Tips to Reduce Cell Phone Costs in Puerto Vallarta Mexico

Hot Tip – Solution for Short-term Travelers

Mexico’s cell phone systems are compatible with USA and Canada cell systems. Coverage is good in most tourist areas such as Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Acapulco, Guadalajara, Mexico City and Cancun.

You can use your home’s cell phone in Mexico but you will be charged expensive roaming rates ranging up to US$3.00 per minute, so use it sparingly.

International Roaming Charges

Check your USA or Canadian cell phone carrier’s international roaming costs before you use your cell phone in Mexico which can range from US$0.60 per minute to as high as US$3.00 per minute. Here is the roaming charges webpage for Verizon.

Hot Tip… Recommended Solution

The majority of local cellular phone users have opted to use a prepaid plan. This way, they are in complete control of how much they spend and there are no minimum fees, bills or monthly charges.

For long-term international travelers going to Mexico, the least expensive option is to do what the locals do, use the local cell phone carrier, have a local number and pay the local prices.

Available Cell Phone Carriers in Mexico

Telcel, the largest Mexican cell phone provider, has upgraded a large portion of its network to the modern GSM system in use at over 200 countries worldwide. Other local carriers include Nextel (owned by giant media conglomerate Televisa), America Movil (owned by Telmex), Movistar and Iusacell (owned by media conglomerate TV Azteca).

Estimated Monthly Cost of a Local Cell Phone

If you will stay in Mexico for more than a few weeks, you should purchase a Mexico phone to make local phone calls. You should budget between US$48/month and US$100/month depending which plan you choose. Per-minute calls to Mexico will costs between US$0.11/min to “favorite” friends in the local area, and US$0.40/min to land-lines, inter-carrier calls or calls outside your local area. Calls from Mexico to other countries are rather expensive if you don’t purchase an international calling plan. It is far cheaper to use an internet phone service instead to make international calls.

Cross-carrier cell calls

Due to their high-cost, cross-carrier phone calls should be avoided. Calling a cell number hosted by another carrier or a home land line can be priced as high as US$0.40 per minute.

Hot tip to avoid cross-carrier calls

The best solution to avoid cross-carrier calls is to acquire a Telcel phone because of its 72% market share amounting to 58-million cell phone users. Read More about Telcel’s market dominance

Prepaid cell plans vs Open cell plans

Mexico’s cell phone carriers offer prepaid and open useage plans.

Prepaid plans require you to purchase a Mexico phone kit consisting of a phone and a SIM card. These phone kits are available at many dealer stores typically located at shopping malls and busy intersections. New phones have MX$100 credit, enough for about 250 minutes of calls. To add more minutes you can purchase additional minutes at any corner store punch the codes into your cell phone to add minutes to your account balance.

Phone calls using prepaid plans cost as high as US$0.40 per minute. These expensive calls include calls outside your region or calls to Mexican numbers of another phone carrier. You can designate up to 3 numbers as your “friends” and calls to these numbers will cost US$0.11 per minute…. Make sure that these “friends” numbers are of the same cell phone carrier as your phone otherwise you will pay the higher rate.

Open useage plans require you to open an account at the cell phone carrier’s office. These plans require a credit investigation and a review of official government-issued identification, a 2-3 hour visit to the telephone customer service center and a patient Spanish translator. Open useage plans are available in 100 minute increments ranging from 100- up to 1000-minues of monthly airtime. If you use more minutes than your contracted plan allows, then you will be billed for the excess minutes.

Hot tip about Open Useage Plans

It is best to purchase a low minute Open useage plan and pay for any excess at the end of the month since the rate for the excess minutes costs the same as the base minutes. With this kind of arrangement, you will save money in months with low useage (when you travel overseas) and will pay the higher amount only when you use the phone (when you are residing in Mexico).

Other solutions that you may want to consider

If you travel frequently to multiple countries

If you travel to many countries, it makes sense to purchase an “unlocked” GSM cell phone for international use and use that phone as your primary phone in the US with your GSM carrier. When you travel to Mexico or any other country, you just slip in the SIM card for that country in order to take advantage of the local rates.

Mexico-only Throw-away Phone

If you are going only to Mexico, then you may consider buying a throw-away pay-as-you-go cell-phone starting at about MX$450 which includes MX$100 of air-time. You can buy additional air time at most convenience stores throughout Mexico in amounts ranging from MX$30 to MX$500.

Mexico-only Month-to-month Contract

Using the throw-away cell phone, you may sign a month-to-month contract but you will need proof of residency, valid identification, a Spanish translator and 2-3hours to complete the sign-up process. Some cell phone contracts are good for the region that you live in, while others are Mexico-wide contracts without roaming charges.

Since you didn’t buy a “discounted” phone, you will be able to cancel the monthly contract at any time, just make sure to take your proof of residency, valid identification, a Spanish translator and another 2-3 hours of time to complete the cancellation process.