Cell Phone Plans for Mexico Travel

Using a cell phone in Mexico can be pretty expensive if you aren’t careful. This page gives you a summary of what we learned when trying to take our phones to Mexico. At the bottom you’ll find an overview of the services offered by some of the major carriers in the US and how they work in Mexico.

Enabling International Usage

Most carriers don’t give you international roaming capability automatically. You’ll usually have to call and request that they turn it on. This can’t always be done right away, so be sure to do this a few days ahead of when you are planing on going to Mexico.

Some carriers will have to ask you a bunch of questions to verify your identity. The last time this happened they asked me about the banks I paid for former mortgages. Since it had been quite a while and all my payments were done automatically, I had a hard time answering their questions, but eventually I was able to convince them of my identity.

Call Forwarding

When you are in Mexico, you may not want your phone to ring. The carriers will usually charge you for any call that touches their network–even if you don’t pick it up. You can forward your phone to keep the calls from even touching their network, but you’ll have to use a “hard” forward not a “soft” forward.

Hard and Soft Cell Phone Forwarding

A hard forward is handled by your cell phone company. That means the call doesn’t even make it down to the Mexico network. You can usually do this from your phone, but it is best to call in before crossing the border and asking your cell phone company how to do it on your particular phone model. (You can usually reach your phone company by dialing 611 while you are in the US).

A soft forward is one that is handled by the phone itself. If your forwarding lets certain calls through and sends others to voice mail, it is probably a soft forward.

Cell Phone Forwarding Fees

Make sure you understand the charges for call forwarding. Some companies like T-mobile include a small number of minutes of call forwarding. Others like Cingular charge you a per minute fee for every minute a call is being forwarded. Usually any of these charges will be miniscule compared to the cost of using the Mexican cell network.

You have to come up with a good place to forward the calls. You can forward them directly to voicemail as long you have a good way to check the messages from Mexico. (If you aren’t going to be in Mexico for more than a week or two at a time this may be sufficient.) If you use Skype or Vonage you can probably call in and check your voicemail without paying Mexican cell phone airtime fees. Usually you do this by calling your cell phone number and pushing * when your voicemail answers.

Personally I prefer to forward my calls to a service that will send me any incoming voicemail messages as an attachment in an email. I usually just forward them to Vonage (which gives me the voicemail as an email attachment), plus if my Vonage phone is hooked up I can answer the calls directly.

Other Forwarding Services

There are other services that can handle forwarding your phone for you. I’ve used CallWave before and they can forward your phones for a low monthly fee. CallWave can also handle your voicemail, by sending you messages as email attachments when they come in.

SIM Cards

If you need to make a bunch of local calls from Mexico, you may want to consider getting a local Mexican SIM card. By swapping your US SIM card with a Mexican SIM card your phone will become a Mexican cell phone.

Getting a SIM Card

In Mexico most people seem to use pre-paid cell phone service. You should be able to get a prepaid SIM from a TelCel store. In Durango these stores were very common and you can find them ever few blocks in the downtown area.

You can also sign up for a plan like you would in the US. This seems to be less common. I think you can get a slightly better deal this way if you are using a bunch of minutes.

Unlocking your US Cell Phone

To use a SIM card from another carrier, you may need to unlock your cell phone. Most US carriers give phones away (or charge a very low price) and make up the cost over the next few years that you use their service. To keep you from getting a cheap phone and then switching to another service, they lock the phones so they will only work with their SIM. That way you can’t get a really good deal on a phone from Cingular and then switch to a cheaper plan with Verizon.

I know T-Mobile will give you the unlock codes for your phone if you’ve been a customer for a certain period of time. Usually you just follow the instructions to unlock the phone. Some phones require you to hook them up to a computer to unlock them.

You can also buy unlock codes online. The prices vary depending on how popular the phone is, but many times you can get an unlock code for about $30.

Troubleshooting Cell Phone Problems from Mexico

If you are having problems with your cell phone in Mexico, calling your cell phone company using your cell phone is probably the last thing you want to do. You’ll be paying high per minute fees to troubleshoot the problem and chances are they will have you restart the phone anyway.

When traveling to Mexico, make sure you take a contact number to call your cell phone carrier. In the US you can usually just dial 611, but if you try that from Mexico, you’ll likely get Telcel or MoviStar who won’t be able to help you much.

When I ran into some connection problems in Durango, I called T-mobile’s 800 number from my Vonage phone (a phone that has a US number, but connects through a cable modem connection). That way I could work on my phone without paying $1.49.

