Family International Travel Plan

When you are taking a trip to another country, chances are you are not going to be alone in doing so. Trips can certainly help build great memories. They are a huge opportunity to bond with family and friends. The problem is these days everyone wants cell coverage. Getting coverage abroad is going to cost you. There are really not many ways around this. If you where to take your regular plan and try and get coverage through your provider abroad chances are you are going to be paying around 10 dollars a day per line. If you add that up for 4 lines that means that you are going to be paying 40 dollars a day for every day of your trip. For most people that is just not a viable option. It turns out to be too expensive. You would need a family international travel plan that can be prepaid!  

Although, as was mentioned before you will have to pay for coverage there is actually a couple of ways that you can lower the 40 dollars a day price tag. Buying family international travel plans could be ideal. The problem is most pay as you go plans are not going to give you reasonable discounts if you buy multiple SIM cards. Prepaid plans in the USA do give you a discount. In many other parts of the world that is just not the case. International SIM cards usually behave as their own line. Without any connection to a family plan. In any case, our goal within this particular article is to explore some of the options that you are going to have. While traveling abroad with your family or a large group of friends. Are there discounts to be had? We will figure that out!     

Is buying a family international travel plan an option?

Let’s just get right to the point here, if you could find a family international travel plan, it could be an option. We have done our research, we have looked into the offers that our partner SIM options have. For the most part, you are not going to be able to find a prepaid plan abroad that is going to give you a discount for being a family or a large group. At least not on official stores. From most official stores what you can get are family plans on a contract. If you try to get a prepaid plan a lot of the language is kind of sketchy. To where you would have to pay 3 months to get a discount for the different lines. We don’t want to go out on the limb and say that a “family international travel plan”, does not exist. If they do exist though, they are hard to find!    

Are you going to be able to find deals on SIM cards on the streets? That is mostly a definite yes. If you are traveling across Europe, Asia, Latin America, there is a chance that you are going to come across someone who sells SIM cards on the streets. You may even come across some legitimate shops that you wouldn’t give a dime for. Yet, they actually sell valid SIM cards. This is especially common in Latin America, and Asia, as well as specific parts of Europe. This is not something that you are going to see a lot of in the USA or Canada. As was mentioned, some of the SIM cards that you can get in these shops will actually work just fine.

There is no easier way to put it, if you see a two for one sale on SIM cards you better think to yourself why they would be doing this. If most service providers don’t sell family plans for prepaid SIM cards how could someone on the street find their way around that? You’d be surprised at how many street geniuses you can find across the globe. The safe bet though is always to stick with certified dealers that get you proven coverage. 

Buying one SIM card for the whole family

Talking about finding loopholes to “cheat” the system this just may be one of them. If you have a phone that can double as a wifi hotspot you could potentially only buy one SIM card. Then share your data with the other members of your party. The main problem that you are going to find here is that only one person is effectively going to have access to using their phone line. The rest of the party is going to have to log through their phone’s wifi feature. Actually the best thing that they can do is shut off their data at all times. So as to not get any roaming fees from your regular service provider.    

One of the best options to do what we just described is the “Holiday Europe” SIM card from Orange. At the time of writing the SIM card is on sale at 49.90. This SIM card is going to give you 20GB of data 120 call minutes and 1000 text messages. With 20GB you could spread the love around giving 5GB to 4 people. The only negative part of this particular card is its credit validity. Which, is only effective for 14 days. This means that you only have 14 days to use up the data, minutes, and texts that you will be getting. If we are honest about it 20GB split by 4 people can go quickly. That is one of the reasons why we recommend this option even though it offers a relatively short credit validity. 

Another option could be the PAYG AIO20 card by Three UK. This card is going to give you 12GB of coverage that are valid for 30 days. You don’t get calls or texts. The price tag on this card though is 10 dollars less than what you would pay for the option by Orange. At a little north of 30 dollars right now. It would actually make sense to buy two of these cards for about a month of coverage. Of course, it would be a good idea to activate the second card after you have used up the data on the first!  

Using one phone with an International Day Pass for the whole family

This is another trick that could work. You have to admit, this one sounds really great on paper. If you don’t know the international day pass essentially gives you unlimited data, texts, and everything while abroad. Assuming that you have an unlimited plan as your regular plan at home. The travel pass on most mobile carriers is going to have a cost of 10 dollars a day. This is 10 dollars a day of unlimited data. Data, that can potentially be shared amongst the people within your family group. The restrictions section of the AT&T International Day Pass literally read the following: Service restrictions, Not available for wireless home phone services, connected vehicles, or connected devices   

As we mentioned before this is one of those tricks that seems great in theory. In actually, there is a good chance that you are not going to be able to pull off this maneuver. Although these restrictions were not mentioned in the previous paragraph when talking about international SIM cards many of them limit the number of devices that can be connected at once. This is certainly something that you are going to want to look into before committing to any particular strategy.

