30 minutes @ about $.25 a minute.
Total Cost - $10.80
Here's what Fido/Rogers would have charged:
Texts sent - 30 at $.60 each - $18
Texts received - 10 - I believe it is still free to receive texts while roaming, if not it will just cost that much more.
Calls made/received - 22 for about 35 minutes. This is a little hard to calculate but here are the rates Fido will charge:
Calls received - $.95 roaming plus $.25 long distance - $1.20 a minute
Calls made to your home area code - $.95 roaming plus $.75 long distance - $1.70 a minute. All calls are charged on a per minute basis not per second. Lets just say I received half as much calls as calls I made.
Calls made - 15 minutes @ $1.70 per minute - $25.50
Calls received - 15 minutes @ $1.20 per minute - $18
Total cost roaming with Fido - A ridiculous - $61.50
Summary:
I could have paid Fido $61.50 for my phone usage over 3 days while in the States but I decided to be smart and get a prepaid T-Mobile account and only paid $10.80. Before I left the States, I bought a $10 refill card and now my account wont expire for another 90 days. Not bad.
I strongly suggest that you sign up for T-Mobile to go. If you go to the States often, get your own account. If you don't go too often, just buy a T-Mobile sim off ebay that is already activated a couple weeks before you go. It really works. Don't give Rogers anymore of your hard earned cash.
As you can see in the picture above, one iPhone is on T-Mobile, the other is roaming on AT&T, needless to say we didn't use the one that was roaming on AT&T.
4 comments:
Did you buy the initial t mobile sim to go card from tmobile kiosk or ebay?
I bought 2 off ebay. One was already activated, cost $8 and came with 150 minutes on it. It had a Los Angeles phone # assigned to it. Then I bought a prepaid activation kit with came with the sim card and an activation code which I activated myself over the phone. Didn't have to give any personal details or talk to anyone. If you buy them in the store, it costs more so I would just get it from ebay.
thanks a lot ruffdeezy
If you get the activation kit, you get to pick your area code. I picked Seattle since I go there most often.
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