Verizon and Visa Card

We are visiting the area for the first time next week. Just a couple of quick questions, does anyone know if there is cell phone coverage for Verizon wireless in the Chapala/Ajijic area? Also, would a Visa credit card be widely accepted, especially at restaurants and stores?

Thanks.

very few places will take your credit card and i would not use it here in any event. this is CASH country. there are atms for that. your verizon cell phone will cost you a small fortune if it even works. actually i don't know much about your cell but when we came from canada my rogers cell could have made us broke with 1 phone call.

I just came back from Ajijic and my phone is Verizon. Calls are .99 cents a minute, a text is .50 cents and to receive a text is .05 cents.
I didn't think that was too bad, but I don't use my phone very much.

Use your credit or debit card to withdraw pesos from one of the many available ATMs, and do your purchasing with pesos in cash.
Have a great visit, by the way!

Don´t forget to let your bank know before you leave that you are going to Mexico and dates when you will be using your card here.

Lady Otter Latté wrote:Don´t forget to let your bank know before you leave that you are going to Mexico and dates when you will be using your card here.

Ditto on that one! As a matter of fact, I had a credit card purchase refused when I was in a different town in Mexico from the one where I lived.........so keep your bank posted.

Cash is always welcome in Mexico. Credit cards not so much.

Thanks for the help. We usually try to use our credit card when travelling abroad to get the best exchange rate, but it doesn't sound like that will be the best option. We will adjust.
Unfortunately, I am still a working slug and a business owner so I will have to use my cell phone some during our visit. Can anyone comment on Verizon reception around Ajijic?

Verizon Mexico pricing:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/plan/nationwide-plus-mexico

Snip of their Guadalajara/Chapala/Ajijic coverage:
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Bajavet wrote:Thanks for the help. We usually try to use our credit card when travelling abroad to get the best exchange rate, but it doesn't sound like that will be the best option. We will adjust.
Unfortunately, I am still a working slug and a business owner so I will have to use my cell phone some during our visit. Can anyone comment on Verizon reception around Ajijic?

Works fine in Lakeside.

Z

Bajavet wrote:Thanks for the help. We usually try to use our credit card when travelling abroad to get the best exchange rate, but it doesn't sound like that will be the best option. We will adjust.
Unfortunately, I am still a working slug and a business owner so I will have to use my cell phone some during our visit. Can anyone comment on Verizon reception around Ajijic?

Use your credit/debit card in the ATM for cash AND to get the best exchange rate. Your CC will work fine in Guadalajara. Out here in the boonies it's pretty much cash only.

If you use your credit card for cash advances, throw some money into your account before you leave as some credit cards start charging interest from day one on the unpaid balances of cash advances.

Better still, get a debit card on your bank account, tell the bank you want $600 a day and tell them you are going to MX.

That way, all you pay is ATM fees, and they won't panic and cut off your card.

In Guad , you are in 2013. Here on the lake, we are in 1960. Some kind of time warp

Some Banks/ Credit card companies do not charge for ATM withdrawalls. Bank of America is one. As a Canuck I use Scotia Bank. They have an ATM near the Wallmart. When I withdraw there there are no charges. Phone service - easy. You can go to Wall Mart, buy a cheap phone/plan/get a phone number then have all of your NOB crap forewarded to your new Mx #. As I recall, my wife's calls to me in mexico were billed to the home phone. No deductions on the Mx side

Before you leave the states, call or visit a Verizon Wireless store. There is a Mexico Plan where you get 1000 minutes a month within Mexico, US, Canada or any combination for about $15 additional. It is an add on to a share everything plan and not available with cheaper plans. But it works great once you figure out how to make calls. If you use your phone for work, a must have I would think.

Bajavet wrote:We are visiting the area for the first time next week. Just a couple of quick questions, does anyone know if there is cell phone coverage for Verizon wireless in the Chapala/Ajijic area? Also, would a Visa credit card be widely accepted, especially at restaurants and stores?

Thanks.

Verizon used to be all CDMA as was iUsacel here, thus they both used the CDMA towers here, of which there used to be plenty. Verizon still roams on iUsacel's system, but iUsacel is now going all GSM/Time Division Multiple Access, and using more of the available GSM-based towers. If your phone is CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access - i.e. no chip), iUsacel has had a reputaion for just deactivating CDMA towers and leaving the customer with a CDMA phone with lack of coverage in various areas. However, if you have a chip, you will not have a problem.

I have no idea whether my IPhone 5 has a chip, I just know it works. However, sometimes it seems calls go right into voicemail without ringing through but I assumed I wasn't being diigent enough. Curious where are the various areas that lack coverage?

Thanks for all of the helpful information. I have my atm card, called the bank and credit card company, my cell phone is both cdma and gsm and have global roaming. Thanks for the advice. Headed to Lakeside this weekend.

Bienvinidos y buena suerte!

ajijicer wrote:I have no idea whether my IPhone 5 has a chip, I just know it works. However, sometimes it seems calls go right into voicemail without ringing through but I assumed I wasn't being diigent enough. Curious where are the various areas that lack coverage?

The ones I know are south of the lake by 2 hours. They turned off several 1000 km2. Not sure all the other places because I will never use them (iUsacel) again for anything, so do not currenly know where else they killed CDMA coverage. I was so far out that I had to use CDMA towers (with CDMA you can use a 3-watt amplifier and a Yagi antenna to communicate to a tower more than 200km away; with GSM, the time slots limit your distance to 40km before the time for the RF signal to reach the tower exceeds the time of the time slot, regardless of power).
The worst part was their customer service that would not refund $1000mxn in pre-paid wireless internet, $500 in prepaid cell service, much less the $3500mxn in new iUsacel equiptment that went usless when they turned off the CDMA towers.

sunday,my moto buddies and i will be on the malecon in chapala parked on the sidewalk just south of the church

I have used Verizon service in Mexico for ten years now - first on a North American Plan and then the Nationwide Plus Mexico. For for the most part, the coverage has been fine. My only complaint is that calls are dropped once in awhile and incoming calls can be cut off after just a couple of rings. But it's been so convenient!