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How to avoid the travel sim card USA rip off

LAX Airport. TRAVEL sim card USA
LAX airport. Picture: Shutterstock

I’ve just arrived in the USA after a long flight. My body feels like it’s 2am and I should be asleep. But it’s just after 6am and I am dragging my luggage along the drab LAX entrance hall in search of a travel sim card USA and a coffee.

Note: LAX coffee is a mistake. Don’t do it. It tastes like mud.  

Unless you are on Vodafone with their $5 per day plans, travel sim cards are usually the best way to maintain your internet and phone connection overseas. I have to use Telstra’s mobile network (with Aldi) because the other providers don’t have a strong enough connection at my house. 

More often than not, you can find cheap travel sim cards at the airport on arrival. Or cheap enough. 

But LAX is NOT the place to buy a travel sim card. Unless you are a millionaire and don’t care about wasting money. 

Travel Sim cards are incredibly expensive at LAX
Travel Sim cards are incredibly expensive at LAX

I can not find the words in my brain when the lady at the counter tells me the cheapest (CHEAPEST) USA travel sim card they have is $US70. My brain hurts converting that to Australian dollars. For the record, it is $100. For a week. 

That’s crazy. Insane. 

One shop even listed cheaper ones, but then told me “we don’t sell those plans at LAX anymore”. 

I asked other people on my trip about their experience and each one found the same. One poor lady actually bought what she thought was the cheapest USA travel sim card at $USA90. 

Don’t do it.

If you want a travel Sim card in the USA – leave LAX.

Use WiFi on the bus or go without until you find a shopping mall.

Then go into the nearest T-mobile or Target store and you can pick up a travel Sim card USA for just $30. 

It still feels like too much money. But it’s better than the travel sim card USA rip off at LAX. 

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