Phone service

If we move to South korea, what is the best cell phone option? Cheapest? So I can keep in contact with family in the USA? Would it be best to get a phone in korea? or could i bring one from USA and change sims card

Hi floresb and welcome to Expat.com!

Hope that you'll soon be enlightened.;)

Harmonie.

There are many deals here for cell phone users. As for overseas contact, I use skype with a 10 dollar monthly fee as you can nominate a country to call for free. As for cell phones, if you want a smart phone then naturally your ongoing costs will be higher. I use a sim card prepay cell phone and the costs work out at around 50 dollars every 3 or 4 months, however I am not a big user of cell phones. Many cell phone companies here won't let you sign a contract because they are afraid you'll leave with a large account owing. That being said LG will do you a 1 year deal, an ordinary phone included at around 20 bucks a months depending on your usage. Cost of using this phone for international calls is likely to be expensive. Also check out FB users in Korea and the forums such as www.koreabridge.net as there always people leaving the country and may want to sell their phone and existing contract at a cheaper price.

If you bring a cellphone from the USA, I do believe the smart phones work as they have internet access but not sure about ordinary phones. Doesn't matter anyway because used cell phones with sim card options are dirt cheap here. I recently got a good flip phone less than a year old for about 5 USD.