Foreign travelers with iPad on AT&T with international credit card - It Works!

[Edmoil12]

There are a number of posts describing the use of a foreign iPad on AT&T with prepaid Visa cards and I managed to get it to work with my own credit card, so I thought I would share my experience.
I bought my iPad 3G in Canada, and put in a Rogers SIM (I didn't end up activating it before I left though). When I got to the US, I went to an AT&T store (corporate owned) and asked for an iPad microsim. I believe they are supposed to be $15, but the guy there was nice enough to give it to me for free. At first it didn't work, but I realized all of the APN settings have to be blank to make it work. Once I selected to view account settings it opened up a form to sign up for a data plan (no sync required!). The form asked for my name, phone#, email, password, credit card#, and billing address. I entered my Canadian AMEX, and the billing address of the AT&T store where I got the microsim. I selected to use the same service and billing address (I didn't enter my real billing address). I sent off the info and got a popup text saying that the payment is processing. About 5 minutes later I got a message saying that the plan was successfully activated. The internet still didn't work so I restarted the iPad (holding down the sleep button and turning back on), and voilà! Internet was on while I was driving down the highway.

I think some of the issues with using a foreign credit card may have come from people trying to enter a foreign billing address, or maybe AT&T just made a running change regarding foreign credit cards. Now all I have to remember to do is cancel the service before I leave.

If anybody else gets this working or if anyone has a question, post a response.
P.S. I am writing this on my iPad over AT&T 3G.

 

[sabesh]

Thx for the info! I plan to use my Rogers activated Canadian iPad next month in the USA on ATT. What do you mean by "I selected to use the same service"? Thx.

 

[silverblack]

If you can enter any address, you may wish to pick a state without sales tax, like Oregon or Alaska.

 

[Blorzoga]

If you can enter any address, you may wish to pick a state without sales tax, like Oregon or Alaska.

There's no sales tax charged. I live in pa and the charge on my card was $29.99.

 

[Edmoil12]

Thx for the info! I plan to use my Rogers activated Canadian iPad next month in the USA on ATT. What do you mean by "I selected to use the same service"? Thx.

You can enter a separate billing address and a service address. It is there if you are going to use the service at one address and want be billed at another. I could have entered my credit card billing address (in Canada), but instead entered the billing and service addresses in the US.

 

[sabesh]

You can enter a separate billing address and a service address. It is there if you are going to use the service at one address and want be billed at another. I could have entered my credit card billing address (in Canada), but instead entered the billing and service addresses in the US.

Thank you!

 

[TraceyS/FL]

You can enter a separate billing address and a service address. It is there if you are going to use the service at one address and want be billed at another. I could have entered my credit card billing address (in Canada), but instead entered the billing and service addresses in the US.

Unless AT&T has made a change on their side, I wouldn't count on this to always work - or work with all cards. I would probably call my CC provider and ask them what they do for billing address verification for out of Country purchases.

Service address obviously isn't a problem, but the billing is what will make or break it getting thru processing. Normally i'd say a call to AT&T and asking them what they do would be in order, but well, that is probably useless at the moment! LOL!!

 

[b.c.]

There are a number of posts describing the use of a foreign iPad on AT&T with prepaid Visa cards and I managed to get it to work with my own credit card, so I thought I would share my experience.

Interesting! I too have an iPad 3G bought in Canada, with Rogers sim card. Two days ago (July 3) I bought an AT&T microsim for the iPad in WA state and tried to activate it using my Canadian VISA card while there.

it failed to authorize/activate even if I tried using a valid US address for billing and service.

as TraceyS/FL earlier in this thread suggested, perhaps different cards treat international billing address verification differently and this works for some but not all cards?

 

[maestrokev]

How much is AT&T selling the microsim for? Do the Apple stores in the US give out the SIM free like in Canada?

 

[tigertung]

travelling to US with Canadian IPad

Hi I just went down to the states with my family for 10 days and wanted to activate my Canadian ipad with AT&T. I went to the apple store and a rep at the front told me to go to AT&T for the microsim card. I went downstairs to AT&T corporate and they said that they didn't carry it. I mentioned that they had it on there web site but they said that corporate doesn't carry it...so I went back to apple. I asked a genius...and they said that they may have one in the back and they did at (no cost).

I ran into to the same issue as others above and had to use an american friends credit card and address. I couldn't get my to work even with a wrong zipcode....I didn't try the local AT&T address like the others suggested.

I used about 1.2 Gbs in the 10 days (not even watching videos) by using the GPS and mapping and searches. Worked really well except in the mountains.

Overall very happy. I shut it down before the border.

 

[b.c.]

How much is AT&T selling the microsim for? Do the Apple stores in the US give out the SIM free like in Canada?

The AT&T store in the mall charged me $15 plus tax - same price I had seen others report. they had them in the safe in the backroom, the sales guy had to ask another guy for the key

that was before I heard another poster say Apple store gave him one for free

 

[maestrokev]

Strange that both retailers in Canada and US sell the microSIM for $15 but the Apple Stores give them away. $15 is a lot of money for a piece of plastic.

