cheap prepaid phone for hobbying? (US resident visiting)

[CaptainPi]

I live in the US and "hobby" using a prepaid phone in the US and NEVER my personal cell phone. I'm going up to Vancouver BC this weekend and it looks like my prepaid (Virgin Mobile) phone will NOT roam.

Any recommended cheap prepaid phones while up there? Some Virgin phones in the US are cheap (like $15 or less). In Canada, from my digging around on the net, they don't seem nearly as cheap. I've seen the list at http://www.theblog.ca/pay-as-you-go and one guy recommends http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/, but the cheapest phone is $60 which makes it almost not worth my while since I don't go to Canada much.

The consensus from an earlier thread here was also those 7-11 phones. If it's going to be $60 for a phone + some airtime for a phone I can't use in the US, it's probably not worth my while to hobby up north. I'll probably only have time for 2 sessions, maybe 3, tops during my trip.

It must not require a contract and preferably no ID to buy and activate.

 

[john7]

Is your Virgin prepaid phone unlocked? If so, maybe figure out which prepaid cell phone provider you wanna use, get a sim card for that cell phone company (via CL maybe to save a few bucks), pop that sim into your phone, and buy some minutes for that sim card.

 

[CaptainPi]

Is your Virgin prepaid phone unlocked? If so, maybe figure out which prepaid cell phone provider you wanna use, get a sim card for that cell phone company (via CL maybe to save a few bucks), pop that sim into your phone, and buy some minutes for that sim card.

No, and it won't work. Virgin Mobile in the US uses CDMA and Sprint's network, so it has no SIM slot.

 

[Miss*Bijou]

7eleven is the way to go. They're on Rogers network.. The phones are crappy but unlocked and when I got mine a while back, they offered the phone for free if you bought $100 of prepaid time (it's good for a year). Call display and call waiting are included.

You can just sell it (on CL) when you don't need it anymore.

The only thing I find annoying is that you can only buy more time by going to 7eleven.. I wish you could do it online but oh well..

 

[jackperb]

7eleven is the way to go. They're on Rogers network.. The phones are crappy but unlocked and when I got mine a while back, they offered the phone for free if you bought $100 of prepaid time (it's good for a year). Call display and call waiting are included.

You can just sell it (on CL) when you don't need it anymore.

The only thing I find annoying is that you can only buy more time by going to 7eleven.. I wish you could do it online but oh well..

How much talk time does $100 buy you?

 

[dunnochit]

Miss Bijou is correct, 7\11 phones are the way to go. No name, address or any personal info, you just activate it and activate it from an IP address other than yours if you want complete anonymity. They also now have a few realtively decent phones. As far as selling it, toss it (Recycle) and get a new phone and number, no paper trail.
They run a different special every month, but here are the standard rates.
http://speakout7eleven.ca/pages/rates/
D

 

[snif]

agreed , 7-eleven.......but it with cash.
vancouver phoned worked in bangkok and can buy time at 7-eleven world wide.
i bought phone and time in vancouver but cannot remember the price , but it was realllly cheap...so was the phone but who gives a fuk if u r just using it for pussy and being anonymous.

 

[jackperb]

agreed , 7-eleven.......but it with cash.
vancouver phoned worked in bangkok and can buy time at 7-eleven world wide.
i bought phone and time in vancouver but cannot remember the price , but it was realllly cheap...so was the phone but who gives a fuk if u r just using it for pussy and being anonymous.

Cheap for Canada maybe, but in the US I pay about 9 cents per minute for calls to both the US and Canada. Beats 25 cents for calls in Canada and 45 cents for calls to the US from the Canadian 7-11 phone any day. Sad thing is, I think the 7-11 phone is the cheapest thing going for throwaway phones in Canada.

 

[jim]

You will never find the cheapest phone at 7-11 though, they only carry the $129 one for some odd reason.

 

[cancowboy2001]

Can you buy a cheap unlocked GSM phone in the US?
And then all you have to do is buy a SIM card in Canada.

 

[CaptainPi]

thanks for the help!

Unfortunately, many of the girls I might want to see say no emails in the ads. Also, my email access will be very sporadic in Canada.

Can you buy a cheap unlocked GSM phone in the US?
And then all you have to do is buy a SIM card in Canada.

Cheap and unlocked are almost oxymorons. I don't know of many brick and mortar stores that sell them here since I'd need it ASAP as I'm driving up to BC Friday night. I saw some on bestbuy.com but the cheapest is $35 but it seems all of the cheap ones say they're available online only.

More recent reports are that the phones sold by 7-11 Canada are locked. As for selling on CL, well, I can't find a single Canadian or Speakout Wireless phone for sale on http://seattle.craigslist.org so I don't think the demand is real high. Probably won't be too easy to sell in the US.

Oh well, thanks everyone! Probably will be no hobbying for me in Canada.