AT&T International Day Pass, Is it Worth it?

If you have read some of the other articles on the site, you know that we are one of the few sites on the web that actually talk about international day passes as a viable option to use your phone abroad. Having said this, we usually only recommend it in very specific situations. In this particular article, we want to cover all of the basics behind the Pass. Things like who can actually access the Pass. What the actual cost is going to be and how to get it activated amongst other things. As far as the overall costs go It is pretty simple to figure those out. You add 10 dollars for each day. That is the max fee that you should have to pay. If you don’t activate the Pass correctly though, you can be in big trouble.

If you don’t activate the Pass correctly, you could be hit with international roaming fees that are usually going to be more costly than the 10 dollar a day fee. The AT&T International day pass is not one of a kind. There are other companies out there that offer a similar option to their users. Yet, there are usually a couple of critical differences as far as pricing and coverage go. Basically, this is an article that is designed to help you read through the lines of that contract that you may be about to sign. So that you can know exactly what to expect from this plan. That way, you won’t end up being disappointed when you travel abroad. The topics that we are going to cover in this article include:

• How to activate the AT&T International Day Pass
• What the AT&T International Day Pass actually includes
• The Pass versus buying a SIM card
• Scenarios were activating the AT&T International Day Pass is a good idea
• Using both the day pass and a foreign SIM card
• Where AT&T stacks up against the competition as far as travel plans go
• Does this work for you?

How to activate the AT&T International Day Pass

To activate your AT&T International Day Pass, the first thing that you need is to have an unlimited plan or most postpaid plans with compatible devices. You can’t get this benefit on a prepaid plan since they can’t charge you those days in advance. Other than that, you just need to go into your account or app to activate the option. Make sure that you are doing this for every device that you want to activate. From there, the device will detect your location and trigger the daily fee any time that you use data, get a call, or send a text with your phone while abroad.

Essentially the coverage is going to kick in automatically if you have activated the plan properly on your app. If you have any doubts, be sure to go ahead and call before your trip. That way, you are not wasting minutes and data that may not be covered by the plan while you are abroad. Since the charge is only going to kick in once, your device detects some form of data usage abroad; you are not going to have to worry about activating this feature on your phone while you are using it domestically.

All of this also basically means that you can pick and chose when you activate this particular fee. If you don’t have your mobile data active while you are abroad for a full day, you won’t be charged for the day. Also, as we mentioned before, you have to activate it on every line or maybe just on the line that you want to use. Not enabling it though, can be a two-edged sword. As if you reset your phone or turn it on and off and you get incoming data without the plan you could be in line to pay some hefty fees. Even the official AT&T page tells people to turn off their background data if they don’t want the payment to kick in on a particular day. It is pretty easy to activate this plan. Still, it is a good idea to “proceed with caution.” Especially if you want to be sure you only use this option in an emergency.

What the AT&T International Day Pass actually includes

What the AT&T International Day Pass actually includes is pretty simple. You are going to be getting data coverage. If you have an unlimited plan, this means that you are going to be able to use as much data as you want for the next 24 hours. This can be a big relief if you are traveling by car, and you need to have a GPS map application open constantly. You are also going to be able to text without any restrictions. Essentially this means that you are going to be able to text just as if you were at home. You won’t have to worry about having your number changed thanks to a local SIM card.

This plan is also going to allow you to call freely to over 100 countries. This is one of the reasons why it may be a good idea to go with this day pass if you are traveling for business. You are going to get to keep your phone number. Which, is undoubtedly a big deal, so that anyone can essentially reach you as they usually would when you are at home. It also means that for 24 hours, you basically have a free pass to do with your phone as you please. If you need to make multiple calls, you are going to be able to do so with ease. It is really an empowering feeling for most of the people who try it out.

Would there be anything that this plan does not include? The biggest drawback that we can find with the AT&T International Day Pass is that you are not guaranteed great coverage or speed abroad. For most of Europe, if you are lucky, you are going to have access to a 3G network. In many places, that is going to come down to 2G speed. Of course, in many remote locations, there is not going to be any coverage at all. Therefore, it is a good idea to check what type of coverage you can expect before you make the decision to go ahead and OK that 10 dollar a day charge.

The Pass versus buying a SIM card

This comparison is one that we have made on this site on numerous occasions. Yet, for the most part, the International daily pass is usually ridden off for being too expensive. Therefore, not really giving it a fair shake at times. On this particular occasion, we have already laid out some of the main benefits that the pass option offers. This could change the perspective for a lot of folks, no doubt about it. Let’s get going with some of the biggest differences.

New Phone Number With A SIM Card Same Number and Mode of Operation With The Daily Pass

When you buy an international SIM card, you are going to get a new phone that you are going to need to use to call, text, and register on many different apps. If you go with the pass route, you literally won’t have to do any of that. You are going to be able to use your phone pretty much in the same manner that you would at home. Therefore in this category, we would give the AT&T International Day Pass the win.

