How easy is to get a prepaid SIM-card in the US for travel?
I'm visiting for two weeks and roaming prices are insane, I'm considering getting a prepaid SIM-card. Can I easily grab one in any shop, e.g. at the airport/Walmart? What are the prices? Unlimited data would be nice, but I can survive with a few GBs too, I'd probably need it mainly for navigation.
I've been there and I can confirm that it's expensive. As an example, here in Mexico, you can get a sim card for $7, and you just refill it with as little as $3 for 6 days and around 300 mb, or $15 for a month and 5 Gb.
Yeah pretty easy dont even need an ID for the majority of states afaik. Not sure about airports but I assume so. Big corpo stores (target and walmart) will have them regardless though so no worries on that. As for prices the cheapest unlimited plan would be like visible at 25$ per month, avoid mint mobile since youll have to pay for 3 months in advance. Have fun
Edit: I'd go with visible since its on verizon's network which covers the majority of states, at&t prepaid is also an option but Im not sure on the price especially for unlimited data
Edit 2: forgot visible is an online store only so it wouldnt even be available at physical stores
Any ideas for T-mobile? It seems that Verizon and AT&T use exotic frequencies for my phone, so maybe that could be the best option, but I don't know how good their coverage is...
T-Mobile will issue an E-SIM for their prepaid service. I have used it as a secondary network within the past year to supplement the poor Verizon coverage in certain areas. Check their site for details
My bad its like 3am right now so take what i say with salt. So usually these mvnos offer coverage maps so use that tool to check out the area. As for what main options you have i think it would be:
metropcs: looks expensive and cant find an option for single lines, sucks for them
Boost: 15$ per month for 5gb, 25 for unlimited
Tello: pretty flexible with your plans options so pick and choose but 29$ for unlimited. sim card can only be purchased via their online store
us mobile: uses both verizon and tmobiles network 25$ for unlimited. sim card can only be purchased via their online store
Out of the options I would probably go with boost since it has the best chance at being found at a store and us mobile if you can have it delievered to an address within the states. Theres probably other smaller mvnos that uses tmobiles network so keep doing some resesrch
Mint Mobile uses the t Mobile Network. And they have a 7 day trial sim at Best buy for like 2 bucks you could just do two of those since you probably don't care about having the same phone number for both weeks. The bandwidth is limited though. Or you could get a month off unlimited for like 45 bucks.
If your phone supports esim, you can actually get free data for 90 days from tmobile. I used it on my last trip to the states and it worked perfectly. I was even able to make calls, which you're not supposed to be able to do. Here's a thread about it.
My T-Mobile plan is $50 per month for unlimited, but it's prepaid with no credit/ID check (or if there is an ID check, passport should work). Not the cheapest, but there are certainly options for you. There might be a data-only plan for less.