<p>I'm a Canadian student from BC, and I'm heading south to study at a College in the US this fall. I'm really excited. One of the things I'm a little unsure about, though, is what I should do with regards to my cell phone. </p>
<p>I wonder if there are any Canadians out there who could give me some insight into how to stay connected with both family back home and friends at college at the lowest possible cost. I've heard that some people have an american phone for day to day use and a canadian phone for calling home - does this make sense? Wouldn't I pay big roaming fees on the canadian phone? </p>
<p>Let me know what you guys think. I look forward to hearing your advice.</p>
<p>HI emksix
My D goes to the states for University and I got her on a service called Page plus. They are coming out with new plans in the next month or so but presently my D gets unlimited Talk (USA) and txt (anywhere in the North America) for $44.95 a month plus she gets some data but does not use it as she has wifi on her Ipod Touch. The phone selection is not great but if you want a phone for texting and calling it is they are good. The other thing is I have given her a pennytalk calling card and she calls home with that for $0.01 per minute and no cell phone charges. If you would like more info just PM me as I did a lot of research for a phone. I jokingly say it was harder to get her a cell phone than to get her into the US.
Good Luck</p>
<p>I would just get an American phone because if you’re attending school there, you’re probably going to be there for 9/12 months a year. No point in keeping your canadian phone.</p>
<p>ATT has a Canada/US plan covering both, though there are less unlimited minutes. My DD has a US phone and when she worked in AB for a year, got a cheap Canadian phone so people could call her. </p>
<p>She used one phone in each country because she knew she would only be there for 1 year. If not, she likely would have gone with that ATT plan. Do check on both roaming (calls & texts ) AND calling & texting CD #s. We all have CD long distance on our plan so calling Canada is no extra money, but texting is either $0.25 or $0.50 per text to a CD #</p>
<p>If you get a Google Voice number for a US phone (which is free), all texting and calling to Canada will be free on your end (Google pays all long distance charges). Whoever you’re contacting, however, will still pay whatever their plan charges them for receiving US calls or texts.</p>
<p>You can try Sprint, I think they have cheaper rates to call to Canada. You can always just call real quick and tell your family/friends to call you back, as incoming is free.</p>
<p>Rogers has a plan with no roaming charges within the US and Canada. You’d have to pay more for various things including unlimited cross-border texting.</p>
<p>Trying to accomplish the exact same thing. (Canadian heading south in need of communication package to stay in touch with family in Canada).
Have contacted PagePlus but have been informed that they do not include US to Canada texting without a charge per text?</p>
<p>My question to the board:
Are there plans from service providers out there that offer an unlimited text plan US to Canada (North America Wide)that is affordable for a starving student?</p>
<p>Also for rookie’s like me I found (thanks to PercussionDad) Pennytalk for Long Distance as it is only as I understand .01 per minute US to Canada or Canada to US with a .99 monthly fee.</p>
<p>Tahsis, my son at college in Chicago had to buy a cell phone there and uses T-mobile. He prepays a set fee each month and gets unlimited text, data and calls throughout the USA and Canada. I don’t know if this would be better than the Pennytalk or not.</p>
<p>Thanks PD do you recall did your daughter need to get a new number or was she able to use(port) her old number?
Also just trying to nail down the PennyTalk plan. Must you dial thier number first and then call your intended contact?</p>
<p>Thanks Fred have purchased an iPhone (Verizon) and plan to use the Page Plus $29.95 1,200 Minutes, 3,000 Text/Picture* Messages, 250 MB Data plan.
Seems very reasonable compared to our rates …</p>
<p>Tahsis, you will have a problem with the IPHONE as Pageplus does not support it and it most likely cant even be activated, unless things have changed recently. She had to get a new number for the State she is in. </p>
<p>Pennytalk–Yes you have to dial the 800 number then when connected you dial the number you want to call but DO NOT push the send button a second time. You are best to go online and program you cell phone into the recognized number list and that way you wont need to put in the password everytime. A neat trick to know is that if you want to call people in Canada what you do is place the first call and when finished let them hang up and not you. Dial the second number once the first party hung up and you will not be charged the 1st minute charge, you can do this over and over again.
Good Luck</p>
<p>Yes you can, just dont forget that if you are in Canada using your US phone that you will be charged roaming charges, at present there are no agreements between the two countries. Dont forget also that if you get a US IPHONE that when you come back to Canada to turn off the Data because IPHONES are notorious for pushing and pulling data continuously and your data charges could be out of this world. I have recently heard that bell and verizon are working on a deal that would mean no roaming charges anywhere in North America. That would be fantastic but I am not holding my breath on that one.</p>
<p>Good info to know thanks.
My comment on “can you use the Pennytalk long distance from your # in Canada too?”
was probably not clear.
I wanted to know if you could also use the Pennytalk service with Canadian based phones ie cellular or landline when calling from Canada to down south ?</p>
<p>Sorry tahsis yes you can use it from Canadian number to call to the US. You can also use it to call within Canada if your CDN plan does not have long distance included. I had my D’s number and her BF’s when he was in Canada on the no pin section and it was great cause he could call her from Canada and they would talk for an hour and would only cost $1.09.</p>
<p>Thanks PD got the Page Plus iPhone finally worked out. Had to buy a card from a retailer as i do not have a US credit card. Great rate of $29.95 for 1200 min talk 3000 text and 250 mb. Also purchased a Penny Talk $10 card and tried to activate but still having problems with it and haven’t figured out how to activate all 5 numbers. Customer service should be available tmrw? Thanks again for your suggestion with help in keeping costs in check.</p>