The Unofficial 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless Canada Consumer Page 
Facebook
Twitter
Email this
Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
10:49 am
April 21, 2012
Offline
I travel to the US about 4 times per year. I want a cheap prepaid phone to use since I can't use my Speakout phone.
- Lowest upfront cost: lowest possible.
- Price per minute: doesn't matter much; I'm not going to use too many minutes.
- Features: None... just texting and voice.
- Expiry: really long expiration date would be awesome; 50 minutes will last me a long time.
Thanks!
(I apologize if this is in another thread. Please point me there if I've missed it.)
12:28 pm
October 14, 2008
Offline
Your best bet would be to go to each major carrier's site (Verizon/AT & T/ T-Mobile) to see and compare what the best prepaid package they offer is. It also depends on the coverage of the area you are visiting. Generally speaking, Verizon is the king of coverage in the USA.
Another option is to go to a mass retailer on your next trip, like Walmart, or Target, to see any of the prepaid phone bundles you can pick up. They are normally pretty cheap in those stores.
12:39 pm
October 5, 2009
Offline
2 other resources:
http://www.howardforums.com
12:31 am
January 18, 2009
Offline
DO NOT DO THE BELOW. The service is now unuseable in my opinion and now a complete ripoff. Could make calls but not receive on my last USA trip. Stay as far away from Ekit Simple Calling etc. as you can. Seriously. I have just asked for a refund. Service used to be good but not any more.
Get an unlocked phone and then look up ekit simple calling on ebay or their site but ebay is thebetter deal. You need to log on prior to a period of use and could spend 50 cents a month to keep the samenumber but then there is effectively no renewal until you top up.
9:55 am
August 21, 2012
Offline
The best solution we came up with for our US phone is TracFone. 7-11 is about the closest I have found to it here in Canada.
TracFone works like this, you buy a phone it comes with start up time. You buy additional time as needed. The great thing is the expiry date. Lets say your time expires on Oct 1, you add time today Aug 21, the expiry date gets extended depending on the value of the card. So lets say you bought a 60 day card the time is extended from Oct 1, not as of today.
Additionally they have different level of phones to buy, the cheapest at Walmart was $9.99, we upgraded to the $14.00 phone because every card we add to the phone doubles the minutes automatically (above what ever promotion). You can get the $19.00 phone which triples the minutes.
So in late June we bought a TracFone at Walmart, with I believe 60 mins on it which expired in Sept some time, we added about $25-$30 to it and have it good for another 269 days and I think we have left about 130 mins after using a lot of it up on Verizon Tech Support (another issue).
I hear TracFone has awesome coverage, you get txting in the US, I can call Canada using a user defined 800 # (from TracFone) and simple web browsing. It is all on a per min use. Well worth it.
11:11 am
December 30, 2010
Offline
MVNO on Verizon may be ? I would rather go for att or t-mobile but devil is always in the detail about individual usage pattern.
2:56 am
January 18, 2009
Offline
Do Not consider Ekit any more. Unuseable and also difficult customer service.
I would get a t-mobile phone. They will unlock it for free and you might get one, if you check them out, that will work well with Speakout/Rogers, like my Nokia Nuron. Anyway if you add $100 total(at once or over time it accumulates) you get 365 days and thereafter $10 keeps 365 days rollover(Gold level).
I used Tracfone and unless they changed, adding funds was good for 60-90 days so it was 20x4 = 80/year.
9:15 am
July 22, 2011
Offline
Hello
I have an unlocked phone and may travel to the US in the near future
Is there a less expensive way to connect from the US to Canada - i know in many countries they have inexpensive sim cards and airtime.
please le me know
7:07 am
April 6, 2010
Offline
I also recommend the Tmobile option. you get unlimited talk and text within the us for $1 a day or you can switch to pay as you go and just pay the going rate if you do very little talking and texting. Just remember to revert back to the pay as you go plan before you add top up so that they will accumulate towards the $100 gold plan.
8:41 am
July 22, 2011
Offline
Thank you kerk2 for your suggestion - yes i might do the pay as you go.
My present plan told me yesterday they charge 50 cents for calls and some 40 cents or so for texting and for receiving text it is free.
10:53 am
March 12, 2009
Offline
I've just discovered a possible solution for the U.S. - or for all international travel. It's called Pirhana Mobile.
Calls within the U.S. or back to Canada cost 14 cents/minute. You get a U.S. number and your credit is good for 420 days.