Overall Coverage Abroad

We recently talked about how the biggest drawback of bringing your regular plan abroad was the fact that you could not expect fast internet speeds. Usually, you are going to be able to reach 3G speeds with your data if you are lucky. This may be something that gets better over the years. At this point, you can buy a SIM card that gives you more reliable coverage and faster speeds. Therefore, we have a clear winner in this category. The SIM card takes the round.

Which One Is Pricer?

As we have also mentioned, a lot of times, the daily pass option gets ridden off for being too pricy. Is it pricer than buying a SIM card? That is going to depend on the type of SIM card that you buy. The length of your stay abroad is also going to play a role in determining the winner here. With the daily fee, you can be clear from day one on how much you are going to spend. Companies that offer these SIM cards can be a little sneaky with their prices. This one is actually hard to call. Yet, the SIM card option seems to get the edge in the end.

Scenarios were activating the AT&T International Day Pass is a good idea

One of the things that we mentioned is that the price of the Day Pass is going to obviously be determined by the number of days that you are going to be spending abroad. If you are going to be abroad for just a couple of days then it could be a good idea to just stick with the rates that you could get from the pass. These are usually very short trips that you could be taking. In which, you may be spending only around 30 or up to 50 dollars from buying the AT&T International pass. If the price difference is around 20 or 30 dollars for a lot of people that price is worth the lack of trouble that you could potentially go through. Not because of the fact that you would be taking a major risk in buying a foreign SIM card. Just the steps that you would probably need to get there can be too much for some people.

Is there a scenario where it would make sense to use the advantages of the pass when you are spending more than 5 days abroad? If we were to just look at the numbers it probably does not make sense. Yet, there can still be people out there that don’t want to give up that daily interaction that they have with people calling their regular number. It is simple if you get calls from 20 or 30 different people every day on your phone it may not be easy to make sure that everyone can keep track of your new number. These scenarios are usually business in nature. In that, you have to stay by the phone in case a certain client calls or whatever it may be. If not being by the phone or not having a specific phone number active at a certain point in time is going to cost you money then you may want to keep your regular phone number up and running.

Using both the day pass and a foreign SIM card

Again, this is one of those things that if you look at it on paper it is not going to make any sense at all. If you are already spending 10 dollars a day on coverage why would you add an extra cost? Especially when the number of days starts piling up. Would you be willing to pay north of 300 dollars for the use of your phone abroad? In some cases, people feel that they actually have to do this. Basically, the idea is that if you buy a SIM card and you are using the pass you are going to have coverage wherever it is that you go, in a given country. The idea is in essence correct. You could potentially be using the SIM just to have your back in case, your regular coverage essentially fails.

There is really no reason to put limits on yourself when you are using the day pass with an unlimited plan. If coverage is really that important to you, going with both options may not be a bad idea. Maybe you just need to use your regular number for a limited number of days. There are a lot of scenarios that are essentially unique. There is just no way that we could go over all of them.

Where AT&T stacks up against the competition as far as travel plans go

There are a couple of interesting points to consider here. Most of the other main mobile phone companies are going to have similar rates. There is one thing that we have to mention here though. These rates are applicable to most of the world besides North America. In Mexico and Canada, you are going to have the chance to buy a 5 dollar international day pass. There are also add ons that you could purchase to your plans in order to get normal coverage within these countries. These are rates that we are going to cover in other articles on the site. Having said this, if we were to compare the services that are being offered by some of the main providers, we can say that T-Mobile and Verizon have the exact same rates. With Verizon’s pass being way more limited as far as speed goes. You are going to be getting 2G speeds with Verizon for most of the day while abroad.

On the other hand, Sprint’s plan is the one that stands out the most. At the time of writing this article the rate was 10 dollars a day. Yet, in a 7 day week, they are only going to charge you for 5 days. Which, actually makes their travel pass a bit more attractive than the ones that are offered by AT&T and other providers. With Sprint you could stand to pay 50 dollars a week. That may offset when you factor in coverage though. As T-Mobile and AT&T are the two American service providers that offer the best-looking rates.

Does this work for you?

Throughout the article, we have basically answered the question that is presented in the title many times. At the end of the day wether keeping this plan or not may be worth it for some people and not for others. Some people may even have to turn to this option as it is the only way to essentially keep their regular phone up and running as it normally would domestically. Just based on the fact that you may be getting a lot of calls that you need to take and things like that.

If there is one downside to all of the international day passes is the fact that you can’t expect the same internet speeds that you would get domestically. Even if you have to keep calls and texts coming in you may not want to rely fully on your phone’s internet service. Especially if you are headed out to very remote locations. In most cases, these would be, very specific parts of Africa and specific parts of South America, Asia, and Europe as well.