My cell phone’s Mexican vacation
Posted on July 29th, 2008 – 3:07 PMBy Kara McGuire
I read Brett Arends’ WSJ column today with interest: A Tip for Overseas Travelers– Leave your Cell Phone at Home.
Anyone traveling abroad this summer must be reeling from shock. Places like Europe were expensive even in the old days. And that was before the Almighty Dollar had become the Yankee Peso.
But your biggest sticker shock may not come until you get home and open your cellphone bill.
How true. When Matt and I went to Mexico in February, we lost our car keys.
Turns out they were cradled in one of those Mexican hammocks, but it wasn’t until I spoke in broken English to a very helpful, patient guy in the Hertz-Tulum location several times for a total of about an hour that we realized that.
We knew it was going to cost a pretty penny for those international charges and my cell-savvy husband lamented that we didn’t buy a local SIM card like we did when in Italy a few years back.
8 Responses to "My cell phone’s Mexican vacation"
I never would have thought to bring my cell phone to Mexico - or any other foreign country… I even turn it off when I drive through Canada for a couple hours.
So how much was the bill?
Well, it was expensive. But given that the place we were staying had no phone and we would have had to walk a few miles into town, I’m glad we had it.
James: The bill was for about $80. Sorry to leave you in suspense.
I read the article and am puzzled. We will be taking a cell phone to France this fall. Any thoughts on keeping the costs down? The cell phone is compatible with the European cell phone system. We will be making in country calls in France, not international calls (similar to your Mexico experience). Might it be cheaper to buy a disposable phone?
Here’s how Matt, my savvy cell phone husband explains it:
T-Mobile has a deal with Movistar, or whoever operates the cell carriers in Mexico, and the deal is, T-Mobile customers can use the network, but Movistar will charge T-Mobile, and T-Mobile passes the cost to us.
They are very expensive roaming rates.
I believe T-Mobile publishes roaming rates for various networks/countries on their website.
If you buy a prepaid SIM card, the rate is what the locals pay. Same deal with Orange in France. However, buying them at a good rate is difficult, especially if you don’t speak the language. You can buy them over the Internet, but they are kind of expensive. In Italy, I had to have one of my classmates purchase the TIM (that’s the Italian carrier we used) SIM.
E-Bay is an option too.
Buying a disposable, or cheap, pre-paid cell phone is one of the suggestions made my Brett Arends of the WSJ.
Peter - check with your carrier on international roaming rates. They should be on the website, or call customer service. There’s sometimes a fee to have international turned on as well (assuming you have a 3G phone - CDMA doesn’t work in Europe). I went to China in May, and my rates would have been up to $1.00 per minute. I picked up a local SIM card and calls were less than $0.10/minute.
If you’re going to be in towns, calling cards are a good option - all the pay phones on the street in France take them, and the rates are relatively reasonable. If not, a disposable phone or sim card is a good idea, but they’re more difficult to acquire than they used to be because of security concerns.
Peter there was a good article in the wall street journal about this :
We used this method for about $60 total over 15 days and called back to the US twice a day at least. You can get a pre-paid cellphone anywhere and most work in several countries.
