Wanted: Cingular, Very Short Term Rental, and Island Car

I talked with Verizon about cancellation fees if we moved out of their service area and was told that there would not be any in that situation. However, I ended up swapping to Sprint once my Verizon contract expired so I don't know how much trouble it would actually be. I also used my Verizon cell phone on STX when on vacation before we moved here many times (roaming only) and it worked okay. I live on the north shore near Cane Bay and can only use my Sprint phone at home if I manually select "analog roaming" only. If I allow my phone to automatically select between Sprint, digital roaming, and analog roaming, it constantly swaps back and forth because of the weak signal, disconnecting the call each time. I took my neighbor last week to get a Cingular cell phone. We were at the Cingular store (near Sunny Isle) for about an hour. They have the same plans/prices here as in the States but were out of stock on some phones. Her new Cingular phone works fine from her home also.

Verizon actually let me out of my plan with a lease proving I was moving here. You could probably dummy one up (that's what I had to do since I didn't have an "official" address yet). My plan was expiring soon anyway but my mom was on my plan and had over a year left. They let us both off.

I switched to Cingular before I left because it's a lot easier to deal with the salespeople because there is usually only one in the store on St. Croix.

Cingular (in my experience) has had more coverage island wide on St. Croix. There are a couple of black outs but it's an island 😉

Hope that helps a little bit.

We have a room available for rent, it is in a great location on the east end, close to red hook, you can also pick up the safari in the front of the complex. The safari runs frequently and does a loop around the island for 1-2$ depending on how long you ride. It is a great way to get around the island for the first couple days. The room we have available, has a small kitchenette, full bathroom, private patio and entrance. The room is a few steps from the beach and the development has its own pool. If you are interested please private message, or email apfeiffer7@yahoo.com

* I also have Sprint and I find that the service is pretty good, although itermitent sometimes.

* As far as buying a car goes, we purchased our car from Used Car Center (carribean auto mart) A four door, with 37k miles, asking $5,999 we got it for $2,700 and a 60 day warranty.

Hope to hear from you soon,
Annelies Pfeiffer and Gary Wood

We have a 1 bedroom villa that may be available for short term at a special rate. I sent you a private message or contact us at stxdd@hotmail.com.

If you are looking for a place to live in STX, we have a room that is available. It is in an estate house of an old sugar cane plantion located on the North Shore near Cane Bay. You and your spouse could share the room. If you are interested, you can call us at 340-773-2642.

The short term rental is taken care of. The cell phone situation is under control. Still a little fuzzy on what we will do for transportation when we first get down there. Do Island cars hold their value pretty well? Where would u recommend shopping for a island car at? Thanks as aways

Hello IslandPilots,

If you have the funds you can rent a car for a few days. You can look in the Avis' Classifieds for Used Car listings also try the Used Car lot at Carribean Automart.

--Islander

One thing you might want to consider is whether your phone provider will have service at the place you live. For me that has been a priority when looking for housing. My Sprint plan has unlimited incoming calls (for $5.00 extra a month) and it is a plan that was offered for 787 and 340 area codes. I'm not sure if that plan is still being offered, but it sure has cut our worry about overcharges for incoming calls! I also found out that as Sprint expands its cell towers, every 3 months or so I update my software, which is free of charge, to pick up the coverage from those towers. Otherwise, my coverage is limited to just the old towers. I'm not sure how other companies operate, but maybe it is something to look into.