One of the common problems in Mexico is connecting to the wrong network. In the US, phones generally jump back and forth to the best network, but that doesn’t always happen in Mexico. You may need to manually tell your phone to connect to TelCel or MobiStar (the two Mexican cellular carriers). This is particularly true if you are trying to use a Blackberry. Voice seems to have an easier time than the data connection in finding the best network to use.

T-mobile in Mexico

T-mobile has one of the highest rates for voice and one of the lowest rates for Blackberry email. Voice calls are $1.49, but international email only Blackberry service is around $40.

When we used T-mobile, we had decent coverage and the Blackberry email made it easy to let people in the US know where we were without spending a fortune on calling out. We forwarded our number to our Vonage line, so we wouldn’t miss any important calls.

If you are looking at using T-mobile for Blackberry service, you can get a Blackberry only plan, where voice calls are charged $0.20 per minute in the US. This works well if you need the phone mainly for email, but want to be able to place and receive calls while you are North of the border.

Cingular in Mexico

Cingular charges more for international Blackberry usage ($69), but for an additional $6 per month, you can roam in Mexico for $0.69 per minute. It sill isn’t cheap, but if you plan on making calls from Mexico, this can save you a lot of money.

One of the big advantages of using Cingular is the rollover minutes. If you spend a lot of time in and out of Mexico and don’t use your cell phone much while South of the border, you’ll have a lot of months where you are paying for minutes that don’t get used. Cingular lets you “bank” those minutes toward future months when you go over your allocated minutes.

Rollover minutes do eventually drop off. Roll over minutes from 1/1/2007 will disappear if not used before 1/1/2008 and rollover minutes are only used once you’ve used all of the minutes for your current month. However if you spend a month with no usage and then a few months with heavy usage, this can be a good way to save by order a less expensive plan and letting the rollover minutes even out the high and low usages months.

Verizon in Mexico

I have heard the Verizon has a 1300 minute plan for $100 that will let you roam all of North America (Mexico, USA, Canada) with no additional charges. If you need to do a lot of voice communication this sounds like the ideal solution. Unfortunately I’ve also heard that their Blackberry service has a lot of trouble connecting–even in Mexico City. This might have been because of phone configuration issues, so it might work out well for others.

Sprint in Mexico

Sprint/Nextel has been doing a big push into Mexico–particularly in Durango where we were.  I’m not sure what type of rate they have available, but it might be worth checking out.  In particular the nextel service has direct connect which in some cases could be a very good deal–depending on what you need.

Summary

Hopefully these notes will save you some time in traveling to Mexico. Make sure you confirm what your rates will be with your carrier before trying to use your phone in Mexico. Take notes on what they say and get the name of the person you spoke to. If there are any problems they are likely to be very big problems and having a good record of what you were told could save you several hundred dollars (or more) in fees.

It is also a good idea to ask the same question of several different people just to make sure they all say the same thing. Many of the cell phone representatives in the US aren’t familiar with international roaming and may give you incorrect information. If you can get ahold of a representative outside of the US, you are likely to get more correct answers. For example, Sunday evenings, T-Mobile sends their calls to customer support representatives in Great Britain. Since your average resident of Great Britain is statistically more likely to deal with international travel than the average resident of the US, the customer support representatives over there will probably be more familiar with international issues than customer support out of Wichita, Kansas.

Change of Plans

We had a change of plans. Instead of going back to Mexico to have our baby, we decided to stay in the US. We really liked the doctor down in Mexico, but our Spanish didn’t improve as rapidly as we had hoped. With the doctor, this wasn’t a problem because he spoke enough English that we could communicate. The nurses were quite a bit more difficult for us to communicate with.

Trying to set up an appointment was a very big challenge. We knew what to say, but once they strayed from the script we had mentally prepared, we were lost. To top it off, Haley isn’t a name many people in Mexico have ever heard so it was pretty difficult just to get them to understand that Haley was a name.

Also, our friends who graciously helped us with our many language problems were going to be gone around the time we were expecting the baby to be born. All in all, we were just a lot more comfortable with having the baby in the US.

Anyway, we’ll be staying in Kansas for at least the next six months. We were able to find a nice little apartment without any scorpions.

Dryers are Scarce

In Durango clothes dryers seem to be fairly rare. You can buy them, but they seem pretty expensive. One reason they aren’t used much is because of the way electricity is sold.

In Mexico you pay a basic rate for electricity. Once you go over a certain amount of electric use they bump you to a higher rate–not just for the overage, but for your entire bill. Worse still, once you trigger the higher rate, you stay at that rate for several months. I don’t know what the exact amount of the higher rate is, but from the people I’ve talked to it sounds like it is a pretty drastic increase.

