How to Use Your Own American Phone in Canada

I really don’t know why I didn’t think of this simple solution for using my own iPhone in Canada.  Duh.

 

 

 

 

Get ready to have you minds blown.  Or not.  You may be reading this thinking, “Boy is she a numskull.”  It’s so simple, I feel sheepish that I never thought of it. This is really not a very interesting topic, but if this can help other poor expats who just want to use their own precious phones when in Canada – here goes.  I mean, this can apply to any country, but it just so happens that I’m in the Great White North.

 
When I’m in Canada, I do not use my iPhone at all when visiting.  Zero.  Zilch.  Only to turn on the Wifi when available, but that’s it.  Jeff gave me this super dinosaur Sony Ericsson which I pretty much want to throw on the ground just to watch it get smashed into tiny little electronic pieces.

 

 

I mean, look at the thing – it says WALKMAN on it.  ‘Nuff said.

 

 

 

 

 

At least he didn’t give me one of these:

 

 

No disrespect, Michael Douglas.  Actually, it would be pretty bad ass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I forgot how annoying texting was on these old phones.  It’s not even worth responding sometimes.

Also, don’t take your GPS for granted on your smartphones, because when you’re driving around a city that you’re not familiar with, I wished every single day that I had my iPhone GPS going.  But it gave me the opportunity for me to become reaccustomed with the primeval art of “reading a map”.  It is an abandoned art once used by common man, a beautiful art long forgotten.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, I really suck at it.  Just ask Jeff.  So I’ve spent a lot of time stopping the car to get my bearings + it’s really annoying.

To make a long story short, I’ve been carrying around two phones.  The Canadian phone was also on a pay-as-you-go plan which was a nuisance to “top it up” when I ran out of minutes.  Finally, I was like, “Heck, this is crazy – I’m going to get a real life phone plan here in Canada!”.

So I did some research + just stuck with Bell since it’s also Jeff’s carrier.  My intention was to get a new plan put onto my dinosaur Sony Ericsson.  At Bell they looked at the tired phone + were like:

 

 

They were all so sad for me.

 

 

 

 

THE SOLUTION – PUTTING A CANADIAN SIM CARD INTO MY IPHONE, Y’ALL!!!!  OMG!  I must be a distrustful person by nature because at first I was looking at them like they were trying to trick me.

“You mean I don’t HAVE to carry around two phones?!?!” I cried.  Nope.  All I have to do is put the Bell SIM card into my iPhone when in Canada, + switch to my AT+T SIM card when in America!  GENIUS!!!!  Why have I never thought of that before???!!!  After this amazing revelation, I was staring at the Bell representatives like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make sure your phone is unlocked.  Mine wasn’t so I took it to Cellmall here in Vancouver (they also do repairs) to have it unlocked which takes 24 hours.

Did anyone else realize what an amazingly simple solution this phone dilemma was???

Oh, + I thought I’d add this picture onto this post.  You know, just for good measure.