A question for all you knowlegable rvers. We will be spending the winter in the south and don't really know what to do about phone service while we are away. We have cell phones but with the Canadian plans they are way too expensive to use. Any suggestions?
Barry
2006 Ford F350 Lariet 4 x 4, 6.0 L Diesel Dually. Crew Cab, Long Box.
2008 Cedar Creek 36RLTS Custom with Fifth Airborne.
Get a Verizon pay as you go phone. You prepay for service and they charge only when you use it. 99 cents one time the day of use then 10 cents per minute. Camera phone is $50 plus plug in charger $30. plus $30 for first 30 days. Time carries over but you must renew before 30 days or money is used up (they tell you your balance). No contract.
goingfulltime wrote: A question for all you knowlegable rvers. We will be spending the winter in the south and don't really know what to do about phone service while we are away. We have cell phones but with the Canadian plans they are way too expensive to use. Any suggestions?
Barry
We use a Bell North America plan when in the US for 6 months and Bell Canada when in Canada for 6 months. Each plan has a range of minutes that can be purchased. No phone bill supprises. Only extra that has to be paid are the foreign taxes ($5 to $10), assuming you do not exceed the monthly alloted minutes. Plans are expensive, but as a fulltimer you need good communications.
We do it in reverse. We have a phone with a SIM card. We spend about 6 months in Canada. We have a FIDO prepaid SIM card. When we arrive in Canada I take out my US SIM and put in the FIDO SIM. The prepaid vouchers are available in $10, $20, $30 amounts and the cost is .20 per minute. Much less expensive than using our ATT phone number in Canada. We have had the same FIDO number for four years now. I send an email to all interested parties advising them we will be using our FIDO number. We also save money on our ATT by suspending the service for the Summer. It works very well for us. I am certain you can do the same in the US. A SIM card will cost you about $25.00 one time and you can recharge it whenever needed.
In our case, we spend the winter in Florida. Bell Mobility has a 'Florida' plan - 100 minutes for $20/month. In addition to that, we use Skype on our computer. Our Skype package costs us $3 per month (on a 12 month plan) and allows for unlimited free outgoing calling anywhere in Canada or US. Calls to Europe are at extra cost but very inexpensive and free if you happen to be calling Skype to Skype.
Since we only have outgoing call capability on Skype, we have our callers call on our cell phone and then we call back on Skype if the call is going to take very long.
We'll be able to use Skype from back in Canada this spring/summer also. Our Bell Mobility plan is so inexpensive for calls in Canada, we may not use Skype much there (unless we're calling outside of Canada). Skype is great to have for inexpensive long calls.......
VeeDub
2006 Carriage Cameo LXI F35FD3
2006 Ford F350 Dually
We have used Bell cell for the last 4 years and even on the North American plan it is too expensive. This winter we purchased a Net 10 phone which we will use only in the US...Cost us $19.95 for the phone and $30.00 for a 300 minute card(the first 3 times we load 300 minutes, we got 400 minutes). This same phone now costs $29.99 with 300 minutes included. All calls are 10 cents anywhere in the US and 15 cents to Canada. No contract, no roaming and no long distance and minutes can be rolled over each month. I also use Skype. I vacationed my Bell cell. The phone costs me less than half per month compared to last year.
Some campgrounds have phonelines at the site with in-campground calls free, using a landline. Outside calls have long distance charges. If staying in one park for the winter, some hook up a landline with a phone company of choice.
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