GoPhone plan on existing AT&T phone?

B

Bill E Bee

New member
here's the situation - I'm currently an AT&T customer with monthly plan.
But soon I will be away living oversea for about a year, perhaps occasionally coming back to the states for a few days at a time.
So I'm planning on purchasing a GoPhone prepaid plan so 1) i will keep a US phone number so any voicemail can be recorded and 2) i can use it for the few days I will be in the states.

My question is... could I simply get a GoPhone sim card and plug it into my existing phone(Sony Ericsson w810)? I don't feel like paying for a new phone for signing up a GoPhone service. And I love this w810i.

thanks
 
You can use any AT&T compatible phone as a GoPhone except the iPhone. You will not be able to retrieve voicemail with a GoPhone while in a foreign country. Voicemail messages are only stored for fourteen days. You would be paying a lot of money to keep a phone number you cannot use. Since you will not be able to call the toll free number to add funds from overseas, you would have to purchase a $100 prepaid card to maintain your account for 365 days.

Consider this reply as an answer to your similar question in another thread.
 
thanks
only 14 days huh?

do you have a suggestion as to having a voicemail box and a phone number so I would be able to check voicemail while oversea? something like a internet phone number?
 
Check into MagicJack which assigns you an Internet telephone number for one year for the cost of the device. After that you pay $19.95 per year. You can always forward all calls to your GoPhone to that number. Be aware that forwarded calls use up your balance at twice the rate of answering a call. It might be cheaper to discontinue everything on your contract plan except voice and forward those calls to the MagicJack number. When you plug the Magicjack into a USB port on a computer with a high speed Internet connection, your number will work as if it were used in the United States.

magicJack
 
thank you
there's a website evoice that appears to be just a phone number with voice mailbox. It looks like it's a web/email based voicemailbox. $5 a month looks like the charge
 
You will have to replenish your GoPhone balance online since call forwarding to other than voicemail depletes your funds in the account. You will pay for the time of the initial call to your GoPhone number plus the time of the forwarded call. The meter on the initial call will be still running during the forwarded call. So if someone calls you and leaves a one minute message on your outside voicemail, your balance would be reduced by the cost of two minutes and maybe four minutes if the call goes one second over one minute in length. I would recommend that you use email or computer based instant messaging for communications.
 
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