Visiting USA

[danco]

I will be visiting the USA in mid-November, and I am wondering what the best thing to do is to avoid unwanted costs.

I plan to get a T-Mobile tourist SIm ($30 for 21 days), which I think is the cheapest in general. I could put the SIM in my main phone, in which case there could be no charges from O2. Nut I would have to be careful not to lose my O2 SIM. Or I could put it in my secondary phone, which has no SIM at the moment. If I did that, I would want to be sure I didn't get any extra charges. Obviously, I wouldn't use the phone to make calls and I would have mobile data turned off. But is that good enough? If I were called on my O2 number, would I be charged for answering?

Also, I will have to make one or two calls before I get my T-Mobile SIM, to the shuttle cab firm and to the friend I am visiting. Is it best to use a phone at the airport, or to use my O2 phone with ccharges?

All this is new to me.

[MI5]

If you keep the phone on airplane mode with WiFi on you can use it without any charges on a WiFi connection.
Any calls or texts will invoke the £4.99 daily charge unless you have travel inclusive on your account.
Data is still throttled though so definitely stick to your USA sim for anything data intensive.

[liggerz87]

You could select flight mode or airplane mode on spare phone or turn it off and also switch voicemail off so that you don't get charged for it

[Bambino]

@danco If you don't have travel inclusive on your phone and you're only going to make a couple of calls when you arrive, you'd be better off getting some change and making the calls on a payphone in the airport. Put your O2 phone in airplane mode and use WiFi. Calls made and received on your O2 sim will cost you £2.00/minute.

Also be aware that the T-Mobile sim you purchase should only be used for your data and for calls within the US. Put the T-Mobile sim in your secondary phone. If you need to call back to the UK, make sure the people you need to contact have WhatsApp and use that on your O2 sim using WiFi.

Edit: Also, before you go, check and make sure your secondary phone will be compatible with the T-Mobile network in the US. https://willmyphonework.net/

[danco]

Thanks. I thought (but wasn't sure) that there was a charge for received calls, glad you have confirmed that.

I wouldn't have thought of wireless mode if you hadn't told me. Thanks again.

Yes, my secondary phone (Motorola G4) will work with T-Mobile.

I think taking both phones is easier than takin out the SIM from my iPhone to change to T-Mobile and then having to change back again, but I haven't decided about that yet, I will have to think.

[Bambino · Accepted solution]

@danco If you have a secondary phone that will work, I would go for that. Nano sims are fiddly, and easily lost. Much easier to keep the sim in the phone and not have to mess about swapping sims. Also much less chance of damaging either the sim or the contacts or getting dust in the phone if you have to keep swapping.

If you're going to make frequent trips you might want to consider getting a dual sim phone. I have a dual sim Motorola Z Play and it's the best phone I've ever had.