Cell phones

[slyry75]

Is it worth it to rent a cell phone in Cartagena, or is it better just to buy one down there with prepaid minutes? It looks like my Verizon phone will work there, but it would cost like $4.95 per minute.

[Bueller]

For that price per minute, I'd just buy a prepaid ComCel for $35 or so.

[KPunch2]

Originally Posted by slyry75

Is it worth it to rent a cell phone in Cartagena, or is it better just to buy one down there with prepaid minutes? It looks like my Verizon phone will work there, but it would cost like $4.95 per minute.

Rent one. Not worth the cost per minute.

[Mark Turner]

You can buy a good Colombian cell for about $30 and buy the prepaid minutes but the best thing to do is just take your American cell and buy a sim card, they cost about $9

[slyry75]

Thanks for the tips. I should be able to find a wireless store in the Bocagrande area?

[Tinto]

Originally Posted by Mark Turner

You can buy a good Colombian cell for about $30 and buy the prepaid minutes but the best thing to do is just take your American cell and buy a sim card, they cost about $9

Bueller here. I forgot my Comcel phone before coming down here, and tried to do the above with my Verizon Samsung phone, but it was not possible. I wound up buying another Comcel phone for about $26. I didn't have my passport with me, but they said that showing ID was only for warranty purposes and if I accepted the phone as-is with no warranty they could sell it to me no problem.

[KPunch2]

FYI, you cant use Verizon phones in Colombia because these phones are on the CDMA bandwidth and movil service in Colombia is on their GSM network. Not compatible. Anyone looking to take a cell phone to Colombia can find an excellent "unlocked" phone on ebay that can be either tri/quad band ready. Then you just buy the sim card there. Easy.

[Tinto]

KPunch,

Actually a Verizon phone will work in Colombia. Movistar was able to program my Verizon phone that enabled it to work with their system and it continued to work on the Verizon network upon my return to the States. I can´t remember what they charged me but it wasn´t very much.

The real Tinto

[KPunch2]

Originally Posted by Tinto

Actually a Verizon phone will work in Colombia. Movistar was able to program my Verizon phone that enabled it to work with their system.

Tinto, thx for the heads up.

I didnt know you can re-program a CDMA phone in Colombia to work on their GSM system.

[southernroller]

The comcel phone has always worked good for me. Like the guys here say, about 30 dollars should get you a basic one. Then i just go to any grocery store like, Olympica or Carulla and buy the comcel tarjetas for 10,000-100,000. They go quickly for me so I am getting an actually monthly plan down there because I am in Colombia about half the year. Tigo also offers about the same deals on prepaid phones. Some of our U.S. phones dont have the easily accesible SIMS card so look for that before u make your decision.