The OP was able to use his AMEX, most people are using Visa and MC. I wonder if anyone else has tried AMEX.

 

[b.c.]

Strange that both retailers in Canada and US sell the microSIM for $15 but the Apple Stores give them away. $15 is a lot of money for a piece of plastic.

And Apple Canada only charges you $0.20 for a Rogers/Telus/or Bell microSIM if you add one to your iPad order at time of purchase.

The OP was able to use his AMEX, most people are using Visa and MC. I wonder if anyone else has tried AMEX.

Yes, I'm guessing that's the key here - it matters what kind of non-US credit card is being used...

 

[Screenap]

Amex is the only one that worked for me

Tried visa and master card but they failed.. Used Cad Amex with an oregon address and it worked... Yay!

 

[jurmala]

getting US ATT service while away from Canada

Guys, just go to any store and purchase Gift VISA or MasterCard - it doesn't have any verification and will work with any US address.
I am using this for last year for US iTunes, as well as for iPAD service ...

My wife just came yesterday from Buffalo and ATT rep just exchanged her microSIM to new one without a charge..

just my 2 cents

 

[ellsworth]

Here in the states, if you're using a service or making a purchase on a site that does address verification and you use an address that's not connected to the credit card when using a VISA or a Mastercard, the transaction will be declined.

Sim cards are being sold for $15 on AT&T's site. I just purchased one... so it sux to hear that people are getting them for free... argh!

 

[b.c.]

Here in the states, if you're using a service or making a purchase on a site that does address verification and you use an address that's not connected to the credit card when using a VISA or a Mastercard, the transaction will be declined.

yes it's clear part of the problem is verification of billing address for credit card.

but another problem is that the silly AT&T data plan signup page on the iPad won't let you enter any non-US billing address.

e.g. it refuses to accept a Canadian address in the signup form, even if it matches the billing address on the Canadian credit card you specify

 

[roberthodgson]

Activated with Canadian American Express

we just got back from the US and I bought a sim from ATT@T and had no issues activating it with my Canadian American express card. I entered the address of the local Corp ATT@T store for the billing and usage info and My Amex # and it took 2 minutes for the system to activate the account.

Looks like that they do not check billing info for Amex.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

we just got back from the US and I bought a sim from ATT@T and had no issues activating it with my Canadian American express card. I entered the address of the local Corp ATT@T store for the billing and usage info and My Amex # and it took 2 minutes for the system to activate the account.

Looks like that they do not check billing info for Amex.

Wonder if it's an AT&T thing, or works for anything else. Tried using it to create a us iTunes account in the same way? Lol!

 

[iKrl]

Wonder if it's an AT&T thing, or works for anything else. Tried using it to create a us iTunes account in the same way? Lol!

I tried that and it says that the billing information is wrong
I would like to have an iTune account from the US with my AMEX but I use gift cards instead

 

[b.c.]

we just got back from the US and I bought a sim from ATT@T and had no issues activating it with my Canadian American express card. I entered the address of the local Corp ATT@T store for the billing and usage info and My Amex # and it took 2 minutes for the system to activate the account.

Looks like that they do not check billing info for Amex.

That's several confirmations that a Canadian Amex card works without trouble with AT&T data plan, unlike Cdn Visa or MasterCard.

I guess when Amex says "Membership has it's privileges", it's true

The rest of us will have to use a US Visa or M/C gift card - I will retry it with a gift card on a trip to the states in a couple weeks.

 

[Madmic23]

Help with AT&T sim

Hi guys, I'm a Canadian with an iPad in Florida right now. I just got a micro sim at an AT&T store for free, but it won't work. My ipad says "no service" in the top right. Back home, even just having my Bell sim card in, with no active data plan displayed "bell" in the top right. What's going on here? Any suggestions to get this thing working so I can stop using Star ucks wifi?

 

[silverblack]

Hi guys, I'm a Canadian with an iPad in Florida right now. I just got a micro sim at an AT&T store for free, but it won't work. My ipad says "no service" in the top right. Back home, even just having my Bell sim card in, with no active data plan displayed "bell" in the top right. What's going on here? Any suggestions to get this thing working so I can stop using Star ucks wifi?

What exactly did you do trying to set it up? Take a look here and see if it helps
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4157
If it's still not working, try resetting your cellular setting: Setting - General - Reset

 

[avaloncourt]

Hi guys, I'm a Canadian with an iPad in Florida right now. ... My ipad says "no service" in the top right.

Do Canadian iPads display things differently? My iPad has the cell/wifi information in the top left. The battery/screen lock information is in the top right.

 

[Madmic23]

Do Canadian iPads display things differently? My iPad has the cell/wifi information in the top left. The battery/screen lock information is in the top right.

Nope, their not different. Mine is displayed on the left, not the right. My mistake.