I'm also a bit of a beginner on this one but in much the same position with a new phone!

I have an HTC Desire (UK, T-Mobile) and want to use a sim package from MrSimCard for a 14 day trip to Las Vegas.

• Which would you order Simply Mobile or T-Mobile as both offer Android Data?
• Either way, do I need to do anything on the phone to make to make it work?
• Do I need an APN since I'm already with T-Mobile? If I do, how do I change it, and what would I need to change it to?
  

Any help provided from the more experienced amongst you is greatly appreciated.

I'm going to be in the US for a couple of weeks (I'm staying at an aunt's so I can ship things there) and was looking into buying a SIM card just for making and receiving some local calls.
I have a phone (Nokia 5220) that I should be able to unlock (by my local carrier since I've had it for over a year).
I'm just looking for the cheapest option...
If I buy this TMobile SIM card, which rate would I be charged? It's not clear to me from that page if the SIM corresponds to a prepaid plan or how that works.
If I were to buy a SIM card from ebay, I would get a non-local number, right? Does that matter (cost-wise)?

I don't know if it's more practical to just buy a cheap prepaid phone but I'd like to avoid that if possible.
I'm just getting more confused every time I try to research this and I'd appreciate any help...

TMO prepaid plans
 

Visit here:http://www.t-mobile.com/Shop/Plans/P...-Overview.aspx

TMO has several prepaid plans - you can:
1. order phone/sim card on-line or go into tmo store or radio shack, best buy, walmart to get same
2. just buy the sim card on-line (cheapest option) or from TMO store for use into unlocked phone

I just arrived in the USA and have been trying to purchase an AT&T SIM card.

I've been to a few shops in this neighborhood. Each one has proposed a different price for the SIM card itself (even though it's free on AT&T's web site). Interestingly, the first two shops insisted that the quoted price was the real/official price, despite one wanting $10 and the other wanting $18.50. At the third shop the owner informed me that he, like the other two, were actually AT&T authorized dealers and only the AT&T-owned corporate stores gave out free SIMs (you still pay for the credit value). He said the dealer margins were so slim that they didn't make any money unless they added their own fee.

Tomorrow I'll try to find a corporate store and see how it works out.

Thanks!
I've been searching some more and I think that I should probably just get a SIM card. There's the TMobile SIM card on the website for $7 (complicated because they want a US billing address) but there are also AT&T and TMobile SIM cards on eBay... I'm going to compare the AT&T and the TMobile prepaid plans and see what I come up with. Does anyone know whether I might have restrictions trying to refill online from either carrier with my non-US credit card?

Yeah, the authorized resellers are akin to going to a market stall in Shanghai and expecting not to have to bargain.

Easiest way to find a corporate store is to go to www.att.com, click Wireless, then click Find A Store at the top. Corporate stores usually show as "AT&T" or "ATT", which authorized resellers are labeled "AT&T Authorized Reseller".

For TMO, best/cheapest route is order sim card on-line, under $10 including delivery; but it takes a few days.

For AT&T, prepaid sim card is $25 plus tax and only sold in corporate AT&T stores (or on-line). Then they suggest adding at least $25.00 worth of time. At the Walmarts, Best Buys, etc.can only purchase a pay-to-go phone, cost around $30 with 5 minutes time and often $25 coupon for minutes.

Yesterday I went to a corporate store (Fulton Mall in Brooklyn) and everyone from salesman to assistant manager to the store manager insisted that the nationwide policy was to charge $25 for SIM cards. They would not budge. They did let me use their phone to call AT&T's toll-free hotline; the operator there offered to send me a SIM for $6, but it wouldn't arrive for 3 days.

So I walked a few blocks to the Montague store, and they rang me up with a free SIM card without any discussion.

I took the receipt (showing $0.00 for the SIM card line item) back and showed it to the manager at the Fulton store and he was quite condescending about it: "Good for you!"

So it appears that simply going to a corporate store isn't enough to avoid the SIM issuance charge; you may have to try several. I'm not sure why AT&T would authorize its staff to discourage people from signing up by adding that ridiculous charge.

Currently I use a Virgin mobile but I was thinking of switching to a pre-paid SIM (ATT) as the screen is cracked on the phone and auto-top up is not working so I am looking around. A couple of questions:

1) How easy/hard would it be to port my current number to a new SIM, and how long does it normally take?
2) If using the SIM in an unlocked quad-band phone would the local US number work worldwide? Or is there a block on roaming?

I bought 2 AT&T GoPhones mainly to keep in contact with other family members on a trip to California this month.
Cheapest handsets are $30 + $25 credit on each one + $1 a day giving free calling AT&T to AT&T; worked fine esp as roaming calls on O2 appear to be £1.99 a minute!
SIM cards do not work back in UK on an unlocked handset but I didn't call AT&T to ask about roaming and I forgot to do it in the store.
Interestingly, AT&T say that the iPad comes with a SIM card and you can activate and use data with a non-US credit card - I didn't try it though as I had free or cheap wifi in all the hotels used.