www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I have not been to Costa Rica since covid but am planning a trip the end of January. In the past the US Cell Phone companies would often charge large fees such as $2.00 per minute for calls to the US, so I bought an unlocked cell phone and bought a sim card from a CR company. Is that still the best thing to do, buy a sim card there, or have US companies become better. I am now with ATT.

I have an Unlimited AT&T plan in the US and for about a year have been getting free talk, text and data in CR and Mexico. Lots of other countries are included as well. Call them and see if your plan meets the requirements. I am also able to use my wifi hotspot to connect my other phone and computer at no charge. This link has some more info. It is from a text I got when I landed in San Jose last month.

Hi, it's AT&T. Your unlimited plan now includes unlimited talk, text, and data in 19 Latin American countries! No roaming. No SIM changes. No worries. See att.com/roamlatam for details.

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It's a jungle out there. A pusseycat like you will get eaten alive!!!

AT&T day pass is $10 a day, but they provide free coverage for certain Lat AM countries depending on your plan type and how many lines you have. If not, add the day pass and they auto bill you $10 each day.

On my most recent trips, I’ve been stopping at the Claro kiosk after retrieving my bag(s) in the airport and getting a SIM card for about 20 bucks. I stay for two weeks and so far it’s been more than sufficient.

Spectrum Mobile charges 5 cents a minute for calls, 1 cent per mb for data and free texts. Due to wifi being most everywhere, I don't use much data.

I find that I need data when I'm outside for both Uber and for using maps. And sometimes for Whatsapp messages if I'm on the street trying to find someone or needing to communicate. So I have a second phone with a local SIM for that. And a seperate whatsapp for it as well as you can't use the same whatsapp account on different phones and numbers. Which is a good thing because then scammers can't get my home phone number, only my CR one.

I seldom carry my phone when I am out of the hotel unless I know I will need to get an Uber. And I have my whatsapp tied to a throwaway Google voice number. I don't know if they let you do that anymore but I've had the account for a long time.

If you use 1 physical phone, and normally have whatsapp on your personal number, then you have to uninstall the app, then reinstall it, each time you want to use the other number, which is a royal pain in the ass. Plus if you don't backup and restore your whatsapp data each time you do that, then you lost the messages in between forever. Think if your chica texts you the incall address, you uninstall whatsapp to use it with someone back in the states, then you reinstall it for your burner number. It's going to look weird if you have to ask her for the address a 2nd time. It's better to just have a separate phone. Tracfone offers international data, but not international texts. But realistically you don't need international texting unless it's for 2 factor authentication.

That’s not true anymore. You can now have up to 4 devices connected to the same WhatsApp number. Computer, phone, iPad, all can connect to the same primary device/account and your messages sync across all devices. You have to log into your connected devices at least once every 21 days or they become disconnected. But other than that it works really well. Very convenient to use a cheap travel phone and have it connected and synced to your main WhatsApp account.

I only have one Whatsapp account so no issue switching numbers. Reason being I only use Whatsapp when I am traveling outside the US to talk to women and a few like minded friends that also travel a lot. I don't use it for normal contacts or conversations. Also really have no desire to save old chats. I usually clear all chats after each trip. if anyone tries the "I need money" trick after I return home they get a quick "No" reply and a Block. I don't get a new phone that often. Only when the cost to repair is close to the cost of replacement or some new tech (like 5g) kind of forces it.

I'm sure that an experienced IT person could probably tie my now defunct Google Voice number to me but I would imagine that is out of reach for most of these chicas.

On my last trip (10 days) to San Jose, my Spectrum mobile bill was $17 higher than normal ($30) due to data use and the occasional daily call back to the US when I couldn't get a decent wifi connection in the hotel.

Yes, but that's for having the SAME phone number. If you use Whatsapp back in the USA, that's not the number you would prefer to give to sex workers in other countries. If you want to log into Whatsapp from another number on the same device, that's when you have to go through that process. If you have an entirely separate phone, you'll have a different number, but whatsapp can be tied to it because the device itself has a different security code identifier.

If you don't use whatsapp back in the USA, then it doesn't matter, because you can just use a burner app number.