# Short Term Cell Phone Plans?



## matador123 (Jul 17, 2015)

Hi guys, I am moving to Mexico City for 6 months and I am trying to figure out my best options for a short-term cell phone plan. I have thought about ordering a ChatSim card, which allows you to prepay for whatsapp, viber, and other message apps, and also allows you to make calls if you buy that package. Is there any better option for me with a local company? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!


----------



## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Here is a link to some Telcel Amigo Plans Telcel: Planes

Or you could buy access by the peso. If buy anywhere from 50 to 100 pesos a month which gives me access to telephone calls, sms messages, and data (whatsapp, facebook, etc)


----------



## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

matador123 said:


> Hi guys, I am moving to Mexico City for 6 months and I am trying to figure out my best options for a short-term cell phone plan. I have thought about ordering a ChatSim card, which allows you to prepay for whatsapp, viber, and other message apps, and also allows you to make calls if you buy that package. Is there any better option for me with a local company? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!


I can suggest two options, both of which I have used at various times.

Option 1 
Buy a Telcel Sim card (about $100 pesos) for your phone. Recharge it as necessary in any corner store. Voice costs about $4 pesos/minute, text messages are $1 peso each. When you recharge, you get gift minutes if you put larger amounts of money on the phone. I don't know about data on this option.

Option 2
Purchase a Sim card from IusaCell with a 6 month plan. You will get 6 months, but only have to pay for 4 months at $300 pesos/month for a net cost of $200 pesos/month. This will give you 267 minutes of voice, about 300 messages, and 1 GB of data.


----------



## kcowan (Jul 24, 2010)

TundraGreen said:


> Option 1
> Buy a Telcel Sim card (about $100 pesos) for your phone. Recharge it as necessary in any corner store. Voice costs about $4 pesos/minute, text messages are $1 peso each. When you recharge, you get gift minutes if you put larger amounts of money on the phone. I don't know about data on this option.


The basic option gives you 1 MB of data a day. This might do for email without pictures.

For paygo data, 399 pesos per month.


----------



## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

kcowan said:


> The basic option gives you 1 MB of data a day. This might do for email without pictures.
> 
> For paygo data, 399 pesos per month.


The basic Amigo plan charges 2 pesos per MB for data. Often I'll get a monthly discount of 1 peso per MB and free Twitter, Facebook, and Whatsapp. With so many free wi-fi around, you won't even get charged for data usage.


----------



## Mr. P Mosh (Mar 14, 2012)

Seeing that he will be short term, a "plan" is a bad idea. I'd recomend Amigo x segundo: Telcel: Tarifas Amigo


----------



## sixcats (Aug 1, 2015)

matador123 said:


> Hi guys, I am moving to Mexico City for 6 months and I am trying to figure out my best options for a short-term cell phone plan. I have thought about ordering a ChatSim card, which allows you to prepay for whatsapp, viber, and other message apps, and also allows you to make calls if you buy that package. Is there any better option for me with a local company? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!


I have a LG flip phone (which has a camera  ) which I paid $3 USD for on ebay. I had an IUsaCel sim installed and now pay them 100 peso/month. You can spend less but with 100 pesos they rollover your existing balance. At the moment the balance is something like 2200 pesos - I'm not a big talker.


----------



## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

With Amigo, you can buy extra data if you need it, by the hour, day, week or month.


----------



## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

I buy 50 to 100 pesos per month. I don't use it as a telephone, but use WhatsApp and Facebook to communicate with others. That includes WhatsApp voice. If you have Amigo, the pay as you go plan, data is include in the purchase of time at a maximum of 2 pesos per megabyte.


----------



## Mr. P Mosh (Mar 14, 2012)

joaquinx said:


> I buy 50 to 100 pesos per month. I don't use it as a telephone, but use WhatsApp and Facebook to communicate with others. That includes WhatsApp voice. If you have Amigo, the pay as you go plan, data is include in the purchase of time at a maximum of 2 pesos per megabyte.


That's the default Amigo fee (called Amigo Óptimo Plus).
But if you don't need the free call &/or SMS numbers (like myself), you can ask the "Amigo por segundo" fee. It charges MX$0.85 per SMS/minute of voice call/MB.

Like I rarely call and, like yourself, use mostly WA, I preffer this fee.


----------



## buzzbar (Feb 9, 2013)

Not wanting to confuse things further, but I recently changed from the normal pay as you go Amigo to the newish pay as you go "Amigo OnLife." Supposedly, as long as my balance stays above 200 pesos then each month I get 200 Minutes talk, 200 text messages, 200 mb data, and unlimited Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. And have three numbers I can ring or text for free. Which all sounds a good deal.....