It makes sense why people wouldn’t want to use an electric dryer because it would have a high chance of pushing your bill over into the extremely high usage bracket. Gas dryers would quickly empty the small tanks that most people use to power their water heater.

The constant sun makes it easy to dry clothes on a line. As long as they get direct sunlight they will dry very quickly. However everything ends up with a slight “crispy” feel. Mexicans try to compensate with vast amounts of laundry softener.

Getting a Ticket in Mexico

In the U.S. if a policeman gives you a ticket, it is generally a very simple process. They give you the ticket and you can mail in your payment. The state keeps track of you on the computer, so if you do not pay, they will issue a warrant for your arrest. In Mexico it works a bit differently.

In Mexico if they gave you a ticket and just let you go, they would assume you’d never come back to pay it. Based on my experience down there, this is probably a very correct assumption. So to make sure you pay your fine, they will take your license until you come to the station to pay the fine.

Sounds simple enough, but keep in mind if you go to the police station, your license may still be with the policeman who gave you the ticket. This brings us to a discussion about bribes. Most people in the U.S. have heard about bribes in Mexico. In practice, Mexico is doing a very good job of getting rid of corruption in the police force. However there are still some police who may try to get a bribe from you.

Generally if the policeman wants a bribe, they will tell you about how much of a hassle it is going to be for you to go to the police station and how long it is going to take. They will go on for quite awhile about how inconvenient it is going to be and how much trouble you are going to be in. This is code language asking for a bribe. If you don’t want to bribe the police (which is illegal by the way), just insist that they go ahead and take your license to the police station so you can pay your fine.

The police can make things difficult for you by not taking the license to the station until they get off their shift. I’ve heard of people driving through Mexico who had to wait all day without going anywhere because the police were trying to make things difficult because they didn’t pay a bribe. The police chief kept calling the policemen who had the license telling them to come back in, but they didn’t until 9pm when they finished with their shift.

If you do want to pay a bribe (and I’m not suggesting that this is a good idea), you wait until they start telling you how much trouble it is going to be to go to the police station and you ask “Is there anything else we can do?” or better yet “Can I just pay you the fine and get my license now?” This can possibly get you off without temporarily losing your license, but you may end up paying a lot more than the normal amount of the fine. Sometimes you may end up paying just a fraction of what the fine would be.

If you want to try this, make sure you phrase it that you are paying them the fine. If you misunderstand and they really aren’t asking for a bribe, you may be talking to an honest policeman. Offering them a bribe is illegal, so it could get you in more trouble. Offering to pay them the fine directly helps keep you out of trouble.

Sometimes if they are trying to get a bribe, they will tell you that your fine is going to be much higher. If you go to the police station you will be charged the correct amount. In the better police stations, if you mention that you were told the fine would be for a higher amount, it will help them get rid of corrupt policemen.

If you don’t want to deal with paying bribes, but you also don’t want to be stuck all day in a little town waiting for your license to make it to the police station, there are a few things you can do. First of all you can get an international drivers license. You can get these in the U.S. at AAA. They cost around $20 with the photo. Technically they aren’t a legal drivers license without your real license, but you can start out by giving it to the police when they ask for your license instead of your real license.

They might ask to see your real license as well, but there is a pretty good chance that they will just take the international license. You’ll still probably want to get it back and if you have been given a ticket. I don’t suggest trying to get by without paying it. However, if someone is trying to cause trouble, you are much better off giving a copy of a license that you can replace at any AAA than your actual divers license.

I have also heard people suggest making a few laminated color photo copies of your state drivers license. That way if the police lose it or it never makes its way back to the police station, you aren’t stuck in a foreign country without a license.

I believe that your ticket serves as your drivers license if your real license has been taken by the police, but I don’t know how long it is valid.

This information is based on talking to a lot of people who have driven through Mexico and a brief personal encounter with the police. Laws change and any of this information could be outdated by the time you read it.

Flag of Mexico

The Mexican flag consists of three stripes green, white, and red with an emblem in the center. The overall general design of the Mexican flag has been the same since 1821, but the current flag was officially adopted in 1968.

The emblem in the center of the flag is the image of an eagle holding a large snake. Below the eagle is cactus a rock and a lake. The Aztecs had a legend that their gods had instructed them to found a city where they saw an eagle with a snake. According to the legend this is the city that became Mexico City.

Originally the three colors represented green for independence from Spain, white for the Roman Catholic religion, red for union between Europe and the Americans. Overtime the meanings were changed and the current official definition of the flag is doesn’t assign a meaning to the colors. Generally the colors are now known to be green for hope, white for unity or purity, and red for religion or blood of heroes.

