AT&T Plan No-Brainer for Full and Part-time Expats in Mexico
One of the thornier issues of living in two countries and staying in Mexico for extended periods is what to do about a phone plan. As you hopefully are cycling out of your contracts, now is the time to think about what you want in a plan.
As you know, free" phone offers with contracts are nothing more than a long term (2-3 year) installment payment plan for the phone while locking you in. Locked phones also limit your options. The great news is that you now have the right to get a phone unlocked for free. It's the law.
Once I needed a new phone, I bought an unlocked Android Galaxy 5 for $250 on Amazon. Other websites sell unlocked phones too. If you travel, opt for an unlocked dual Sim card phone to give the broadest possible choices.
The easiest thing to do, If you are still locked into a contract, is to stop by your carriers office and find out about their Mexico plans before you come to Mexico. They all have them and are moving towards free calling to and from Mexico, the U.S and Canada.
You are already paying for the data and it may not cost you any or much more to switch the type of plan that would ensure uninterrupted calling and data while in Mexico. When you return from Mexico, you switch it back. While not always the most economical, if you have a plan and are staying only a month or two in Mexico, it's about all you can do.
If you are anticipating becoming an expat, you'll definitely want to start moving toward something cheaper, without a U.S. contract.
When I was locked in into a conventional plan, I was so afraid of roaming charges while in Mexico that I kept my phone in airplane mode during my whole first tour. I'd heard of too many people coming home to $500 phone bills due to roaming charges they didn't know they were incurring.
Of course I still had to pay the monthly $80 payment according to the contract (the one they told me would run $60 a month), which was infuriating.
Ya sabes (you already know) how I feel about telephone contracts and the major carriers. I have described in rather graphic detail my aversion to their small print, hidden charges, marketing practices and their documented data racketeering.
After extending my contract without my knowledge and charging $40 a month just to keep the number for the three months while I was in Snowshoe, West Virginia (which has no Verizon coverage) and refusing to count those months against my contract period, I made the break entirely, porting my number from Verizon to Google Voice then ultimately Magic Jack.
Magic Jack enables you to make and receive all your calls over the internet. They have excellent customer service and help you set it up in a way that your phone rings just like it always has when people call you.
The whole process of switching to Magic Jack and internet-only calling, which involves porting your number to Magic Jack and getting their service for a year, was less than $60. Once you set it up, Magic Jack costs $25 a year. I receive calls from friends the same whether I am in Denver or the U.S. In fact, every day in Mexico I received election campaign calls.
Using strictly Magic Jack worked surprisingly well for me last year. In a large city like Denver, internet is almost always available. The call quality and dropped calls were only a little worse than Verizon and worth the sacrifice to shuck the monthly fees and contract hanging over my head. WhatsApp, offers another internet calling choice, as does Facebook Messenger.
Once I got to Mexico, to make locals calls to friends here, I bought a $35 Telcel (a Mexico carrier) phone. Those are the cheap little phones that you still have to tap the 3 fives time for an "S" when you enter names into its directory.
Every so often I'd stop by a convenience store and buy minutes for it ("sueldo"). Usually 200 ($10) pesos last 2-3 months. I used the Telcel phone for local calls in Mexico and continued to use my smart phone to make and receive calls/texts from the U.S. via Magic Jack and the internet.
I could have gone on forever with just that but but depending totally on the internet wasn't optimal. Tools like Google maps come in be handy in Mexico. If I decide to travel especially, I'd want data. When Uber came to Mazatlan, the need to carry my smart phone more became more acute .
The new AT&T program is helping me hate at least one carrier a little less. The AT&T plan available in Mexico is a no-brainer if you live here over two months at time.
Mexico's AT&T No-Brainer Plan
Uno
For 200 pesos (about $10) a month, you get unlimited calling to the U.S., Mexico and Canada. You get one gigabyte of data. No contract. You have to buy two months (400 pesos) the first time, after that it's month to month for 200 pesos - perfect for the jet setting expat.
Here's what you need to do in Mexico. You go into an AT&T and ask for the plan. They take the SIM card out of your smart phone and replace with theirs, giving you back your SIM card in a little envelope for safe keeping.
Should somehow you lose the chip, it's not a catastrophe. To replace the card you go to a AT&T (the main office which any larger Mexican city has) and buy a new one for 800 pesos ($40). They will not have them in the small customer service stores.
Dos
You receive a new number with the AT&T SIM Card, or you can transport your old number.
The number isn't very important because the plan gives you unlimited calling TO the U.S., Canada and Mexico. People can't call you FROM the U.S or Canada on that number unless they too have an international plan.
