US to Canada calling . . . Cell Phone Providers?

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Verizon: (not cheap mind you lol)

Nationwide Plus Canada - Perfect if you travel to Canada frequently. Now available with Friends & Family®. Unlimited calling to and from any 5 numbers on any network in America. link

Does this include free roaming in Canada?

Yes it does! That's why I got the Verizon Canada plan, so I could use it in Canada without roaming charges, and use it here to call Canada without LD charges

Yep! I've only had Verizon for 2 months but I swear by it. No roaming charges and you get free calling to other Verizon customers, its great! Every member of my Colorado family has it, so I only use minutes when I call my family in Canada, making it really convenient. The only annoying thing I've noticed, is that when I'm in Canada with my Verizon phone I can't check my voicemail... unless I get really close to the Niagara River, then it thinks i'm in NY state

With the text messaging... why not just pay to get a texting package? Its like $10 a month... I'm not sure how many messages you get, but I've never gone over the limit.

[JillA 2]

Huggles I found the trick to checking your VM... instead of just dialing "VM" on your cell dial the actual cell number starting with 1.... you can check your messages that way out of country

[ashenflowers 5]

I'd second the Vonage recommendations. I've had a Voange phone for over 4 years, and it's great. Unlimited US/Canada calling for $40. Is great.

As for cell phones though, I don't know. I just got the Net 10 prepaid as well (so I could have a cell that worked in the US), but haven't had it long enough to know one way or another. I would suggest looking into the text messaging plan as well though. Maybe check out Virgin Mobile. I have their cell in Canada, and it's great!

[MapleLeafBaby 1]

Verizon: (not cheap mind you lol)

Nationwide Plus Canada - Perfect if you travel to Canada frequently. Now available with Friends & Family®. Unlimited calling to and from any 5 numbers on any network in America. link

Does this include free roaming in Canada?

Yes it does! That's why I got the Verizon Canada plan, so I could use it in Canada without roaming charges, and use it here to call Canada without LD charges

#######! We just signed up with AT&T

If you're with AT&T, and have an iPhone...there are various applications you can download that will give you free long distance and texting. There are texting app's that run like messaging on a computer, and you can download the Skype app and call Canada for a few bucks a month.

Before we discovered this and lived on opposite sides of the boarder, we were spending hundreds...when we finally downloaded the app's we shaved hundreds off our bills. iPhone app's ROCK!

[Frazell Thomas 0]

We use Sprint here. We don't get charged for sending texts to Canada (I didn't realize others did! ) But the option that works the best for us is to use Skype on our cell phones.

We have an account with Skype called Skype-To-Go. (http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/togo/)

It's $2.95 a month, and you can call using your cell phone to Canada (unlimited). We just wait until evenings or weekends so we don't use up our cell plan minutes, call the skype-to-go number, and then it asks you to dial the international number you like.

It has been the best option for us.

In Canada though, we have a plan with "Win-tel" for landlines, and its 25cents a call to anyone in Canada or the US, it doesn't matter how long you talk for, its just 25cents a call.

Anyway, that's the way we roll, and it works out pretty well for us

[SapphireDreams 71]

My fiance also has the VERIZON plan. It's approximately what other people are paying, something like 100$ a month which isn't cheap but also factor in that he sends me approximately 1200 texts a month....YES, 1200. I know its ridiculous but true. Our friends make fun of us constantly.

I'd say thats not a bad price considering here in Montreal with BELL i pay 78$ a month which includes no long distance talk time whatsoever. The one good thing I have is free incoming calls so that when my SO calls me with his VERIZON plan during the day Monday- Friday its free for me or else it would cost me a fortune.

There is an unlimited long distance plan to the US with Bell (evenings and weekends and then daytime was 200 minutes). Its really a business plan but it worked really well for me. My total bill was always around $90 including tax and everything, which I thought was decent all things considering. I just tried to look for it, but it looks like they grandfathered it, which is too bad.

I'm with t-mobile now and I don't have Canada long distance, but I don't actually mind since phone cards are soooo freaking cheap and most of the time people call me. I'm on a family plan with my husband's parents and sister and it's SO cheap. I only pay like $38/month for everything, including unlimited data and unlimited text messaging to Canada. And like others almost all my friends here have t-mobile so t-mobile to t-mobile is free! That's a great feature.

I'm not sure what I'll do when I visit Canada since I don't have roaming...I might just borrow my Mom's cell phone if I'm going out since she never uses it.

Edited August 15, 2009 by SapphireDreams

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Huggles I found the trick to checking your VM... instead of just dialing "VM" on your cell dial the actual cell number starting with 1.... you can check your messages that way out of country

Oh no way! Thanks for that!

