TravelCell

Very bad service over charge. Lie and steal right in front of your face with no problem. Don’t be dumb enough to trust them with your credit card information if you want to have fraud. Inflated charges I told them I would be traveling around Europe and would only need the SIM card for first week first of all it hardly works second I came back 2 weeks later they charge me $ 600 for «late fees» when I told them when I would return it.
Real crooks an embarrassment

Spotty service abroad, even in areas that should have coverage. Cell phones stopped working in Thailand. Called Travelcell and pressed the option for «Tech Support.» I was transferred to a guy on a speakerphone who was not very knowledgeable and said that HE WAS NOT TECH SUPPORT! Apparently nobody from tech support was available (how is this possible?) and they would have to call my mother in Thailand to provide support! I have no idea how that is possible since neither of her two Travelcell phones works!!! The woman is on vacation, she is not going to sit at the hotel all day waiting for tech support to call her!

Look, I just got my TravelCell bill and it was *VERY* reasonable. I paid $ 12 to have the phone shipped to me (this is the least reasonable part). I paid less than $ 30 in total to have a cell phone abroad for 10 days. Incoming calls and SMS were free. Outgoing ranged from 10 to 20 cents a minute. I got a car charger, charger, leather pouch, for free. I returned the phone on my own dime to save the $ 12 (cost me round $ 5). So all in all, I would definitely use them again, and would definitely recommend. I cannot speak to other people’s negative experiences, and don’t discount them, but my experience was one of very good value and service.

I have used them before on a trip to Kenya and Tanzania. I am using them again for a trip to Brazil next week. I pick up the phone personally at their store to avoid the shipping fees. The rates are very low. I am paying 1.99 for the rental a day with free incoming calls and only 50 cents for insurance per day. The phone comes fully charged and has a quick charger as well as a bag for everything to be stored in.
The final bill takes a while to receive (2 months I think) but when I had a dispute over a call or two, they quickly removed those charges. I would never even consider using my own cell phone for a trip to certain foreign countries (its astronomical in some cities to call the US) when I can get great rates like these! I arrange for my family to get a bulk international minutes plan (about 500 minutes for 15 dollars from Verizon) before I leave and they call me so it costs me virtually nothing other than the rental! If I do call them, its just to tell them to call me right back and its about 1.50 a minute!
The rep I spoke to was so nice trying to figure out initially if I needed a sat phone or a regular phone. She checked map after map until we figured out what would work best for me. She could have really tried to sell me on the sat phone at 8.99 but did not. No hesitations in recommending them and have NO idea where all these negative reviews are coming from.

Horrific customer service and inflated fees. Consider getting an international plan with you US service provider or a phone when you arrive at your foreign destination.

I found the rate information on the web site misleading. They hide the true shipping cost which is $ 20 ($ 10 for delivery and $ 10 for return.)
They also do not mention the $ 3.69 per minute roaming charge that applies to calls made from the US.

Only sign up for this service if you don’t mind being gouged. I made the mistake of opening up a web page with the rented phone and the bill came to over $ 300 (yes, three hundered dollars).