AT&T Prepaid Sim for travelling to US.

[Caolan96]

Hi All,

So I'm travelling to New York at Halloween on Vacation, and I need a prepaid sim card for my HTC.

I looked on AT&T website and when I try and purchase a prepaid GoPhone® plan, it wants me to buy a phone with it.

I basically need a prepaid sim card I can put into my unlocked HTC, for data and a few calls.

I want to try and order it before I go, and have it delivered to my friend's address in the US, so it's ready to go when I'm there. Rather than going to an AT&T store, buying one there and waiting 24 hours for it to be activated.

Would it be better to purchase a mobile hotspot and just use that for data? Although I look into those and they're rather expensive.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Caolán.

(P.S, I apologise for posting this in the iPhone section considering it's not an iPhone, but I had an iPhone up until a month ago, and everyone on this forum is so helpful, so I'd rather not post it in an Android forum. Please don't flame )

 

[dontwalkhand]

You will be fine with such a setup. You can just go pick up a cheap GoPhone or get a prepaid SIM card from AT&T (or T-Mobile). There is no 24 hour activation period, it activates right away.

 

[Caolan96]

You will be fine with such a setup. You can just go pick up a cheap GoPhone or get a prepaid SIM card from AT&T (or T-Mobile). There is no 24 hour activation period, it activates right away.

Oh okay, so I can just go into an AT&T store when I arrive and they can set it all up for me?

Here in the UK there is a 24 hour activation period, which is quite frustrating.

Thanks for the reply!

Caolán.

 

[emaja]

Go Phones are sold everywhere, not just AT&T stores. I got one at Walmart for $15 which includes the SIM.

 

[MaxBurn]

Sign up for it in store, they will get it working before you leave the counter. No 24 hour wait here. No need to pay extra and get a useless handset. They will likely give you a SIM for free with a new gophone account, they did for me.

You might have to visit http://www.unlockit.co.nz/mobilesettings/ to get data to work. Need the US AT&T wap.cingular one for the gophone smartphone plans. You can also set this up in store before you leave, just use their wifi to visit the site and pull down the APN webclip. That's what I do because my phone is locked and I can't change APN settings. You can manually type that stuff in on an unlocked iphone too.

 

[Caolan96]

Sign up for it in store, they will get it working before you leave the counter. No 24 hour wait here. No need to pay extra and get a useless handset. They will likely give you a SIM for free with a new gophone account, they did for me.

You might have to visit http://www.unlockit.co.nz/mobilesettings/ to get data to work. Need the US AT&T wap.cingular one for the gophone smartphone plans. You can also set this up in store before you leave, just use their wifi to visit the site and pull down the APN webclip. That's what I do because my phone is locked and I can't change APN settings. You can manually type that stuff in on an unlocked iphone too.

Are all prepaid plans GoPhone plans? Or...

Also, can I ask staff instore to double check my APN settings before I leave?

Thanks for all the help!

Caolán.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Are all prepaid plans GoPhone plans? Or...

Also, can I ask staff instore to double check my APN settings before I leave?

Thanks for all the help!

Caolán.

You MAY... but generally AT&T store staff may only know something about phones that are sold by AT&T. But a quick Google search will help you out with which APNs and MMS settings you may need to input into your device

And no 24 hour activation period, I would've gone crazy if there was that when picking up my 4S or something haha

 

[MaxBurn]

Are all prepaid plans GoPhone plans? Or...

Yes, that's their marketing name for prepaid.

Also, can I ask staff instore to double check my APN settings before I leave?

I think you could play dumb and have them make sure data works before leaving.

I preferred to handle it myself as I knew exactly what to do and I already stressed their brains enough signing up for a prepaid plan the first day they allowed iphones on gophone.

This is the details of the plan. I chose the 10/minute plan and buy data as needed.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-ph...ans/pyg-cell-phone-plans.jsp?ContentId=900270
Data does have rollover but it will expire in 30 days if you don't renew. Can buy/use as much data as you want but you can only have 1.5gb total data ready to use in the account. You can buy refill cards in damn near every store/gas station here in the us for this.

 

[Caolan96]

You MAY... but generally AT&T store staff may only know something about phones that are sold by AT&T. But a quick Google search will help you out with which APNs and MMS settings you may need to input into your device

And no 24 hour activation period, I would've gone crazy if there was that when picking up my 4S or something haha

Yeah I'll do that then, I'll Google the settings before hand and see if it works after they insert the sim.

Oh, tell me about it, the UK seem to be slower at everything these days...

Yes, that's their marketing name for prepaid.

Thanks for clearing that up.

This is the details of the plan. I chose the 10/minute plan and buy data as needed.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-pho...ntentId=900270
Data does have rollover but it will expire in 30 days if you don't renew. Can buy/use as much data as you want but you can only have 1.5gb total data ready to use in the account. You can buy refill cards in damn near every store/gas station here in the us for this.

Yeah I'll probably go with that plan too, and just buy a good amount of data, as I'll be uploading some photos, and using GPS a bit (even though I've been to New York a few times before, it's been a while).

Thanks for all the help everyone, that's definitely lifted a weight off my shoulders knowing that it'll be a relatively painless process when I arrive!

Kindest regards,
Caolán.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Yeah I'll probably go with that plan too, and just buy a good amount of data, as I'll be uploading some photos, and using GPS a bit (even though I've been to New York a few times before, it's been a while).

Have fun. "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors Please *Ding Dong"
"This is a manhattan bound 6 local train..."

 

[MaxBurn]

Also if you come here more than once a year consider buying the $100 refill card, that way the money doesn't expire for a full year.

You heard that right, the money on the account can expire too. Depending on the refill card you got, the lower cost ones expire sooner.

Expired money is not refunded...

 

[Caolan96]

Have fun. "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors Please *Ding Dong"
"This is a manhattan bound 6 local train..."

Thanks!

Also if you come here more than once a year consider buying the $100 refill card, that way the money doesn't expire for a full year.

You heard that right, the money on the account can expire too. Depending on the refill card you got, the lower cost ones expire sooner.

Expired money is not refunded...

Good idea, I may look into that! Wasn't aware of the money expiring. Although I'm not sure of how much money I'll need to refill by, I doubt it will be a lot, so I may not be bothered about it expiring. I may just put on as little as possible, and refill again as I need it. Thanks for the tip though!

 

[tasset]

Here's another alternative my friend, since your ID shows you have an iPad2 with 3G. In fact it may be even easier if your desire is for data (unless your intent with at&t prepaid is to make phone calls).
You can go into an AT&T store and ask for the prepaid microsim for your iPad. Activate it for either the $15 250mb or $25 2gb plan.
I assume your HTC android phone allows you to change network APN settings, in which case the apn is broadband and username and password are blank.
This works just fine on my Samsung Nexus phone I use time to time with an iPad data sim.
If you are wanting to make cellular voice calls though, kindly disregard my advice.