When calling the U.S on the AT&T plan while in Mexico, you do have to use the international code, 001, before dialing the number. Once I return to the U.S. I will have to change the Mexican numbers to include 52.
You can't call directly from your directory unless you change the directory number to include the international code.
Tres
If you live in Mexico and have a smart phone, you can transfer your current Mexico number on the plan, like my permanent resident expat friends did.
I could have transferred my cheapo Telcel phone number to my smart phone too if I only wanted to use one phone and have one number.
I didn't switch my cheapo Telcel Mexican phone number to my smart phone with the AT&T chip for several reasons. For one thing, I wouldn't be able to use the number on both the Telcel phone and my smart phone I'd have to choose. The number has to be parked with one or the other phone.
I don't want to carry my smart phone with me everywhere I go in Mexico. Even when living in Denver, three people I know have lost their phones in the last six months. One lost in Vegas (it's true that things DO stay in Vegas), one on Uber ride (the dark, black clothes, black upholstery all perfect for losing a phone). Mine simply vanished into thin air as if on gossamer wings.
You know from Facebook postings how traumatic it is to lose your phone in your own country. Imagine losing or getting it stolen in a foreign country. You can't just hop on Amazon and buy another one. Buying a new smart phone in Mexico is expensive and stressful.
Another concern is damage. I am convinced that the ubiquitous tile floors are the reason so many people in Mexico have cracked phone screens. I always say if you see Mexicans doing something unusual, there's a damn good reason for it. Now I know why they often have more than one phone.
While my Mexican girlfriends text as much as we do in the States, I can live without 24/7 texting and data every minute and often leave smart phone at home. I often still take the cheapo Telcel phone with me at night to call cabs or receive calls if my Mexican friends are running late.
The cheap phone continues to be my primary Mexican phone number. I can give my new smart phone AT&T number to them if we really need to exchange texts or photos.
And I'm just kidding about that first part...my Mexican friends would never call to tell me they're running late.
The best part of the AT&T plan in Mexico is that before you go back to the U.S., you can pre-pay the $10 a month for each month you anticipate being in the U.S. You will still have free calling to the U.S., Canada and Mexico and the data.
Ten dollars a month for unlimited local calling and calls to Mexico, plus the data beats anything you've seen available in the U.S. by quite a margin. Am I right?
If I stay longer than planned in the U.S. and the plan runs out, the second choice would be Team Mobile's $53 a month, no-contract plan if I got hooked again on having the data. I'd replace the chip with the original chip and purchase the calling/data month to month.
To summarize my system, for $10 a month through the AT&T plan I have one gig of data and can call my friends In the U.S and Mexico using a major carrier. I receive calls and texts from the U.S. over the internet via Magic Jack on the number they've used for 20 years. I use my Telcel phone to make and receive local calls when I don't want to carry my smart phone. It has the Mexican phone number I've had for three years and am growing fond of it (in other words, I've finally memorized it).
Whenever I leave Mexico, I leave the Telcel phone and 500 pesos with a friend who buys the sueldo every few months to maintain my Telcel phone's Mexican number.
The main thing I wanted for my expat lifestyle was economy, free international calling, some data, internet calling options and no contracts. If you want these things, using a combination of Magic Jack or another internet phone service and AT&T's $10/month plan might be your solution.
Once your big carrier contract expires, you can use a month-to-month plan like Team Mobile's until you get to Mexico and can get on the AT&T $10/month plan.
This system should keep my phone bill as I jump between countries down to less than $15/month for international calling, data and no contract. If I average out the cost of the phone I bought ($250) and a few dollars a month for the Magic Jack service and keeping the cheapo Telcel phone number active, the monthly total is less than $25 a month based on using the same smart phone for three years.
After three years of experimentation, finally, phone service the way it should be for me as an expat at cost that makes sense.
Related links:
This article obviously was written before switching entirely to Magic Jack, but it still offers other avenues you might explore if the above doesn't work for you. [post] Ventanas Mexico
After being in the weeds about a money issue like your phone service, let's go back to the bigger economic picture of why this whole plan of moving to Mexico makes sense well beyond saving a $100 a month. [post] Ventanas Mexico
Next up: Day of the Dead far more nuanced than our Halloween. [post]
Most recent: Living in Mexico keeps you from impulse buying online. Don't think you do shop on impulse? If you bought electronics or clothing, you most likely did. [post]
Why you won't in Mexico.
Kerry Baker is a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of The Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online, taking you to the best free tools on the web. Don't be that expat who doesn't speak Spanish! Start learning now!