T-Mobile USA prepaid mobile phone SIM card

Product Description

We searched for the best value pay-as-you-go mobile phone SIM cards for travellers visiting the United States and found that the T-Mobile SIM card is the best overall option combining generous data and local call allowance, simple pay-as-you-go daily charges and ease of topping up at thousands of shops throughout the United States..

T-Mobile has several prepaid plans. The new Pay By The Day plans are generally the best deal for most travellers and your SIM card comes pre-activated on the $2/day Unlimited Talk, Text & Web (2G) Pay By The Day plan.

It is cheap for your friends and family to call you since calls to mobile phones in the United States cost the same as calls to landlines. In many cases it will be cheaper for your friends and family in the UK to call you on your USA mobile that it currently costs them to call your UK mobile.

Pre-activated on the T-Mobile $2/day Unlimited Talk, Text & Web (2G) Pay By The Day plan with $13.34 credit

Your T-Mobile SIM card comes pre-activated on the Unlimited Talk, Text & Web plan with the International Unlimited Talk & Text add-on feature (total monthly cost $60).

We have found that this is by far the most popular rate plan for most travellers visiting the United States. Benefits of this rate plan include:

T-Mobile’s Pay By The Day plans offer excellent value with unlimited calls and data and no minimum monthly charge.

International calls are very expensive with this plan. If you need to make international calls you are advised to combine this plan with the Rebtel service (which gives you international calls at much cheaper rates than T-Mobile’s standard international call charge).

This rate plan is not suitable if you need to access email on a BlackBerry device, however you can still buy this sim card and call T-Mobile to change to one of their Monthly4G prepaid plans with a BlackBerry data feature.

Switching plans

The $2/day Unlimited Talk, Text & Web (2G) Pay By The Day plan is the most suitable plan for most people visiting the USA, however T-Mobile has a large range of pay-as-you-go rate plans and some people may find that other plans are more suitable for their needs. Generally you’re only likely to need to change plans if you don’t need data on your phone (change down to the $1/day plan), if you have a phone that is compatible with T-Mobile’s 1700MHz AWS 3G/4G data network (change up to the $3/day plan) or if you have a BlackBerry device (change to the Monthly 4G Talk, Text & Web plan with the BlackBerry feature, which has a monthly fee of $60).

Changing plans is very easy using the T-Mobile customer service number, on 611 from your mobile or 1 877 778 2106 from any other phone. You can do this via an automated service, or even speak to a real customer representative! You can switch plans as often as you like, as long as there is enough credit on your phone to change to the plan you wish to.

How do I make cheaper international calls with my T-Mobile USA sim card?

T-Mobile’s standard charge to call landlines and mobile phones in the UK is USD $1.49 per minute, but calls home are only USD 1¢ per minute to UK landlines and USD 14.9-16.9¢ per minute to UK mobiles if you combine your T-Mobile USA service with the Rebtel international discount calling service.

Here’s a quick comparision for the call costs for the Pay By The Day plan with and without the Rebtel international service to illustrate how much you can save on international calls when you combine Rebtel with the Pay By The Day plan.

Rebtel gives you cheap calls home from your mobile by assigning a local US number to your contacts back home so you are charged for a local call (from on the $2/day Pay By The Day plan) and then Rebtel forwards the call to the UK at a substantial discount. If you’re planning on making a few calls home, then it is highly recommended to sign up for the Rebtel service.

Because Rebtel is an international service independent of T-Mobile USA, you can continue to use any unused Rebtel credit for cheap international calls from your regular mobile service after you get home.

You will need to sign up for the Rebtel service to qualify for the cheaper international calls shown in the last column of the above table. It only takes 10 minutes to set up a Rebtel account online.

What is my total cost to get started?

When you buy a T-Mobile USA SIM card from us, you pay £26 for the SIM card which includes USD $13.44 credit.

The included $13.34 will be enough to get you started and may be all you need if you will be visiting the USA for fewer than six days. However you will need to by a refill card from a convenience store during your first few days in the USA so you can add more credit to continue using your service if you plan on staying a week or longer or if you want to make calls that are not included as free calls on the $2/day Pay By The Day rate plan.

Coverage

The T-Mobile GSM mobile network offers good coverage in most areas of the United States including Hawaii and even Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. You can check coverage on the T-Mobile website.

T-Mobile has the largest 1900 Mhz GSM network in the United States and is the best option if you have a tri-band phone, but you will get better coverage if you have a quadband phone that also supports the 850 MHz GSM band.

Please note that there are some areas of the United States where T-Mobile uses the networks of partner networks, which range from AT&T to smaller regional operators. These networks may run on the 850 MHz GSM band. In these cases you would need a quad band phone compatible with both the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz frequencies. This mostly impacts visitors to rural areas including large parts of Alaska as well as Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

How do I top up my credit?

There are several ways to buy refill vouchers and top up your T-Mobile SIM.

You can top up with refill cards available from the following retailers in the USA:

Will the SIM card work in my mobile phone?

The T-Mobile USA SIM card will work in any unlocked GSM mobile phone that operates at the 1900Mhz GSM band. This includes all tri-band and quad-band mobile phones from Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK.

