Renting a Cell Phone
 

I realise there is a thread concerning Cell Phones further down the list. However, we have a digital cell phone we use extensively here in Australia, but gather it won't be compatible for use in America. Is it possible to rent phones on arrival at the airport or downtown?? Any information will be most helpful.

YEs, Car rental agencies at major airports extend the option. You can also pickup prepaid cellular many places here.

Hi Prue. I recently posted a question on another thread about this and ultimately decided that I'm going to rent cell phones at airports where I'm going rather than buying one. Just as an example of what's available, at the Phoenix airport, both Alamo and Avis car rental companies (which had the least expensive car rental rates of all the companies that I checked for the dates I'm going) charge $5.99 per day for a cell phone rental, and calls cost $1.49 per minute (Alamo throws in 10 free minutes).

Thanks Lisa and Mike for your help.

Up for Lola!

Since this thread has come back to the top, I would just note that Alamo did not have any cell phones available at the Phoenix airport upon my arrival there, so I rented with Avis. The phone Avis provided never worked despite the fact that the friend I was meeting in Sedona was trying to call me on it repeatedly, and I got my money refunded (with quite a bit of effort on my part, but ultimately it was OK). It was a bit frustrating because the car rental agents basically knew nothing about the phones and said they should work in Sedona (and the map provided with the phone showed the phone should have worked there too), but the phone agent I ended up dealing with after the fact said "Oh no, I could have told you the phone wouldn't work there." The whole thing was really a pain and made me very skeptical about cell phone rentals.