Prepaid cell phone or rental for short term? (New York, York: buy, cost)

[wildweasel68]

I will be in NYC for 3 weeks on a training course and would like to pick up a cell phone that my wife who is accompanying me can use. My company's New York office will give me a phone for myself but not for her. There is no sense using my Canadian cell phone as the per minute roaming rate is $1.45 a minute which is ridiculous. I'v heard of MetroPCs and all the big firms but can anyone recommend either a firm where I can rent a cell phone for three weeks or would it be worth it to just get a 1 month prepaid? thanks

[tooldude]

you can get a prepaid cell phone for less than $20

[bmwguydc]

I would be inclined to pick up a prepaid cell phone, since the rental agencies do tend to charge per minute fees for calls, or charge you more for a rental than you might pay with a company like Verizon, for example, where you can get unlimited calling for $3.99/day on days that the phone is used.

And, with a rental phone, it can be a hassle if it's lost, stolen, or damaged, something that's less of an issue with a phone that you own.

[LadyR1990]

in order to rent a phone from some place like verizon without a SS number it requires a $400 deposit.

You get get a Pre paid at best buy for like $40

[wildweasel68]

Thanks folks. I think the prepaid sounds like the way to go. I do have a US SS number but I guess for the short term I'll just go prepaid. I don't think we'll be using it that much but at least we will be able to find each other in the big apple.

[LadyR1990]

I would also like to add we rented cell phones for our trip to europe and our bill was in the THOUSANDS because it still cost to call back to the us.

[billito]

You're talking simply phone service, but we also need data. My son is in NYC for over 3.5 months. His iPhone service is with Rogers in Canada, but the sim card is "locked", because it's tied in to a contract. Roaming packages- horrendous 500 Mb a month $100. Would love to just leave his phone inactive and rent something (smartphone) for 3.5 months. Don't mind making a deposit if it is refundable. Any idea how to find that?

[nybbler]

New Rogers Cellphone Unlocking Policy Starts March 28th | iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

[Chava61]

You can buy a prepaid simcard from T-Mobile to use with a non-USA phone.