online source for prepaid Canadian SIM card for my phone?

I live in the US and will travel to Canada this summer for a week. My carrier (T-Mobile) charges 79 cents for calls placed or received while in Canada. With their new "Global Unlimited" plan, the per minute charge drops to 20 cents, but if I do that, I can't revert to my legacy plan, which is not an option I would consider.

Where can I buy a reputable prepaid SIM card for my phone so I can make calls while in Canada? A google search turned up thousands of hits. Not sure where to turn. Prefer to buy online.

BTW, I'm not sure if my Samsung T159 is locked, but my wife has a Sony Ericsson W300i that's unlocked for sure.

Thanks

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Anyone?

You could go this route: Amazon.com: Rogers Canada New Sim Card Unactivated: Cell Phones & Accessories

Or you could just get a sim card when you arrive. Either way you have to wait to get to Canada to activate the card.

The phone is probably not unlocked.

Thanks for the link. Can't wait until we arrive to purchase the SIM. Flight arrives on a Saturday evening and we'll need to use the phone right away.

As for phone being locked, as I said, the Sony is definitely unlocked as I had to pay for unlock code as that phone was locked from a previous carrier.

Did you get to purchase a SIM card online?

Originally Posted by avenue

Did you get to purchase a SIM card online?

I need to call Rogers first to see what options I have for adding minutes to the card. The plan descriptions on the Rogers website are confusing.

I found another SIM card that has much lower rates. Anyone have any experience with Lyca Mobile prepaid SIM's?

Originally Posted by ginahoy

I need to call Rogers first to see what options I have for adding minutes to the card. The plan descriptions on the Rogers website are confusing.

I found another SIM card that has much lower rates. Anyone have any experience with Lyca Mobile prepaid SIM's?

I am familiar with Lyca Mobile. They are an international company, but I don't see Lyca Mobile available in Canada. It looks like they offer an international calling service in Canada but not SIM cards for cell phone service there.

Rogers plans do look a little confusing, but I will try to explain them:

Talk and Text 15: $15.75 for unlimited Canadian text, picture, and video messaging. Other local minutes are 25 cents each.

Talk and Text 20: $20.75 for unlimited Canadian text, picture, video messaging, and unlimited local weekend calling from 6 PM Friday to 7 AM Monday. Other local minutes are 25 cents each.

Talk and Text 30: $30.75 for unlimited Canadian text, picture, video messaging, unlimited local weekend calling from 6 PM Friday to 7 AM Monday, and unlimited local evening calling. Other local minutes are 25 cents each.

Talk and Text 40: $40.75 for unlimited Canadian text, picture, video messaging, unlimited local weekend calling from 6 PM Friday to 7 AM Monday, unlimited local evening calling, unlimited local incoming calls. Other local minutes are 25 cents each.

Talk and Text 55: $55.75 for unlimited Canadian text, picture, and video messaging, and unlimited local calls.

Please let me know if this helps.

Yeah, I misunderstood Lyca's plan. They do sell pre-paid SIM cards with a very low rate for calls originating in the US, but International roaming is like $1.84/minute!

We only plan to be in Canada for 5 days and we don't do data or SMS. I'm guessing I might use an hour of talk time. I see Rogers has a pay-as-you-go rate of 50 cents (non local). That's a bit steep, plus minutes are added in $10 increments and forfeited if not used, no? Adding in the card ($10), I'd probably end up spending more than what my carrier would charge (79 cents/min for international roaming).

What if I get the $15.75 monthly plan and activate just before the trip and cancel when I return... Would Rogers issue a prorated credit for the unused days? If so, I might get out for less than $30 assuming calls cost 25 cents (see question below). Is this as good as it gets?

I noticed the rate table for pay-as-you-go has separate columns for local and long distance, but monthly plans only show the local call rate. Nothing about long distance. I see some footnote references but they don't show up on my browser. Most of my calls will be non-local for whatever phone number I might be assigned (from Edmonton to Vancouver and from Vancouver to the US). Are long distance calls also billed at 25 cents on the $15.75/mo plan?

Thanks for the assist!

Originally Posted by ginahoy

Yeah, I misunderstood Lyca's plan. They do sell pre-paid SIM cards with a very low rate for calls originating in the US, but International roaming is like $1.84/minute!

We only plan to be in Canada for 5 days and we don't do data or SMS. I'm guessing I might use an hour of talk time. I see Rogers has a pay-as-you-go rate of 50 cents (non local). That's a bit steep, plus minutes are added in $10 increments and forfeited if not used, no? Adding in the card ($10), I'd probably end up spending more than what my carrier would charge (79 cents/min for international roaming).

What if I get the $15.75 monthly plan and activate just before the trip and cancel when I return... Would Rogers issue a prorated credit for the unused days? If so, I might get out for less than $30 assuming calls cost 25 cents (see question below). Is this as good as it gets?

I noticed the rate table for pay-as-you-go has separate columns for local and long distance, but monthly plans only show the local call rate. Nothing about long distance. I see some footnote references but they don't show up on my browser. Most of my calls will be non-local for whatever phone number I might be assigned (from Edmonton to Vancouver and from Vancouver to the US). Are long distance calls also billed at 25 cents on the $15.75/mo plan?

Thanks for the assist!

I don't think they will refund you for any unused minutes, but I am not sure. You would probably lose out on whatever you don't use.

It looks like you can pay an additional $5 per month to receive a rate of 10 cents per minute for calling to the United States. In addition to that, you would need to pay for the prepaid plan. I don't see anything that says this plan isn't available on the prepaid, so I am assuming it is available.

The other option that might work for you is $15 per month for unlimited calling to the United States, but like the other plan, airtime is extra so you will still need to pay for the monthly plan or the pay by the minute plan.

So, if you go with the "Talk Anytime" plan, there will be a 75 cent charge for the month, plus a charge of 50 cents per minute, plus 10 cents for international calling if you choose the $5 plan. Or, you can choose the $15 plan and the cost will be just 50 cents per minute even when calling the United States. The $5 and $15 are add-ons which you can find on their website.

The other option is the 75 cents monthly service fee for 35 cents per minute for the first five minutes and then 15 cents per minute after that, but the minimum topup is $20. The $5 or $15 add-on should work the same.

You might want to double check that these add-ons are available with the prepaid plans but I haven't seen anything that says they are not.

Thanks for your response. I was finally able to see the footnotes (actually pop-ups) by white-listing a script my browser had blocked. As it turns out, LD charges apply to all prepaid plans and are in addition to airtime (local) charges. And the $5 LD add-on you mentioned is available with prepaid plans. I called Rogers to confirm all this.

For my needs (voice only), there's no reason to consider the $15.75/mo plan as there's no refund for less than a month. The $5 add-on for $0.10/min LD (within Canada or to US) is a no-brainer since it only takes 12 minutes to recoup the fee. Also, the $5 counts toward minimum required top-up amount.

Wow, nothing is simple is it?

I see that Bell Mobility has similar prepaid plans, but unlimited LD costs $15 (no additional per minute cost) so BM would end up costing even more. And Telus charges 50 cents for LD and doesn't offer a LD add-on

Bottom line, this is a lot more than what I was expecting and probably not worth the hassle for what I might save compared to $0.79 roaming with my carrier, given my short stay and low expected usage. Either way, I'll have to be careful with minutes.

Are there no low-cost competitors like Lyca in Canada?