All cell phone carriers have limited service areas that enable their services to be used as their customers travel across the country. Unfortunately, not all carriers provide service in all areas of the country. This creates issues for customers that are traveling out of their local service area.

Nearly all carriers charge their customers high roaming rates when they are outside their local area despite the fact that the provider has service in the area the customer has traveled to. In some cases, customers are charged upwards of 60 cents/minute for calls outside of their service area.  On many phones, a visual symbol warns callers that they are in an area that is outside their local calling plan and will be subjected to roaming rates. The problem: most people fail to notice this symbol.

Of even more concern than the fees though, is the possibility of getting no service at all. This is fairly common when travelling abroad, as most carriers serve only one country, though some larger ones may grant near-global service. It's also important to note that without a connection to your provider, other important functions of your cell phone will also fail to function properly, such as your GPS.

For this reason it is recommended that you purchase a refurbished cell phone and sign up for a third party prepaid phone service. This is not to say that you should drop your local service provider and only use the prepaid phone but that you purchase a prepaid phone to have with you when you are traveling into places that may be out of your provider’s local service area.

So how does it all work with prepaid providers?  What makes them different?  These providers lease tower signals from the major providers around the country, allowing their users to get a signal in the majority of areas where cell phone towers are found. An advantage of used cell phones and prepaid providers is the lack of local calling areas you need to worry with. These services generally charge a flat per-minute rate and have no roaming fees.  Your prepaid used cell phone can be employed in the event your regular service provider is unavailable; this type of service can save your life. The best part is that there are never bills with surprise roaming fees - in fact there's no bills at all since the minutes are pre-paid.  For many people, this is a great appeal (especially those people who don't need an extra bill but need a cell phone).

So stop by your local cell phone retailer, or shop online for the best in used and refurbished cell phones, and experience uninterrupted service at affordable fees, no matter where you end up roaming.