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Many of us are gearing up for the annual BlogHer conference at the end of July in Chicago. We've scrimped and saved to get that new dress, or a great haircut, or maybe a tattoo while we're in the states, but have you started a savings account for your August cell phone bill? Did you forget about that? I did last year, and dear lord in heaven, I could have financed the purchase of a small island with the cell phone bill that I paid the next month.
The worst part? With a little forethought, I could have avoided the whole thing. So this year, I did all that early-bird thinking for all of us. Because leaving our kids at home to go to a conference for three days sounds great, in theory, but come 8pm, 1,000 mothers pick up their cell phones to whisper wishes of sweet dreams into thier babies ears. And some of those babies are on the other side of an international border. So here's a little cheat sheet to make calling home (and each other) a little less painful on the wallet:
Rogers:
Rogers offers, by far, the best North American plan, so all of you iPhone users are in luck. To add a North American roaming to your voice package at a flat rate, they have several "Voice Travel Packs" to choose from. You can add 40 minutes for $25, or 70 minutes for $40 for the month of July. That allows you to make and send calls to Canada, to your buddies whom you've lost in the crowds at BlogHer, to the taxi cab company if you have to. For $10 more, you can add the "US Data Roaming Option" which gives you data at $1/megabyte, as opposed to the $10/megabyte you'd normally pay in roaming areas. That means you can tweet, you can email, you can do whatever it if you normally do from your cell phone without incurring the wrath of the cell phone gods. Keep in mind, Rogers does not offer any roaming text specials, so if you plan on texting, you should also plan on paying $0.60 per text you send. You can contact Rogers by dialing *611 on your cell, or by phone at 1-888-764-3771 to speak to a customer service representative about adding the US Roaming Option and a Voice Travel Pack to your line for the month of July.
Bell:
Bell has two options for you to choose from. The first is the "North American Plan" which gives you 250 minutes in, you guessed it, North America per month for $75, and the lesser option is called "Connect USA". For $40 extra on your July bill, you get 100 minutes of roaming voice to send and receive calls. For $5 more you can add 100 texts to your line within the US, otherwise you'll be paying $0.60/text you send. Bell offers no roaming data plan, so tweet and email sparingly, or use your included free wifi from your hotel room at the Sheraton and all around the conference from your laptop. Contact Bell by dialing *611 from your cell phone or by calling 1-800-667-0123, Monday to Friday, to speak to a customer service representative and add Connect USA and $5 texts to your line for the month of July.
Telus:
Telus offers several different north american plans lumped under their "USA Roaming" packages. You can purchase 60 minutes of roaming talk for $40/month, or 120 minutes for $60/month, or 240 minutes for $75/month, all with unlimited US long distance for sending and receiving calls. If you're using more than 240 minutes in three days, your ear is going to fall off. Just sayin'. They do offer higher minutes plans if you need, but keep in mind that Telus does not offer roaming data plans. You'll be paying roaming rates, so stick to your laptop for emails and twitter. The good news is that with Telus, all texts are always considered local, so text to your heart's content, young ones. Dial *611 from your Telus cell phone or call 1-866-558-2273 to speak to a representative and add a USA Roaming Package to your line for the month of July.
And that covers the Big Three. Do you use a different cell phone provider? What sort of specials do they have for travel to the US? Please share in the comments!
