Any Americans/people in the US? Phones..

[toomanytonotice]

Hi!

have googled but got sick of wading through stuff only to find “for travellers” stuck on the end.

dc is going to uni in the US. Clearly they’ll need a phone, and a roaming UK contract for 11 months of the year is ridiculous, plus a us number is needed for various things

I will switch their uk contract to a PAYG that can roam in the US, so they can just top it up when they come home.

how do I get a US number? Is an eSIM any good? They all seem phenomenally expensive but it would be handy not to have to be switching sims.

or is it possible to get a reasonably priced is contract that will allow roaming in the us and Europe?

can I do it from here or will it need to wait until they get to the us?

Go to a US phone shop to buy a sim card. IDK if there are things for students, there probably are, or if you can get a contract straight away as DH did ours and I honestly can’t remember how quickly we sorted it but failing all else there’s always prepay (pay as you go). Then set up the phone as dual sim with the US and UK one. Make sure it’s unlocked. Google can explain the rest but it’s super easy.

You can go to any of the major stores (AT&T, T-Mobile etc) and just buy a monthly prepaid plan as he won’t qualify for a contract as he doesn’t have any credit history. They were about $70 unlimited at T Mobile for me.

Hey @toomanytonotice American here. Have your child get a plan with Mint. They can get the package / starter kit at Target, Wal-Mart, etc. Or they can order one on https://www.mintmobile.com/

I converted my American number to an eSIM with Mint Mobile and it works over here in the UK. The plans are really inexpensive and they have good coverage. $15/month will get unlimited data just now. https://www.mintmobile.com/plans/

thank you!

wow $70 is a lot! I pay £10 here 😂. Maybe the eSIMs aren’t such a bad deal.

there’s already some online groups to join but a US number is needed, currently someone else is passing on the messages so I was wondering if I could do it from here.

we’re hoping fly out with them for start of the semester so could sort it then.

@JingsMahBucket I’ll have a look at mint, thank you! Obviously when I google I get plans for visitors so that’s the sort of thing I’m missing.