Putting time or minutes on your cell phone | Telecom Consumer Discussion Forums

When putting time on your phone it is a smart idea to take your phone with you. This way you can hear the verification of the time received. Several times when I have put time on a friend’s phone or visa versa the time has not gone through, but the person paying had no way of knowing, as the phone was not with them. Also, I generally do not pay until my phone registers the time. This only takes a few moments and once the phone starts alerting me of text messages I go ahead and pay. This may be cautious but it saves getting angry if the time does not go through for some reason….and that reason is not always human error, sometimes the companies are slow or the lines are full due to big promotions.

Interesting. So far I have not heard of any plans like that here in Nicaragua, but I will ask around and post if I hear of this. I do like here not being “locked” into any plans. If you are short on money at one point or another you can just skip adding money to your phone and wait for people to call you…Yes, here you can still receive calls even if you dont have any “saldo” or time left. I also like not having a plan because if you decide to travel, lets say go to the States for two weeks, you do not have to pay for the time you are not using your phone. I find it easier for a travel lifestyle.

You might do better in Nicaragua to send a carrier pigeon than try and call for emergency services. My friend recently called an ambulance to get a recording. It also seems that the police number is not very well attended to. With that being said I will have to check and see if you can still call emergency services with no time. Interesting that I never thought about it before today.

Even in the smaller towns here in Nicaragua the police are routinely present, but money for gas is not always available. Often if you want police presence you need to go to the station, give them money for gas and then if they feel like it they will help. In the larger towns police usually have the money for gas and can be quick to respond if they feel there is immediate danger. If there is a health crisis, it is faster and more reliable to drive the person in need to care to the hospital on your own, or even pay a taxi as it is difficult to reach emergency care. Strange here, but people seem to be more adept at taking care of problems on their own then looking for help.

I have mixed answers about calling emergency services with no time. Some people say you can and others say they have tried to no avail. This must be taken with a grain of salt as it may be the phone, or it may be the receiving end not responding, which would not be far from the imagination. As I have not had a reason to try and call emergency services I do not have first hand knowledge of this situation. I also do not know many people that waste their time trying to call emergency services, it is faster and more reliable to take matters into your own hands.

In Nicaragua they have several different numbers for emergency services, I believe 611 is for police, but this also can vary from area to area. In some places, especially the smaller communities you will have better luck walking or taking a taxi to the police station as the smaller sub-stations in those areas do not receive the emergency call, rather the larger station will get it and you will be relying on the fact that they may….if they get to it….forward the call to the sub-station. Considering most of the smaller communities are a long distance from the main stations you could wait a long time just to find out no one received the call.