Telcel information

You are the person we are looking for. We were given a Telcel phone, and want to have it live for our trip out. We don't even have cells in the US. We are going from Guerrero to Lukeville.
What numbers would you carry? We are bilingual, as you are.

I would never travel in Mexico without a Telcel phone. Some of those highway help #'s do NOT have any English speaking operators.

Moisheh

I searched online and found the number for police is 066 and the highway help (other than Green Angels) is 074. I also found that these numbers can only be used with Mexican phones - will not work with US or Canada phones - don't know why - something to do with the system.

Unless you plan on calling a lot of other Mexican cells, I have found AT@T GoPhone is cheaper and minutes do not expire if you put enough money on. 25 cents a minute flat rate. More expensive than Telcel to Mexican numbers but about 1/2 the price for calls to & from the US or Canada. It roams on Telcel, so go figure.

I have both right now, I will just use GoPhone next year instead. You can still call Mexican emergency numbers from it. I just forward my home number to it.

Isn't the number 074? That is for CAPUFE (caminos y puentes federales) or is the question how to dial it?

20p is good for 15 days, 50p, for 30, 100p+, 60 days.
Now, all I need is the highway emergency number!

When we put money on our phone or banda ancha we immediately get a text message (SMS) telling us when that payment will expire. But I have no idea what the rules are. We put $200 pesos on the phone our first chance when we cross. If we use that we buy more. If we don't use it we can check with Telcel on the phone - I think it is *333# and you get a text telling you what you have. We just bought 200p and the SMS said we are good to April 6 I think - so appears to be 2 months. Not sure if it is different for different amounts - we always get 200p. Going north the phone is inactive and when we return we may get a new number if our old number has been given to someone else - but if not assigned they can give us the same number. None of this is a problem for us as we don't use the phone that much and almost no one knows our number so we don't miss calls since no one calls us. If we want someone to have our new number we email them. I know this does not answer the question but if Telcel does not know then maybe no one knows. Every time we buy time we get a regalo of more time - but it changes every time - and the time limit may change also. We have long since given up trying to figure Telcel out as it seems a hopeless pursuit.

This was really helpful, but didn't answer my question. It should clarify things for you:
If you don’t use your cell for two months, your minutes disappear.
If you have lost your minutes after not using the phone for two months, but purchase more minutes before four months from your last phone call, you recoup your lost minutes.
If you don’t use your cell phone for four months, you lose your minutes permanently.
If you don’t use your phone for six months, you lose your minutes AND your telephone number becomes inactive. You must buy a new SIM card and reregister your phone. So even if you keep your phone for emergencies only, make a call or send a text once in a while to keep the phone active.

Toll road number: Hope some one responds. I thought we had written it somewhere but I can't find it. :S

100 pesos and up is good for 60 days. After that you have have 180 days (I think) to put $ on the card to reactivate with the same number. We put 100 pesos on our phones the day we cross the border leaving Mexico (or the day before). We find that leaving in mid to late March and returning in early November works for us; we've had the same number for years.

Thanks, but that website doesn't answer the question. Still searching.
I was asking about the emergency number posted on the toll highways. I wasn't clear.