Will my Canadian phone allow me to order US uber?

[lakelivin2]

On 8/6/2023 at 5:49 PM, Canada_eh58 said:

I would never pay the daily rates Tharp Canadian phone companies charge. I am in the US several months a year and have never paid to use my phone. It goes on airplane mode before crossing the border and stays that way until I am back in Canada. iMessages can be sent to iPhones when connected to wifi and you can communicate with Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp, etc while connected to wifi. If you are concerned about security while using public wifi then get a VPN.

Don't want to sound stupid, but, how do you call UBER over Messenger or WhatApp? Thanks

[Canada_eh58]

I don’t use Uber but if I did I could use Skype to call.

[lx200gps]

2 hours ago, lakelivin2 said:

Don't want to sound stupid, but, how do you call UBER over Messenger or WhatApp? Thanks

Not stupid at all, I'm a (semi) regular Uber user in the US especially and I don't know how you would voice "call" them to hail a ride, if that's what we are talking about. They do provide customer support over the phone, but AFAIK to use the service, i.e. get a ride etc, it's all done via the app. Certainly for the benefits of the system compared to taxi, like contacting the driver, monitoring his approach so you can find him, tipping etc, you need the app. For that you would need either wifi or a data connection when outside wifi coverage. Since I am always away from wifi when I need to hail a ride, I use my cell phone.  Bell Roaming isn't cheap, but it works.

[lots-of-km2]

On 7/21/2023 at 9:56 AM, lakelivin2 said:

Will my Canadian phone and phone number work if I want to order an Uber ride to/from port?  Or do I have to purchase an American sim card?  Thanks!

 

If you were trying to order Uber in Canada, you can't dial a telephone number on your cellphone to reach them -- you have to use their app, which requires data.

 

As for trying to order an Uber in the US by dialing a telephone number on your Canadian cell phone, yes, you can do that -- as long as your Canadian cellular account has roaming permission in the US.  Uber's US number is  1-833-873-8237.   I don't know if you have to be already signed up with Uber to do that; I've personally never used the  dial-up method. 

 

From Uber's website:

 

1-833-USE-UBER

We often hear from riders about family members who want to use Uber but aren’t as familiar with navigating a smartphone. Now, everyone in the family can enjoy the same effortless Uber experience, even without the app. For US customers it’s as easy as dialing 1-833-USE-UBER (1-833-873-8237), toll-free, to speak with an agent in English or Spanish, and request a ride on-demand or reserve one for a future trip. 

[Spudd]

On 7/24/2023 at 7:25 AM, CDNPolar said:

 

Being Canadian, we hate the cost of roaming, BUT, feel it necessary to keep in touch with family and friends.  We are with "R" and that cost is $15 per day per person, so it becomes more expensive to be away for a couple of weeks than the monthly plan including home internet and TV.

 

We have looked at e-sims but don't like the fact that you are then "abandoning" the phone number that everyone has and you are essentially out of communication with home.

 

I know that we should shut off on a vacation, but we don't feel comfortable doing this.

 

We generally now use WiFi where we can and if someone texts (not an iMessage) then we email them back while on WiFi.  We will put our phone on data roam if we need to but try not to.

 

This more or less works for us because we can go on to roaming when and if we need to and reduce the cost.

 

The problem with that is that "R" roaming is based on a 24 hour period in your home time zone.  Depending on where you are in the world you could turn on roaming at 11:30pm Home Time but day where you are and then go past midnight and get charged for 2 days and you have only needed the roaming for a couple of hours.  You have to calculate time and it just gets complicated.

 

I think that where I am going with this is, if I could still see my main number - on WiFi - while using an e-sim, I would be more inclined to look at this method.

 

If you or anyone can comment on this it would be appreciated.

FYI, you can turn off the "roam like home" feature in your account and pay by the minute instead. It's only around $1.30/min so unless you plan to spend a lot of time on the phone, it's better to do it this way. Also, Rogers supports wifi calling. If you set that up, you can call over a wifi connection instead of using your roaming.

[CDNPolar]

10 hours ago, Spudd said:

FYI, you can turn off the "roam like home" feature in your account and pay by the minute instead. It's only around $1.30/min so unless you plan to spend a lot of time on the phone, it's better to do it this way. Also, Rogers supports wifi calling. If you set that up, you can call over a wifi connection instead of using your roaming.

 

This post of mine was almost a year ago and since then we use and promote eSIMS.

 

What you are saying makes sense, and I understand your comments re the phone costs.

 

We have tried Wifi calling with Rogers and could not get it to work.  We did several trials with complicated setup and settings, but it never worked.

 

We are now Airalo customers and use the data eSIMs from them.  We shut off our home cell number and advise friends and family that we can be reached via WhatsApp calling while away.

 

This works great for us.  If someone is trying to call us that is not in the friends family circle that we email before travelling then their call is not that important.  

 

Just as a precaution that a doctors office or someone unexpectedly calls, we put change our voice mail while away to say:  "This voice mailbox is not monitored. If your message is important then please email us."  We change back to a regular voice mail message when we return.