Question About Cell Phone Minutes

[Estopero]

While it's totally possible to use a Tarjeta at any public phone, I wouldn't advise using it at a pay phone. If you buy a $10 card, it will be gone in about 5 minutes because the phone will charge you the pay phone cost, rather than what it printed on the back of the card.

When I need to call the US, I like to use the cards and only pay about 13 cents/minute.

Yes, i totally forgot that. Anyway, you can always borrow a house phone for make the call and neither you or the phone owner will be charged.

MoviStar and Claro are the two GSM carriers here.

We have Personal too. Personal has the cheapest phones but the prices are higher than the others. Anyway, you can buy a Personal pre-paid sms card (I think it's called "Personal SMS" or "Tarjeta SMS Personal") and is pretty convenient, but you can only send sms with that, not make calls.

 

[victoria]

OK, here's a question in a similar vein ... if I go to a locutoria and use a phone card to call the U.S., will I also be charged an international fee by the locutoria?

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[arty]

If you have a DNI or have someone willing to help you out I know claro and personal offer "family' plans where its free calling between 4 number and free texts between another 4 numbers.

 

[emilyr]

My boyfriend and I could possibly be some of the cheapest b***s on this forum!! So….
Being a cheap b***, I looked into the cell thing beforehand (check out New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/technology/15basics.html). Cingular and T-Mobile use GSM, so I got an old Cingular phone from my bro in law, as a customer of theirs, he requested the unlock code for it using the serial number info on the inside. I bought my SIM chip in a galeria in Barrio Once for FIVE PESOS. Boom, I had a cell phone for 5 pesos. I can’t give you advice about buying the cell phone, but there are so many cell phone robberies here, that I would not invest heavily into a really nice phone if I were you, unless you can't live without. It just makes you more of a target.
Basics of cell phones, I think no one mentioned here is that you are always billed for making a call or sending a text, but never for receiving them.
I have Personal also (me conviene). You DO need a DNI to get an actual account that is not prepaid. But even your prepaid account gives you an option for two free PERSONAL phone numbers, no extra charge, one for text and the other for calls. The explanation is on the website, but there are two kinds of plans con tarjeta (Plan Personal Plus and Mundo Personal-PPP is the one with the two free lines): http://www.personal.com.ar/planes/planes/tarjeta.html The only catch is you MUST recharge at least 20 pesos once (can’t be 15 once and 15 another) at least once every 30 days, meaning before your credit expires-you get the credit back when you recharge. You must call *151 to set it up in Spanish, of course. I call and send messages without charge on my prepaid phone to my bf’s Personal cell.
Calling from a land line and not being billed…not true. We have a regular Teléfonica line at the house and are billed for every minute we use. This was also confirmed in the house were we lived because our miserly landlord would often complain if we made too long of phone calls…ESPECIALLY if it was to cell phones. There is a small usage fee for ALL calls from land line phones, though nearly negligible. I talked for 3 hours one night with a local friend land line to land line for a couple pesos. Calling cell phones from a land line is much more costly, almost as much per minute as calling them from a cell, sometimes more if you have a plan fijo.
Victoria…if you are calling with an ARGENTINE toll free number with your calling card or a local connecting number (e.g., ATT calling cards have Argentine numbers for connecting and if I remember they told me it would be 11:1, 11 US minutes for everyone 1 minute I used), the locutorio should only charge you the minimum tariff, which would be a local call. But ask before you go in. Anyway, don’t worry because the locutorio will post your mounting fee on the little digital box, so if it shows up some large, unexpected per minute fee when you dial the number, you can just hang up.

 

[fifilafiloche]

Ranking of the 276 most expensive international cities in the world, by budget (Octobre 2009) :

Communication costs for various communication costs such as home telephone rental and call charges, internet connection and service provider fees, mobile / cellular phone contract and calls is relatively less expensive compared to other cities with a rank of 257 out of 276.

http://www.xpatulator.com/outside.cfm?lid=7