We strongly recommend that you check your phone’s specifications before you travel to ensure that your mobile phone is compatible with the 1900MHz GSM band. It is also essential that you double check that your phone is unlocked before travelling

What’s the deal with unlocking my phone?

When you buy a mobile phone it is usually locked into the network you bought it from; this means that it will only accept a SIM card from that network. If you call your mobile phone company, they should be able to unlock your phone for you so it will accept any SIM card (including the T-Mobile USA SIM).

How do I know if my phone is locked?

Before you travel put any other SIM that’s not from your regular mobile network into your phone and turn it on. If your phone shows a network name it is unlocked, if it says something like “Network locked” or “SIM locked” then your phone is locked into your home network.

Occasionally we have customers who have been told by their carrier that their phone is unlocked, whereas the phone was either not unlocked or the unlocking process was not completed successfully. The best way to check that your phone has been unlocked is to pop in a SIM from a different network (for instance an O2 SIM in a Vodafone phone) and see whether you get a signal.

Can I unlock my phone?

If your mobile phone is on contract it is often unlocked and ready to work with a T-Mobile SIM, although it is best to double-check with your mobile network. Mobile phones on prepaid plans are usually locked to a network but if you have been with the same network for a while it can usually be unlocked by calling your mobile phone company. You can also get your mobile phone unlocked at many independent mobile phone shops.

It is more difficult if you are already in the United States, as many American mobile phone shops don’t know how to unlock phones, especially phones on a foreign network. However there are several websites where you can generate codes to unlock your phone. These sites include Trycktill and Unlock it Free. If you are in the United States you can also try making an international call to your home mobile company to get an unlocking code, but occasionally you need to be calling from within that network’s coverage area (depending on your mobile network at home).

You can read more about unlocking your mobile phone here.

What about unlocking an Apple iPhone?

The unlocking process for Apple iPhones is more complex than most other phones and it can take up to a week to unlock an Apple iPhone.

To unlock an iPhone you will need to contact the phone network that you purchased your iPhone through. They will ask for your phone’s IMEI number, which you can find out by going into your phone’s settings (Settings > General > About) and within a few days you will receive a text message saying that your phone has been unlocked. Please note that this text message doesn’t mean that the unlocking process is complete. You will still need to connect to the latest version of iTunes (with your new SIM card in the phone) to restore your phone. If you do not restore your iPhone in iTunes, your unlocking process will not be complete. After successfully unlocking your iPhone in iTunes you should see a screen that looks like this:

Most iPhones purchased from Apple Stores are sold unlocked and are ready to use with any SIM card, however it is still best to check by inserting a SIM from a different network as some Apple Stores overseas still sell locked iPhones.

Can I unlock my phone?

Most mobile phones sold in the UK are locked to the network that they were originally sold through, although a small number of phones are sold already unlocked. If your mobile phone is on a contract there is usually no problem getting your phone unlocked by simply calling your network and asking them to unlock it. Mobile phones on prepaid plans are usually locked to a network but if you have been with the same network for a while it can usually be unlocked by calling your mobile phone company.

It is more difficult if you are already in the United States, as many American mobile phone shops don’t know how to unlock phones, especially phones on a foreign network. However there are several websites where you can generate codes to unlock your phone. These sites include Trycktill and Unlock it Free. If you are in the United States you can also try making an international call to your home mobile company to get an unlocking code, but occasionally you need to be calling from within that network’s coverage area (depending on your mobile network at home).

Do I need to activate my SIM card?

The T-Mobile USA SIM card is already activated with either a USA phone number and is ready to use.

Unlike the Australian SIM cards that we sell, you don’t need to give any personal details to activate your American SIM card.

Can I roam with this SIM?

You can also use this SIM to roam outside the USA; however roaming charges apply so it is not recommended to use this SIM outside the United States except for short trips into Canada where roaming charges aren’t too bad (59c per minute on top of the regular call charges), but it is very expensive (around $2 per minute on top of the regular call charges) to use it in most other countries.

Text messages in Canada are 10¢ to send or receive, but in other countries this will cost 50¢ to send and 10¢ to receive. MMS picture messages cost 25¢ to send or receive.

The T-Mobile SIM is ideal for travellers going to the USA and making side trips to Canada, but if you’re spending more than a three to four days in Canada we recommend that you also buy a Fido Canada SIM card.

Will I get a brand new number?

The T-Mobile SIMs that we have in stock are activated with numbers allocated direct from T-Mobile.

In the United States (as with most other countries) when telephone numbers expire they are put back into circulation. This is basically an issue with all phone numbers, anywhere, but it is more noticable in the USA where there is a shortage of phone numbers per area code (because they still use seven-digit phone numbers). To avoid running out of numbers, they are recycled shortly after being disconnected. All phone companies do this, and it is certainly not an issue that is unique to T-Mobile.

Unfortunately, this means that some people have recieved calls and text messages intended for people who previously had their phone number.

Rest assured that the numbers are direct allocations from T-Mobile, and we have now requested that they come from different area codes to reduce the chance that you get a recycled number.

When should I order my T-Mobile USA sim card

The best time to order your sim card is two to seven weeks before you travel.

This sim card is shipped from Australia and usually takes around one week to be posted to the UK, however it is best to allow two weeks in case there are any delays in the postal system.

Additional Information