----------



## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

buzzbar said:


> Not wanting to confuse things further, but I recently changed from the normal pay as you go Amigo to the newish pay as you go "Amigo OnLife." Supposedly, as long as my balance stays above 200 pesos then each month I get 200 Minutes talk, 200 text messages, 200 mb data, and unlimited Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. And have three numbers I can ring or text for free. Which all sounds a good deal.....


I'm going to look into this plan. However, those three number are free for the first five minutes I believe.


----------



## Mr. P Mosh (Mar 14, 2012)

buzzbar said:


> Not wanting to confuse things further, but I recently changed from the normal pay as you go Amigo to the newish pay as you go "Amigo OnLife." Supposedly, as long as my balance stays above 200 pesos then each month I get 200 Minutes talk, 200 text messages, 200 mb data, and unlimited Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. And have three numbers I can ring or text for free. Which all sounds a good deal.....


When I briefly worked on a call center for Telcel this was the brand new Amigo fee system.

After you have MX$100 or more in "tiempo aire" (be in by accumulation or in one reload) it gives you the maximum of services you can get with your "tiempo aire (100, 200, 300 or 500 SMS/voice minutes/MB).



joaquinx said:


> I'm going to look into this plan. However, those three number are free for the first five minutes I believe.


Yup, but it has unlimited number of calls, so hung before reaching 5 minutes and call again. :b


----------



## buzzbar (Feb 9, 2013)

Thanks for the info Mr Mosh - hope the plan works as it should, as sounds great for me, and i guess anyone else in the same position.....I'd only ring two numbers really, both of which were chosen as free numbers. But I had to keep adding balance periodically to keep the thing from expiring, which meant I always had a fair sized balance. That was previously never an advantage - but under the new plan, it gives some cool things!


----------



## WintheWin (Jul 15, 2015)

Interestingly,
I have T-Mobile North America.
Don't know the details of how it works calling to Mexico. (But I can keep in touch with my US friends/family at no ADDED cost)
…
and I have unlimited data.
So if I need to call anyone, I just use whatsapp. 
(Since they have calling/texting for free)


----------



## buzzbar (Feb 9, 2013)

Just a quick note for anyone who might be interested in the Amiga onlife plan. I need to know, preferably on a daily basis, how many of my free 200 calls, messages and megabytes I have left before Telcel start charging me. After looking for tracking information unsuccessfully for a few days I emailed Telcel, asking where I can find it. They reply yes, it's easy to keep track of your usage. From the sixth day every month you can download your usage for the previous month. Unless Mr. P Mosh can use his Telcel experience to say that one of us misunderstood how it all works, then I've got to say DUH!!


----------



## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

For Android users, there is an app call *Mi Telcel* which might be of some help.


----------



## Mr. P Mosh (Mar 14, 2012)

When I was working for Telcel, there was no way to know how much of your services was left from the cellphone (neither SMS nor *NNN# something), but I think you could check it on MiTelcel: https://www.mitelcel.com/mitelcel/login I'm not sure.

If you dial *133# it doesn't give you those services?


----------



## buzzbar (Feb 9, 2013)

The "state of your account" on Mitelcel is where you download the previous month....that's all there is there.... *133# looks useful tho - it tells me my Saldos Amigo is $0 and I have made 0 SMS and used 0 MB.... but that's a start, maybe it'll update itself sometime. Thanks!!


----------



## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

WintheWin said:


> Interestingly,
> I have T-Mobile North America.
> Don't know the details of how it works calling to Mexico. (But I can keep in touch with my US friends/family at no ADDED cost)
> …
> ...


Well, T-Mobile also now has their Simple Choice plan, which is unlimited talk/text/data (1GB is 4G LTE data) in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, for $50 USD per month (no contract required).


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

on the android there is a tool symbol and you can go to manage data and have them warn you when you reach a certain level that you have set.. for 50 pesos a month you can also avoid the roaming charges when calling abroad,,that i waas told this week so I have not had a chance to try it.


----------



## WintheWin (Jul 15, 2015)

Chelloveck said:


> Well, T-Mobile also now has their Simple Choice plan, which is unlimited talk/text/data (1GB is 4G LTE data) in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, for $50 USD per month (no contract required).


Yeah, there's simple choice plan,
but then, then you can also add this service called "Simple Choice North America"
Same thing, no added fees or anything. You have to 'specifically' ask for it. That's what I use, it's sweet!


----------