Up until 1968 Mexico used the tri-color flag without the emblem for some things. However when they hosted the 1968 summer Olympics, this presented a problem because it was identical to the Italian flag. This led to the current definition that requires the emblem.

In 1995 the legal definition of the Mexican flag was changed once again because it didn’t allow for the reverse side of the flag to allow the eagle to face right instead of left as it is on the front of the flag. After the 1995 change, an official flag can now be viewed from both sides.

Buying Land in Mexico as a Foreigner

Most people have heard that people from the U.S. can’t buy property in Mexico. This isn’t entirely true. In fact the only real regulations are on the near the border and coast. These areas are known as the “restricted zone”. The “restricted zone” is the area within 100 kilometers of any Mexican border and within 50 miles of any Mexican coastline.

Originally the “restricted zone” was created to protect Mexico from foreign invasion. The idea was to keep any foreigner from owning land that could be used to bring in troops and launch an attack on Mexico. This was written into the Mexican Constitution in article 27. The constitution was signed in 1917 and made a lot of changes to who could own property.

From briefly reading over this section of the Mexican constitution from 1917, it looks like it took a lot of land away from people. It changed the concept of land ownership to one where the government actually owns all the land and even though they sell it to individuals for use, the government can get it back if they want it. From what I’ve seen this doesn’t happen often and when it does it is similar to what happens in the U.S. when they put in a highway through an area that used to be private property–the government has to pay a reasonable price for the land.

Other than the “restricted zone” foreigners can own land subject to Mexican law. Just because you are a U.S. citizen doesn’t mean the land becomes U.S. property. It is treated just like a Mexican citizen owned it.

If you are looking to buy land in Mexico keep in mind that you real estate is not regulated in Mexico. There is no type of real estate license required. Anyone can sell real estate and there isn’t any type of code of ethics that they all agree with. You will want to work with someone trust worthy.

If you want to buy land in the “restricted zone” there are ways to do it. The Mexican government knows that selling the costal areas is a great way to bring in money not just for the sale of the property but for the local economy. Foreigners coming to Mexico and spending money are a great way for the country to profit financially. However since the law about the “restricted zone” is written into the constitution it would be very difficult to change.

The Mexican government came up with a work around. You can create a legal entity in Mexico and use it to buy the land. Since the land is owned by a Mexican entity, this fulfills the constitutional requirements. If this entity is a trust, a foreigner can be named as the beneficiary. The trust is administered by a Mexican bank which is obligated to act on the behalf of the beneficiary of the trust.

These types of trusts are called fideicomiso and last for 50 years. While the land is in the trust it can be sold, inherited, etc. In the last year of the trust, it can be renewed for an additional 50 years. This can go on indefinitely.

Legal transaction involving the property must be done through the Mexican bank that holds the trust because the bank actually holds the title to the property.

Many people think the trust is a type of lease because it lasts for 50 years. At one point I think the closest thing to owning Mexican coastal land was to lease it for 100 years. The current method of creating a trust seems to work around the lease situation and provide more control for the foreigner wanting to own land in the “restricted zone”.

It is also possible to create a Mexican corporation that is foreign owned and that corporation can buy land in the “restricted zone”. However the corporation can only by land that is not for residential use and there are other restrictions on what the land can be used for. It appears that if you created a corporation and bought a shop that had living quarters above it, you might be able to live in above your shop, but I’m not sure.

If you are looking to buy land in Mexico make sure you find someone who you can trust who can help you through the process. Law change and just because something is legal to do doesn’t mean it is the easiest way to go about purchasing property.

Mexican Corn

There is not much to say about the corn, but it is so good it deserves its own blog entry. Street vendors sell great corn. I am avoiding street vendors while I am pregnant so I got mine at a cook out.

The corn is cooked in the husk over an open fire. All of the corn is placed in a big kettle and stirred with a big stick until it is done. When the corn is done is can be eaten in two forms, either on the cob or scraped into a cup like cream corn. It is not only the cooking method but the toppings that make the corn good. The corn can be topped with butter, sour cream, shredded white cheese, salt, chile, and even lime. It is definitely worth trying. I shouldn’t recommend street vendors so I am not but if you are with some one you trust who can recommend a vendor try it. It is like the corn they show the guy eating in the awful and dumb movie Nacho Libre.

Rice, Beans, and Tortillas

The primary Mexican diet consists of carbohydrates. Rice, beans, tortilla–oh and some form of meat. It is surprising how many people do not know that beans are a carbohydrate and not a protein. I worked at a clinic and was discussing with some of the medical assistants and non-medical staff that even though rice and beans make a complex carbohydrate, beans are still a carbohydrate. They did not believe me until the doctor confirmed what I was saying.

