Using mobile phone in US

[cherrypied]

Is there a best way to use my phone in the states?

Not just Wi-Fi I want some mobile data so is it a good idea to buy a SIM card?

If so where from and how much data / price?

We are going to California and Alaska for two weeks. Really struggled in New York without maps!

Your carrier should just do it automatically. Unless you’re there for a long time no need for an American number. Just check how much it costs to make calls/use data etc. if you call them they may have a bundle available.

It’s really expensive in the US get a local sim

Check what your network offers, I'm with Sky and it's £2 a day to use my data allowance etc in the US.

I use an e-sim for data (so I keep my regular sim for phones/texts) when I'm away. I use Airalo (other apps are available). It does USA, from 1gb for 7 days $4.50.

With O2 it’s £6 a day but a friend is with EE and she paid £11 for a month.

Check what your current network offers.

Good guide here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/cheap-roaming-calls/#outsideeurope

My tip would be to download maps before you go (check how to do this on Google maps if you don’t already), as then you can use the maps with GPS function with your phone data turned off. Saves a huge amount of data.

I was also looking at this for Tesco mobile but can't see that they do a price per day. (Unless they do and it doesn't come up when I search.)

Yes, was just going to suggest Airalo, uses multiple networks too.

I had three weeks in the US last summer and added a bolt on to my contract. I think there was a maximum cost, which wasn't a lot and I got unlimited data. It worked perfectly! Definitely contact your phone provider.

Check with your phone provider that there isn't a random credit limit on your account. I'm with Three and for some reason mine was set to £10. Hasn't been a problem in Europe as its £2 a day to access data etc, but was £5 a day in Australia and my phone consequently turned into a useless brick on day two. Once they all woke up the online chat was very helpful and increased the credit limit. Data for a week and one 20 minute phone call to Emirates cost me £54!

Personally I wanted to make phone calls. It's a lot easier to do a lot of things if you can RING people in USA. You need a USA Sim to make phone calls for reasonable price.

last year, Adult DD managed 2 weeks with a £10 top up of a 3 SIM she also used in 2021, but she doesn't make phone calls or send texts, only wanted data. If you don't want anything but data, the 3 deal is good.

I found out with the USA Sim I bought in UK I needed to activate it > 24 hours before usage, was only thing I got (slightly wrong), meant a day without phone or data for me.

You can always make calls using Skype if needed. I've had trouble phoning UK 0800 numbers from overseas. The airline I needed to contact recently didn't have a normal landline number, and the 0800 number didn't work using 'normal' calling with the UK prefix. Skype worked fine.

Ah this is all fabulous! I am with iD mobile so will check out there first.

I don't need calls just data is fine I can use what's app to call.