Hi all, I am traveling to the Domincan Republic for an extended amount of time with my husband and wanted to get suggestions on how to stay in touch with friends/family in the US. I'm looking for any known texting applications that are cheap as my current cell phone service is expensive for international texting. Thanks!
- Thread starter travel3lover
- Start date
DR Text Messaging
Both Orange and Claro have online texting on their website where you can send a text. I don't think you can receive.
It depends on who your cell provider is, I'm in Canada with Virgin Mobile and have a plan with unlimited texting in North America and to send international it's 25 cents per msg. When I'm in DR I can receive unlimited texts for free but not send outgoing texts. I've been told you need to purchase a local sim card to be able to send texts. However, with my phone I make or receive calls but with roaming charges. To avoid that, I've since registered with Rebtel.com for long distance calling and they assign you a local DR # when ur over there... they have options for texting too. Their rates are pretty good.
Go to an Orange or Claro booth and purchase a SIM card for your phone...$27 US. At the same time purchase phone cards with the amount of minutes you want and load them when you run out. You can also purchase minutes on their websites. This is what I do when I'm there, its the cheapest way to communicate with friends and family back home.
curlyq
curlyq
That's what I paid for everything for the month. Guess I should of been more clear.
I was just wondering if the sim card works automaticly with your phone or do you have to contact your phone co to have it unlocked etc?
Just buy a phone in the Dominican Republic they are cheap to buy and cheap to use then you have no worries.
What he said!
I've had a Claro phone for years and $15US in calling cards will buy all the texts and local/ US minutes I need for a week.
Hiya,
If you have a laptop or PC at both ends you could install Skype & message each other for free! Even if the other person is offline it will stay on the system until they sign on.
Tropical Regards
Ian & Ellie
You can buy a brand new phone with 100 pesos of talk/text time for 300-500 pesos. You just need to show your passport and should have the phone and a DR number within 5 minutes. Go to any Claro or Orange store, there are many in just about every town. Calls to the US are around 6-8 pesos a minute and I think outgoing texts are 1 or 2 pesos. Incoming calls and texts are free. If your phone is already unlocked, you can just get the sim card...if you're on a GSM system (AT&T or TMobile, etc., but NOT Verizon or Sprint). I believe AT&T and TMoblie will unlock your phone for free if you've had an account over 6 or 12 months...they give you a code over the phone...