Calling home from Mexico

[hokiegirlie]

We are about to take a 7-day vacation to Playa del Carmen....and leave our little one at home. We've never had much reason to call home before so I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions on calling the US from MX. I have been googling it and reading about pre-paid cell phones with a mexican number, but does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!

[Sazoo]

We went to Cabo San Lucas last fall, and my bosses go down there regularly for "working vacations". We could call the US from our hotel room phone if we wanted to - there were instructions on the phone for how to dial international numbers. However, it was very expensive so instead we used our cell phones the few times we needed to call home.

The per minute rate to use our cell phones was expensive since we were roaming internationally, but for the limited number of brief calls we made it was okay. If you want to bring and use your cell phone rather than renting a local cell phone and/or purchasing a pre-paid Mexican calling card (which are both options, from what I've heard - I've just never tried them) check with your cellular provider before you go about these things:

1. Verify that your specific phone is capable of making & receiving calls in Mexico (you probably need a tri or quad band phone).

2. Find out if you need to activate some sort of international calling feature on your account to use your phone in other countries (I'm with T-Mobile, and I had to activate their free WorldClass Calling (or whatever it's called) before I could use my phone outside of the US.

3. Ask what the rates are for calls specifically from Mexico to the US (rates vary by country). Also, some providers offer international calling packages that, for a small monthly fee, enable you to call from certain countries for a discounted roaming per minute rate (my bosses have this on their phones with AT&T for calls from Mexico to the US).

4. Tell them where in Mexico you are going and verify that they have roaming coverage there. My bosses' AT&T cell phones work in one area of Cabo, but not so well on the other side of town - which AT&T was able to forewarn them about before they went down there for the first time.

Good luck!

[allison]

Also, if you use your cell phone (that's what we do) try your best not to have it on all the time, especially if you leave your hotel area. My parents have had to change their phone numbers twice from having them "stolen" (not the phone itself, but the number). Thankfully, they call their provider (as do we) whenever they go down there so it was the provider who informed them of the theft. I don't know exactly how it's done, but I can ask. Still, DH and I have never had any problems using our cell phones down there (we also have the international calling plan from AT&T as we go to Mexico a lot) so definitely check the rates!

[hokiegirlie]

Thank you! I have verizon and am going to call them first thing tomorrow. I did see on their website that they have this service as well as a rental plan themselves in case my phone isn't capable.

[{b}]

We went to the Dominican Republic for 5 days, leaving 17.5 mo DD home with my mother. I had my cell phone, but left it off and in the room safe when we weren't calling. We checked with out provider and had it programmed to be able to use it.

Where are you staying in Playa del Carmen?

It was DD's first time away from us overnight, let alone a few days in a row, and she did great. She really surprised us. My Mom had a blast! And we got some much-needed couple time, and we SLEPT! ;)

[hokiegirlie]

We are staying @ El Dorado Seaside Suites this year. I'm really hoping my cell phone can give me coverage b/c this seems like the easiest option!

Our son has stayed overnight with my parents but never with my IL's....they will spoil him rotten, so i'm not as concerned about him as I am about me being away from him!

[mommy2allyandaveri]

From what I have read the last place you want to call home from is your hotel room. I'm not sure why this is but it is true. When we went a couple of years ago we called home several times and the hotel said it would be $5 per minute or something like that. We we timed our calls literally down to the second and when we came home each call cost us about $60 when it should have only cost $20. We disputed it with our cc no problem.

Calling Home

So you bought yourself a calling card got to Mexico and it didn’t work and now your cussing and kicking. Yes, I have done it too and that is why I am writing this so others don’t have to go through what most of us have already done at least once before.
Okay, you can buy a pre paid calling card from www.TelmexUSA.com over the Internet or you can buy one when you get to Mexico. I have a nice pre paid one from Chamba net and it always worked for me. www.chambanet.gob.mx (this is in Spanish)
First, to dial any number INSIDE Mexico from the United States, just dial 011-52 plus the ten digit number.

Second, the country code for Mexico is 52. To call home from Mexico, dial 00 plus the country code you’re calling and then the area code and phone number. To call the United States and Canada, you need to dial 001 plus the area code and the number eg..for me to call home to the United States, Missouri I would dial 001-636-555-5555

The country code for the United Kingdom is 44; the country code for New Zealand is 64, and the country code for Australia is 61. You can reach the AT&T operator at 01-800-288-2872, MCI at 1-800-021-800, SPRINT at 001-800-877-8000, and BRITISH TELECOM (BT) at 01-800-123-0244.
Mexican pay phones may sometimes require a coin deposit, so have some pesos on you.

To call operator assistance for calls inside Mexico, dial 020; for operator assistance for international calls, dial 090. Both numbers provide assistance for person-to-person and collect calls.

And what ever you do try not to use your phone in your room to call home or you can expect a 35-50 dollar charge on your credit card when you get home for 5 minutes. Use the phones in the lobby or out side. There are tons of Telmex phones around and plenty at the airport also.

I got this information from a book called, “Cancun & the Yucatan for Dummies” it’s a great book for newbies in Cancun, Mexico area. You can get it here in the store section of Cancun Care web site. This is a good book to take with you when you go to Mexico the first time until you get use to how things run down there.
And the time zone for the Mexican Yucatan peninsula falls within Central Standard Time. Most of Mexico observes Daylight Savings Time.

I got this info off of cancuncare.com they have a lot of info and a really great message board