<p>Is there any mobile network which is particularly good for pay-as-you-go in the NYC area (cheap texts and calls, good coverage in Columbia, don’t particularly care about the rest)?</p>
<p>Are land-lines provided in our rooms?</p>
<p>And do shops like Target open on Sundays and until what time, as I am hoping to get in some shopping for fridges etc. the day I arrive at Columbia. Is there a Target nearby?</p>
<p>land lines are provided in your rooms, but if you want to call off-campus you need to pay by the minute by signing up for an AT&T ACUS account. There’s a PIN you get, and then you can dial outside lines from any Columbia campus phone (including random ones posted around campus).</p>
<p>for wireless, most people find the best service in NYC is provided by Verizon. I would recommend getting a monthly account, you’ll probably find you pay MORE for a pay-as-you-go account. Trust me, it’s worth it. Every single one of your friends will have a cell phone and will expect that you do.</p>
<p>There is a Target up in the Bronx, on the #1 line, something like 225th st. it’s a bit of a hike though. There will be people selling fridges, rugs, and other furnishings on move-in day and in the subsequent week, just go outside and you’ll see them. They tend to overcharge, though. Try Craigslist to get a better deal.</p>
<p>Denz, </p>
<p>Is it free for people outside of campus to call your dorm?</p>
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<p>they do NOT charge by the minute on the land lines…they charge by call! A local call is 9 cents i think…local area codes would be (212, 646, 718, 347 and 917 …yea NY has alot of area codes)…however to call a non-local number they do charge by the minute but its like 5 cents or something. </p>
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<p>yes and it is also free for you to call another columbia phone (dorms, administration, etc)</p>
<p>Ok thanks for the responses. T-Mobile look like they have a fairly decent pay-as-you-go service. I am currently with T-Mobile UK and have no complaints - is T-Mobile USA any good?</p>
<p>why do you want to get a pay-as-you go plan? What’s your logic behind that?</p>
<p>and yea, tmobile is fine</p>
<p>Does a ‘local’ call mean in-state?</p>
<p>local call means within new york CITY…anything out of the area codes i listed counts as long distance and would be by the minute on your dorm phone.</p>
<p>almost all cell phone plans here though don’t make a distinction between local and long distance.</p>
<p>I like to be in complete control of how much money I put in my phone. I’m worried that at some points I might run out of money completely and not be able to pay the monthly fee - also when I go home at the holidays (abroad) I guess they will still charge me the monthly amount. I think pay-as-you-go isn’t too bad so long as you put in fairly large amounts in one go.</p>
<p>Pay-as-you-go is fairly new to the states. And while, say, Virgin mobile’s UK program is great, the average US company will screw you over with service fees (ie you put in $20 but out of that they charge you $2 as a service fee). You could always set aside money to cover your phone costs and pick a plan based on that.</p>
<p>If you’re really that worried about running out of money, I’d forgo the whole phone business all together.</p>
<p>Ace,</p>
<p>I really wasn’t happy with T-Mobile when I had it. Yeah, it’s cheaper that most of the other major carriers but I couldn’t get any signal when I was in buildings and my signal would go in and out when I was at home, sometimes for dozens of minutes. Of course, this might be different in NYC but I think SLC is considered metropolitan enough to have decent coverage.</p>
<p>T-mobile works fine. I have it. It works. It’s one of the cheapest providers.</p>
<p>I dunno what SLC is, but I can say this:</p>
<p>1) If you’re worried about being able to pay a monthly fee for a cell phone, and your parents won’t cover you on their plan, then you shouldn’t get a phone at all because you probably need the money for food. Your friends will be calling you plenty and you don’t want to just turn them down. Seriously.
2) You shouldn’t worry about the money, because you can earn the money necessary to pay for a monthly-plan phone with like 2-3 hours’ worth of tutoring a month. Or less. You can get 600-800-minute/month plans for like $19. it’s not that unusual.</p>
<p>SLC=Salt Lake City.</p>
<p>Does this plan look ok:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Default.aspx?plancategory=4[/url]”>http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Default.aspx?plancategory=4</a></p>
<p>I’d probably go with $100 refill each time. Is there a hidden service charge I’m not aware of?</p>
<p>And apparently Chinatown is a good place to go for cheap sim cards for an unlocked phone - true or not?</p>
<p>check this out:</p>
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<p>i’m sure this exists at other phone companies where you can suspend your cell phone service for a couple of months and you wouldnt have to pay the monthly charge then. So you could do this during breaks when you go overseas and for two months during the summer. </p>
<p>Here’s the deal with this pay as you go stuff…with regular plans you get free nights and/or weekend minutes…so you can literally get this plan:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/detail.aspx?tp=tb1&id=ea93d12a-3a45-4de6-9dbd-6cff082ce00b[/url]”>http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/detail.aspx?tp=tb1&id=ea93d12a-3a45-4de6-9dbd-6cff082ce00b</a> </p>
<p>and then talk as much as u want during the weekend and still have approx the same number of “whenever minutes” as you get with the pay as you go: 1000 minutes for 100 bucks w/ pay as you go and here 900 minutes for 90 bucks (for three months) but you also get as many minutes during the weekend as you want! It all depends on whether they let you suspend service or whether its only a verizon thing, but i bet they would.</p>
<p>Thanks for this I’ll look into it.</p>
<p>By the way is 10 cents a minute reasonable or a bit of a rip-off?</p>
<p>i suppose that’s reasonable, but the larger monthly plans are much cheaper than that.</p>
<p>true…for 10 bucks more you get twice the number of whenever minutes and free nights (starting at 9pm)…but it all depends on how big of a talker you are </p>
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<p>I think any plan where you have to worry about your minute-to-minute usage is simply inconvenient. Honestly, you will be hard pressed to find anyone using this pay-per-minute plan since it is both extremely new and pretty inconvenient.</p>
<p>i have been using pay as you go on T mobile for a few years now and do so only because i visit New York City for a month every year. Even though it is convienient, i must say it is expensive. Incoming and outgoing calls are charged at 10 cents a minute and outgoing texts msgs are or 10 cents too. Internationals sms are upto 40 cents a minute. Although there is no service charge,in the long run you are better off getting a contract with a package. Also, my daughter is at Columbia and uses a package deal from T Mobile. She has almost no signal at campus for most times and her friends that use Verizon have full signal.So do give my two cents a thought.</p>