It can be easy to get a SIM in the US. But the companies make it difficult for some reason. Everyone is obsessed with credit. Get cable TV? They want your SSN to check credit. It's bizarre.

Even on a T-Mobile prepaid plan, they insisted on an SSN after a year and refused to charge my Amex. I told them I was Canadian, so they asked for a SIN. They said Amex required it. Only after getting Amex involved did T-Mobile back down.

There's about zero risk for them on a prepaid system. The risk is someone trying to exploit a hole in their billing platform, which is really quite minuscule.

It's a PITA to get a SIM card when visiting the US -- for example, I had to order online from T-mo's website, and they limited the number of SIMs to some arbitrary limit per calendar year (so good luck if you are in shared housing and the previous set of interns/tourists has exhausted the limit for the year).

Getting a SIM card in store seemed to require signing a multi-year contract, so I ran as far as possible before I could figure out whether they wanted my SSN or not.

No, I got a prepaid SIM in Germany by walking into a shop and plunking down 10 Euros. You can buy traveler SIMs that work with all sorts of carriers abroad, but it will be more expensive. If you can wait till you get there, it's not a big hassle.

In major cities, it's quite easy and becoming even more common to find prepaid SIMs available at small shops on every block. Here in New York, prepaid carries such as H2O and Simple have long been accessible and in-demand due to large tourist and immigrant populations who might not have established credit.

These sorts of plans are gradually spilling over into the tech community, as those with the means to purchase their phones up front for full price, see the value of a contract-less plan.