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Pay as you go cell phone in Chicago

Derek Wright

Derek Wright

pfm Member
I have a small dilemma regarding the availability of pay as you go cell phones in Chicago. We (a group of people in the UK) would like to get a cheap cell phone to a person in Chicago so that we can telephone them using the Skype to telephone number process or any other cheap internet based calling process.

The questions are:

In the Chicago area are there cellnet providers that provide SIMS that you can add money to and then use the money over time to make calls and text etc.

Are there phone only purchases - ie get a basic phone to have the SIM installed into.

We are not looking for a contract ie committing a given number of dollars a month for given number of minutes of talk time and text messages.

We are NOT looking to use this phone /SIM in the UK.

Thanks for any info.
 
PAYG deals change all of the time. My wife has a Virgin mobile phone which is pretty cheap if you don't talk much. (It's a CDMA phone, so no SIM card)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375644,00.asp

You pretty much have to go to websites and see what people are offering.

In the US you use minutes whether you are making or receiving the call. You probably already knew this, but I just mention it in case.

One thing I find handy is a US based calling card. I use http://www.idphonecard.com/ so I can call the UK from any phone in the US (work, hotel, payphone) using a 1-800 number and pay 2.5c per minute. I prepay $20 on the card so my losses are limited if it's hacked. It also allows me to call the UK from my US cellphone without paying T-Mobile's exorbitant international rates.
 
Last time I went Stateside with the Mrs, I bought a couple of AT&T Sim cards off eBay before I went, I took a couple of unlocked phones with me and topped them up over there with vouchers (from most major stores - just like here). Just make sure you use a network that supports GSM as some e.g. Verizon use a totally different system that our phones aren't compatible with.
 
I think you can get a cheap (~$20) PAYG phone and top up cards at Target. No contract, etc. via Net10, tracfone or Virgin. Be sure to check coverage, but I'm assuming Chicago is well-covered.
 
Thanks everybody for your suggestions, the most likely option is the Target supplied phone for about @10 to @15 plus a card/SIM -
Do you know if all incoming calls will get a charge against the account?

As an irrelevant comment I always read the US shop name of Target as if it a French business eg Tarjez - this being based on an article by Kate Muir in the Times many years ago writing from Washington DC after a long posting in Paris France with her husband - also a journalist.
 
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