Anyway back to rice, beans, and tortillas. Mexicans don’t seem to eat many vegetables. When they do it is lettuce, cucumber and occasionally corn. I will talk about Mexican corn later because it is amazing.

I remember growing up in Texas at all the Tex-Mex restaurants and even at home we would have this knock off version of rice. It was red with some unidentifiable objects in it. I always avoided it. It was not until my good friend made rice was for me that I realized what this red stuff was supposed to be. She cooks her white rice with water, oil, and salt. If she wants a tomato flavor she will add a tomato bullion cube or tomato puree.

She also makes other amazing rices using the same method of cooking. She will add onion and garlic. Sometimes she adds a chicken bullion to this. I think she also has some secret ingredient because it always turns out perfect. Of course lime can be squeezed over any of these varieties because lime and chile are added to most foods. At others times she adds sour cream to already cooked rice and it is very good. All the rice I have had so far in Mexican is very good even though I prefer whole grain rices.

Beans can be bought pre-boiled at any of the little corner stores. You just have to choose who you trust to have good beans. They come in either a plastic container or bag. Of course you can make them yourself at home with water, salt, oil, and a little garlic and onion. The dried beans can be bought anywhere and they are pretty inexpensive. If you choose to buy them pre-cooked they can easily be turned into refried beans. They are first pureed with a little juice and then put in a skillet with oil or lard. My friend uses canola oil because she is trying to be a little healthier. You can buy olive oil in Mexico though, we will have to try that some time. Anyway they are cooked in the skillet with the oil until they are how you want them, hopefully not too long or they will dry out.

Tortillas can either be corn made from Maiza (this is corn flour, very different from corn meal and will not work for cornbread–I tried) or flour made from horina (normal white flour). Or it is pretty easy just to walk down to the tortilla shop and buy them pre-made. In Mexico corn tortillas are used more often. Sometime my friend is going to teach me how to make tortillas but that has not been a necessity yet. I will learn before we leave Mexico. My cousin Joy, who is married to a Texan from Mexican descent, makes the best flour tortillas in the world. Her mother-in-law taught her. When I was teaching my friend in Mexico how to make a pie crust she said it was pretty similar to making tortillas. Someday we will see.

Agua de…

There are all kinds of fruit drinks available in Mexico and they are pretty simple to make. It is just adding water and sugar to taste. This is the same as making lemonade or sweet tea. The different types of fruit I have tasted made into an agua include: papaya, cantaloupe, watermelon, orange, lime, pineapple, and cucumber (a vegetable).

Living in Durango Mexico

Like every city Durango has its good points and bad points. Since some of the people reading this site are considering moving to Durango I though I'd list out some of the advantages and disadvantages of living in Durango Mexico.

Disadvantages:

• Scorpions – If you live near the mountain or in the downtown area you are going to have scorpions. In a newer house this is likely to be less of an issue, but it is always something you are going to have to deal with.
• Food costs – Durango imports most of their food from other states, so the cost of the food is generally the same as the US and many times more. Shopping at the market can help, but even there the costs usually aren't below what they would be in the United States.
• No Language Schools – There don't seem to be any Spanish language schools available. Most of the schools are there to teach you English. In some ways this can be a benefit because it means that there aren't a whole bunch of people around who speak English so you'll won't have as much opportunity to speak English.
• Pollution – Although it doesn't have the smog and bad pollution of Mexico City, Durango does have it share of pollution. The city is big enough that the many trucks and buses place a heavy toll on the quality of air. This can be minimized by picking a house way from the heavily traveled roads.

Advantages:

• Few Tourists – Durango doesn't have a bunch of tourists from the U.S. This is beneficial because there isn't an economy built around charging northerners high tourist prices.
• Inexpensive Housing – The housing prices are very reasonable especially if you can find something that is being offered for rent by the owner.
• Beef – Durango grows its own beef, so the prices are reasonable and the quality is high.
• Walmart – It is nice to have a familiar store nearby even though the inventory is different from the U.S.
• Healthcare – The doctors we worked with were very good, highly skilled, extremely nice and very inexpensive.
• Elevation – The elevation of Durango helps keep the summers from getting too warm and the fact it is in Mexico helps keep it from getting to cold in the winter.
• Internet – Durango has two cable companies that provide internet as well as DSL through Telmex. The cable modem prices are very reasonable and comparable (sometimes even cheaper) than similar service in the U.S.
• Safe Taxis – The taxi service is safe compared with the issues in Mexico City.

There are other advantages and disadvantages of living in Durango, but hopefully that will be a useful starting point for people looking at a possible move to the city.

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