<p>Here’s the scenario: MOB and FOB are coming in from the UK for S2 and DIL’s wedding. They are entering Canada, staying there for several days, and then coming to the US. Their UK phones will not work here.</p>
<p>Does anyone have recommendations on a prepaid phone (calls, text and data) that will work in Canada and the US?</p>
<p>I am the last person in the country with a plain vanilla cell phone, so I am not much help to her on this front. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Who is their cell phone carrier? </p>
<p>When D went to Greece and before she had an iPhone, I contacted Verizon (our cell phone carrier) and rented a global phone for 30 days. You had to return it within a specific period of time, but it was the only way (other than buying a prepaid cell) that was available to her at the time. This info might be outdated, but you might want to start by asking them to contact their cell phone company and ask what options are available.</p>
<p>I’m not sure – it’s a UK carrier.</p>
<p>How do you know their UK phones won’t work here? Might be expensive - but unless they have really unusual phones, they should roam just fine here in the US or Canada. I have literally dozens of UK co-workers and I can’t think of one who has had any problem.</p>
<p>But, assuming they really don’t work or don’t want to pay the higher charges, the Go Phone from AT&T is a pre paid phone that works in both the US and Canada. They will be roaming in Canada so costs will be high - especially for Data.</p>
<p>Another option would be to buy an unlocked phone from eBay or get an existing GSM phone unlocked. Then they can just get a prepaid sim card - available at virtually any airport - and be up and running. Only issue with either of these options is that their phone number will change from their UK number.</p>
<p>If their UK phone is 900/1800 dual band it will NOT work in the US. (Just like a US 850/1900 won’t work in Europe). Their phone would need to be 900/1900 if it is only dual band. If it’s either tri or quad band then it should work fine. Assuming of course their UK phone is unlocked.</p>
<p>When one of my kids was living in China, she used to take her unlocked Iphone into the AT&T shop and get a sim card to use for the time she was visiting. I think it usually ended up costing her around $50-60 for a week.</p>
<p>Another idea is to use wi-fi only on the phone with a free internet messaging app like What’s App or We Chat. I can’t think of any reason that wouldn’t work but then I’m no tech expert. With We Chat you can leave voice messages so it can function kind of like a good old walky talky.</p>
<p>Puzzled’s idea of using a wifi only phone and then using an app is a good one, though you have to have wifi in order to communicate. Our daughter is in Europe right now, and we are communicating via Viper. We can make calls and text. She’s lucky that she has wifi at a lot of places so we can communicate almost at will.</p>
<p>However, the phone she purchased over there to use to communicate with her classmates, does not work to text us. We don’t know why.</p>
<p>I would be hesitant to take responsibility to advise someone on what phone service to use here. If your advice fails, they will look to you for support. They should be asking for advice in their country, just as we do when we are going to travel over there. Since you don’t know what kind of phone they have and who their carrier is, it makes it much more difficult to advise.</p>
<p>^^^^I picked up a cheap phone in Poland and was never able to text to the US. I think it may have had to do with the 800/1900 band issue. </p>
<p>I’ve also borrowed a relatives phone in Germany which was locked to T-Mobile. I was able to text/talk with the US no problem. I think that was a Tri or Quad mode phone.</p>
<p>D purchased a used phone from a classmate who had been to Thailand. D then used it on her Thailand adventure…no problems texting.</p>
<p>I have no clue as to the texting glitch.</p>
<p>Tell them to look up [International</a> SIM Cards from $5 | International Cell Phones from $19](<a href=“http://www.telestial.com/]International”>http://www.telestial.com/) I have one of their phone for international travel and have had a few friend from Europe also use them</p>
<p>You can download the “whatsapp” app for texting, but it only works with other people who have that app.</p>
<p>I was in the UK and my ATT (unlocked) phone used a Virgin Mobile card. I did have an issue, my Android required tech support to manually create access to the new internet signal. When I moved on to another country, I had to do the same thing with the new card, thank goodness for a bilingual friend who helped with that!</p>
<p>A cheap pay as you go plan could also work, but one for each country.</p>
<p>Buy an unlocked world phone cdma/gsm on Ebay (they can buy the similar locally on Ebay UK)</p>
<p>[unlocked</a> world phone in Cell Phones & Smartphones | eBay](<a href=“unlocked world phone in Cell Phones & Smartphones for sale | eBay”>unlocked world phone in Cell Phones & Smartphones for sale | eBay)</p>
<p>You can get prepaid sim cards in US and CAN, but not sure how expensive to use DATA on those prepaid cards.</p>