Here is a strange question to locals: I need to buy a phone in Cancun with a sim card to use only when I am in Cancun. Is there a very cheap one I can get somewhere(and where would that be) which I can always refill with money if need be? Thanks for the help.
There's a seller on eBay that sells Mexico phones & chips The following is probably outdated, but you can use it to reach her http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280070001678 I bought a SIM for my phone from her for my last trip to Cancun, it worked great. I'd assume the phones are also dependable.
You can find cell phones from 250 and up, depending on the promotions offered at any given time. The one I bought last time was 440 with 300 pesos of air time. Most people use pay as you go minutes and yyou can buy cards in just about any store. It's just a matter of deciding how much you want to spend...they've got them at all prices. Buying a "throw away" phone is much easier in Mexico than in the States.
Just go to an OXXO. You can get a phone fairly cheap and then buy phone cards with varius amounts of minutes as you need them in any convienence store or gift shop.
Take a look at http://tinyurl.com/2jvevf which is a page from TelCel that show a tiny Motorola that will cost you 34 dollars. Then you would have to buy ? dollars worth of time. I'm willing to bet that the local shops can beat that price and offer a better phone. TelCel runs frequent promotions on their refill cards with many bonus minutes added to the price of the card. Currently a 500 peso card gets you 900 pesos time. One warning is that the time you buy expires around 60 or 70 days after you activate the card, but if you refill prior to the expiration of the existing time it is is added to the new refill.
gabesz I am not sure you are getting your question answered as you asked it. Some of the cheap phones do not have SIM cards in them. You can get the SIM card only for $250 pesos. I exchanged today for $10.93 for $1USD. I am too lazy to do the math but it is $22-$23 for the SIM only. Now you can get a phone and $100 pesos credit for $400-$450 pesos but the phone is a POS. What I do is I keep a working phone in my carry on and take my good phone with my US numbers stored in it. On the plane I switch SIM's so that I have my Telcel SIM in my cool phone and my T-Mobile SIM in the older phone. That way I have a great phone and still have access to my US numbers if needed. The only trick is that you need to enter the SIM Unlock Code that your service provider can give you. The US phones are sort of locked up so that they do not work on any other company's system anywhere unless unlocked. Just call your customer service number and ask them to provide the Sim Unlock Code for you. You need this because you will be abroad extensively and will be using a Mexican provider when you are in Mexico. I do this every time I get a new phone. They send you the code and instructions in 24-48 hours by email. Works every time. Good luck.
TJ, the phones I was talking about do all have the SIM card with it. The first cheap phone I bought cost 250 pesos and came with the SIM card and 100 pesos credit. The second cost 440 pesos and came with the SIM and 300 pesos credit. The first was a POS, but I knew that and didn't care...it works ust fine. The second was the cheapest Nokia I could find and was also good. When going to Telcel, there's never been a question that the phones would come with the SIM...and I only buy the cheaper phones.
If you buy a GSM phone, by definition it's got a SIM. I have a veteran Nokia 6310i that came unlocked. I have a little sleeve of SIMS for here, the US, the UK and Germany and keep the dialing rules sorted out by having 4 Nokia contacts folders in Outlook. If I add a number to a SIM or update or change any of the Outlook folder contents I sync everything up using Nokia's PC Suite software. It beats typing on the phone. There's also a plugin for Outlook that lets you type your text message on the computer and send them from the phone via Bluetooth. Ditto the beats typing on the phone. There are carriers that will give you their unlock code and others that won't. There are any number of shops in Cancun that will unlock your phone for around 10 dollars. You can also get the unlock codes on eBay. You can also find dual SIM adapters that let you select from 2 SIMs when you boot the phone, provided you have the clearence in the phone to mount the adapter.