There have been people that claim this particular strategy worked wonders for them. This is something that we are just going to have to advise against though. Even if on the international day pass coverage run by your service provider there is no explicit line banning this practice, there is a chance that the practice is still banned. Therefore, you may be left scrambling for coverage on most of your devices.     

Mobile wifi spot

If you are looking for a less conventional option that has been gaining popularity over the past few years this is the option that you want. A mobile wifi spot is essentially a device that is going to provide you with wifi coverage wherever you go. There are different companies that are offering this particular service. Usually what happens is that you have to rent out the device. You are going to be paying a fee per day for the time that you have the device. Once you are done using it you are going to have to mail it back. If you don’t mail it back you could get hit with late fees if you lose it you will also be charged. Let’s stick to the positive side though. 

You could be paying around 9 to 7 euros for unlimited daily data for multiple devices all across Europe. The promise is that you will have access to 4G data virtually everywhere you go. It should go without saying, but you are essentially forfeiting any calls or texts with this particular option. All of your communication is going to have to be through apps with this particular device. It is not great if your family splits up. In this case, you would have to stick together.

This is an option that essentially makes sense if you are going to be traveling around with a group of 4 or up to 10 people. The reason why it would not make much sense with fewer people is that you could get coverage by buying SIM cards for those 2 or 3 people for a lower price. For more than ten people you would have to get multiple mobile wifi spots. Otherwise, the company may flag your excessive usage of data as fraudulent. Once they do that they are going to lower your internet speeds. Yes, they can give you unlimited data, but with certain restrictions. You can also purchase a 1GB per day option. That comes at a lower price tag. If you are using the device with multiple people, it does not make much sense though.      

Which method will get me the best coverage?

So far we have covered 3 methods to provide your family or travel group with coverage. Which one of these methods happens to be the one that is going to give you the best coverage? Let’s be honest the international day pass could be an appealing option because it essentially gives you unlimited data. The problem that you are going to have with this option is the speed. Usually, if you are able to get 3G coverage you are pretty lucky. This is mostly only possible in the main cities of the country that you happen to be traveling to. This leaves us with two options. 

The wifi spot option promises to deliver 4G coverage across Europe. There are other options wherever it is that you are going to be traveling. For the most part, 4G coverage seems to be the common denominator. Therefore, it is usually going to be providing better coverage than the international day pass. One of the things that we mentioned as a negative aspect of these devices was the obvious fact that you have to be close to the device to get coverage. It is just like the router that you may have at home. For that reason, it is going to fall short.  

A proper SIM card is more often than not what is going to be able to provide you with better coverage. Just like it would in your regular life. How many people do you see out and about with a mobile wifi device in their everyday life? There is some utility to it. There is no doubt about that. When it is all set and done though, getting a local SIM card is going to be the best way to have coverage abroad. Especially if you get a SIM card that is specifically suited to provide coverage in the particular area that you are visiting.  

Which method is going to be the most cost-effective?

Using an international day pass is usually not cost-effective at all! It is the most practical way to get coverage abroad it can be cost-effective if you are only spending one or two days at a particular location. After that, it can get expensive very quickly. At 10 dollars a day you do the math! Now, as far as the other options go, we have talked about this here recently. An international SIM card is going to be the most cost-effective way to get coverage for one traveler. Again for family groups the costs can certainly add up. 

As was mentioned before, the costs of renting a mobile wifi spot are not exactly cheap. The costs though can make sense for larger groups. On average an individual SIM card is going to cost you around 30 dollars. If you pick the card right it can provide coverage for 30 days. The monthly rent of the Hippocket wifi device for Europe costs you 213 euros for a month. This includes shipping fees and a car charger for the device. At today’s rate, 213 euros equal 238 dollars. The price could fluctuate in the next couple of months. That means that you would have to be traveling with around 8 people for this option to be the most cost-effective for you!     

Our Take on a Family International Travel Plan 

From the data that we have gathered, we have to say that we are certainly surprised by the overall results. The mobile wifi spot can be a good option if you can get it for the right price. If you happen to be traveling with a larger group. There is chance that the device that we took out was priced above market value. Also, you could actually look for mobile wifi spot devices from local carriers. Most of the time though, you can’t get these on a prepaid plan. Unless you rent them out. If you travel a lot it may make sense to buy one. Then just pay, as much as you need to for the internet. If you make a couple of trips abroad in a year the costs could totally offset. 

What we cannot deny though, is that even though we have explored other options getting a local SIM card just seems to make sense. Especially if you can use that as a mobile wifi spot. Even if it only works for a couple of people the costs could be worth it. You could actually still be paying less money if you were to buy 6 or 7 people their own SIM card! Those numbers really stood out to us. As we just mentioned, there are more options out there. The math though still seems to favor the SIM card option.