Cell phones for visitors?

[bond_james_bond]

Try http://www.virginmobile.ca/site/index.html

The $100 top-up card is good for one year, and the $25 top-up cards are good for 90 days.

The phones start at $59.

 

[Gotsome]

Refuge comming to town

Hello, I will be immigrating to Montreal from the war-ravaged town of Ft Rouge (Winnipeg) later this month.

Anyway, I will be bringing a pay-as-you-go Rogers cell phone with me. My thinking is that I can buy a card upon arrival at the airport for the cell phone in order to avoid long distance call charges. Would that be correct? Would I still be paying long distcance charges? Or should I just buy a new cell phone and provider there in Montreal?

 

[Sgt.Pecker]

I just usually stay at hotels that allow unlimited local calls. The Quality Hotels on Du parc and Crescent come to mind. The one on Crescent is a favorite of mine because of close proximity to shopping and food.

 

[jacep]

Anyway, I will be bringing a pay-as-you-go Rogers cell phone with me. My thinking is that I can buy a card upon arrival at the airport for the cell phone in order to avoid long distance call charges. Would that be correct? Would I still be paying long distcance charges?

Well, if your Rogers SIM card has a Fort Rouge area code, you'll be paying long distance while you're in Montreal to receive calls. People would also be paying long distance to call you.

Best thing to do would be to buy a new Rogers SIM with a Montreal phone number and then use it for pay as you go while you're in Montreal.

If you don't care about your Fort Rouge phone number, you could just have them give you a Montreal phone number on your current Rogers SIM so that you don't have to pay long distance except when you call outside the Montreal local area code. This saves you the cost of having to buy a new Rogers SIM.

 

[breadman]

i'll let my secret out of the bag

Been doing it for a year or so...works great. Go to ebay...either dot com or dot ca and search for Fido. Then look under Sim Cards. You'll find lots of options to either buy a sim card with minutes, activated and mailed right to your house. Easily save yourself half the cost and hastle of finding a fido providor when you arrive in town. You will need an unlocked phone that will work in Canada...and is cheap. I suggest the Samsung X426 or the X427. These can be had on ebay as well anywhere from 5 to 15 bucks. You can even bid on an unlocking service (I got mine unlocked for 5 bucks total...had to mail it in).

Ask for a Montreal number, pick the plan that suites you best (i picked the .40 cents per minute daytime, .05 cents at night/weekends)...if you do it two weeks before you leave, many also give you free text messages.

Just got mine for this next trip...24 bucks total. Why pay so much? Figure most hotels charge you a buck a call...some escorts don't have a cell phone or have run low on minutes and will ask you to use the phone. That's 2 bucks per call. Your waiting in your room and ring the agency twice to see where the girls at...another 2 bucks. Call your buddy's hotel to meet up for a drink....another charge. So 24 bucks on a trip can hit you pretty quickly.

Some have cell phone plans that allow them roaming in Canada...but I found that not all carriers block your number (and some indy's might not answer if the number is blocked). So paying for a sim card pay as you go plan gives you minutes and best of all...a Montreal number that you can change (buy another sim card) on future visits.

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