SIM Cards for Cheaper Local Calling During Out of Town Tournaments

Traveling in Europe last year on family vacation, we picked up a cheap SIM card in England and then in France. At the time, there wasn't anything here that was comparable. Now many options have sprung up.

One thing found out recently is that, if you your phone is 'locked' to a carrier, you can unlock your phone by simply calling your carrier and asking for the unlock code. All Canadian carriers apparently must give you the unlock code.

I wrote in an earlier post about Petro-Canada's prepaid phone plans*. What's this got to do with SIM cards and unlocking phones?

When away at an out of town tournament, the cost of local calling can add up when away from the hotel. It's all long distance! Switching temporarily to a local number could save a lot of local long-distance cost, although the hassle of using a new, temporary phone number is a consideration. Since Petro-Canada is now selling SIM cards, I could unlock my regular phone, use it with my regular plan when I'm not traveling, but then get a SIM card if we have a tournament out of town, and activate it for the city that we're in.

Cost would be $15 for the SIM card, $15 for 30 days prepaid time. Let it expire, and then when we're off to another city, change the phone number on the SIM card(which they will do!) and load on another $15.

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* Disclosure: In my non-sportsmom life, this company is a client. We are also a customer, with more than one mobile device on their monthly plans.