Phone plan for in the USA from Alberta (telus)

[Bossy22]

Anyone know the best options. We have found 15 bucks a day and we have 2 phones (my wife and I) and will be in the USA for about 2 weeks. 30 bucks a day comes to over 400 bucks. Anyone know of another good option that works well in the USA and has decent roaming especially in DL as I feel we may have to use our phones more than on previous trips.

 

[EddieValiant]

What do you have for phones? Do you have a 2nd SIM slot or ESim available?

 

[Bossy22]

What do you have for phones? Do you have a 2nd SIM slot or ESim available?

I’m not sure, we both have IPhones

 

[starry_solo]

I’m not sure, we both have IPhones

How new?

 

[lilsonicfan]

Telus Easy Roam for $12/day in the US is capped at $240 so one thing you could consider is having only one phone do it, and then having that phone act as a hot spot for the other phone, but then you're sharing one data plan.

If you have an iPhone X or newer you can look into an eSIM (there's a thread about this in this forum) where you basically have a secondary plan usually just for data (not always) that is for use in the US. It's quite inexpensive.

If your iPhone isn't that new, you can look into a physical SIM on Amazon (or elsewhere) for US usage.

 

[isabellea]

Telus Easy Roam for $12/day in the US is capped at $240 so one thing you could consider is having only one phone do it, and then having that phone act as a hot spot for the other phone, but then you're sharing one data plan.

If you have an iPhone X or newer you can look into an eSIM (there's a thread about this in this forum) where you basically have a secondary plan usually just for data (not always) that is for use in the US. It's quite inexpensive.

If your iPhone isn't that new, you can look into a physical SIM on Amazon (or elsewhere) for US usage.

Telus also sells e-SIMs so you could transfer your Telus plan on that and use a physical SIM card from a data provider (international provider like Airalo or US provider like Mint). My plan for our defunct July trip was to transfer my Telus plan to an eSIM and use my daughter's SIM from Fizz for data in my iPhone 12 Pro. That way I could still receive text messages (no roaming fee if not replying) and important phone calls to my phone number (when making those plans, I was waiting for a surgery date) but not pay the outrageous amount they charge for data roaming. I also considered Airalo but Fizz was much cheaper for us.

 

[Dmbpjfan]

The best option is to see if you are eligible for the t-mobile test drive. 30 days or 30gb free, whichever comes first.

 

[elaine amj]

The best option is to see if you are eligible for the t-mobile test drive. 30 days or 30gb free, whichever comes first.

This.

Several other US carriers also offer free trials. Most will ship a physical SIM but eSIM is easy.

TMobile needs a US number so I used the free Talkatone app to generate a US phone number.

 

[starvenger]

As mentioned, if you have newer iPhones then you've got an eSim "slot", and if that's the case then getting something like Airalo would work well. You can still take calls using your regular number but data would be through that eSim. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.

 

[kuhltiffany]

We’re in Washington right now, got Mint 7 day trial SIM cards for only $2 for our teens. Myself I bought a 15 day travel SIM off Amazon for $50.