[TimandJoyce 1]

For me...I don't have a cell phone, but Tim has bought me a calling card from Pennytalk. Literally, .01 cent a minute. He has had to call me in the past too, so it's nice. Other than that we use skyp, and I can text him for free from Yahoo messenger, and he can text back.

Course, soon we won't have to worry as I'm there in 3 days..but our system has worked well. Oh..pennytalk is online, and there is a .49 cent connection charge, even if it's an answering machine.

[DeadPoolX 9]

The easiest solution is what you've been doing -- using prepaid phone cards. It's somewhat annoying, but at least it doesn't require a separate and often very expensive plan.

The second option might be Skype. You can download and install it onto your cell phone. Once there, you simply add money to your Skype account and use it that way.

[AAD... 4EVER!!! 0]

ALLTEL!!! 900 anytime minutes. 1000 night and weekend, no matter where you are or where you call in the USA or CANADA! ONLY!...$59.99! AND, texting costs nothing at all! Its totally free as if it were a US number! I checked all cell providers that service my area, and Alltel has them all beat I think!

[minnew 4]

ALLTEL!!! 900 anytime minutes. 1000 night and weekend, no matter where you are or where you call in the USA or CANADA! ONLY!...$59.99! AND, texting costs nothing at all! Its totally free as if it were a US number! I checked all cell providers that service my area, and Alltel has them all beat I think!

I had AllTell the last time I lived in the U.S. they were not bad at all. Verizon nickel and dimes you for EVERYTHING, my fiance will not go back to them! He currently has AT&T which he is happy with and has an Iphone, he uses the Skype application to call Canada for long distance, a much better deal than using LD minutes. I would LOVE an iPhone too and we could get a family plan, but I am not sure I would use it to the full extent my fiance does, who knows, maybe given the opportunity I will become an iPhone addict too!! The cell phone coverage where we live in the Omaha metro is really crappy, we lose signal ALL the time, its so annoying, my fiance said something about how they are putting up a new tower soon, but we'll see, if they don't I will invest in a landline with an unlimited LD calling to Canada and Mexico, I think Qwest has one for $15 a month.

[warlord 73]

I just got my first Blackberry this weekend and have T-Mobile as my provider and have the $5 month internation plan that allows me to call Canada for I think it's .09 a min. So that's pretty good I think in comparrison. Not sure about text messaging though since I didn't want that at all.

T-Mobile has most the US covered and there is no roaming charges at all either so it seems pretty good from everyone I have talk to about it...

[FaK 0]

Get google voice and call for free why pay? checkout voice.google.com

[Richard90027 1]

Has anyone found a good cell phone provider for calling and texting Canada? I use phone cards because my cell company charges $.29/min for calling Canada. Texts cost me $.29 per text so I got a "bundle" that lets me send only 100 texts a month for $9.99 (this is just for texts sent to Canada, I also pay for a separate US text plan). I know I am not getting a good deal on either. When Sean moves here I would like to just change companies to make it easier for him to call home.

I tried searching online but didn't come up with anything.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

I use google voice for free. once set up you can use any phone..

http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html#

[frenzyheart 2]

I've used....

US Cellular: They didn't charge me for texting Canada, and it was $0.19 a minute for phone calls. This was a few years ago, but I think it's roughly the same. On a side note, I never had issues with their customer service; always super friendly and helpful!

T-Mobile: When I moved back from Canada after schooling, I switched to T-mobile. This was the WORST. DECISION. EVER. Their text messaging didn't cost to send to Canada, but I couldn't call Canada (even with the plan) and their customer service SUCKED.

AT&T: I switched AT&T a few months ago after getting sick of T-Mobile, as well as wanting an iPhone. The only thing I don't like about AT&T is the lack of international text messaging. I cannot see spending an extra $10 a month for only 100 texts when I spend $20 and get unlimited within the US. This is the only company I know of that doesn't include Canada in the domestic long distance, as far as text messages go. Calling Canada is $0.25 a month, or you can get a package for $4.99 (I think) and then it's like $0.09 a minute. AT&T does have AMAZING customer service, and I love everything except what I listed previously.

IF you go with an iPhone/AT&T, however, the best app I can recommend is Unlimited SMS. It's $2.99 to buy (at least when I got it) but that is what I use to text my fiance, and it's never failed on me; uses wifi OR 3G and they are continuously adding things that are making it the best out there. I give this app 5 stars.

I dont know if this helps at all, but I'm hoping it does.