Just to make sure that we’re all on board here, we are going to be covering international calls AT&T users can make from their cellphones. There are people out there who still have their home phones with AT&T. If we come across those rates, we’ll be sure to include them. However, the article mainly covers the rates and phone service provided by AT&T to cellphone users. Having cleared this up, there are also different rates that you can find talked about here. Make sure that you read through to not get yourself confused. We are saying this because making an international call when you’re sitting at home in the United States is not going to have the same price tag as making the same call when you’re abroad.
The last thing that you want to do is book a service or use that service thinking that you’re going to be paying less than what you’ll ultimately be billed. A lot of people end up feeling cheated when they look at their phone bill at the end of the month. Sure, that sometimes can be due to the fact that wireless service providers have some sketchy practices. A lot of times, though, the issue is that users don’t understand the rates well or don’t read all of the fine print. We’ve gone ahead and read all of the fine print. Therefore, we can let you know what exactly you’ll have to pay for international calls AT&T.
- The Rate Depends On The Plan
- International Calls AT&T From The US
- International Calls AT&T While Traveling
- Is It Worth It To Make International Calls On AT&T
- Making Phone Calls Through Apps
- Data Is Not Free
The Rate Depends On The Plan & Where You Call
One of the things that is certainly challenging with AT&T is getting a clear picture of what everyone can expect to pay. There’s a major positive with this company, and that is that most plans are going to include unlimited calling to Mexico and Canada. That’s not going to apply for some prepaid plans and other options for folks who are still on a very old plan with their service provider. Other service providers have set rates to large parts of the world. What we mean by that is that they’ll have a list of 100 plus countries with one rate. Then you’ll have another list with 200 plus countries at another rate. That’s not the case with AT&T.
Another positive may be the fact that you’re pretty much going to be able to call anywhere in the world. However, we do want to point out that AT&T is betting big on their AT&T International Calling add-on. Basically, this is a fee that you pay apart from your regular monthly charge for your line. This package allows you to make calls virtually all over the world. As we’ll soon see, though, it could make sense for some people and be a total rip off for others. With some of the features and rates that AT&T offers, it’s hard to generalize and pinpoint which plan is a good deal and which one isn’t.
International Calls AT&T From The US
As we mentioned, international calls AT&T to Mexico and Canada are included in many of their main plans. If you have one of the main unlimited plans that they offer, you pretty much don’t have to worry too much. From here, though, the rates are pretty much a free for all. For example, calls to mobile phones in Panama are 0.05 a minute on the regular rate. If you have to make some calls down there in the month, you can potentially stick to the regular rate. On the other hand, calls to Uruguay are going to cost you 0.59 a minute. If you need to make plenty of calls down to El Rio de la Plata, then you probably want to look into some of the add-ons that you can put on your plan to get better rates.
In doing research for this article, we found one of the things that we hate about wireless service providers, lies! AT&T has a comparison table where you can see the rates per minute that you would pay for calls to other countries with their AT&T International Calling add-on. Those rates are different from what you can find in other parts of the site as the regular calling rates for certain countries! Back to the example, though, both Panama and Uruguay are free to call on the AT&T International Calling package. Getting this add-on is going to cost you an extra 15 dollars per line. Could we say that adding the package is worth it? It really depends on where you call, and how many calls you make per month.
International Calls AT&T While Traveling
This one is going to be a lot tougher. If you go abroad, and you don’t have a travel pass setup, you’re going to get the roaming fees! These are not the fees that you want to pay at any point. We have to talk about them, though. You could potentially pay up to three dollars a minute if you call countries outside of Mexico and Europe. Calling back home could see you still rack up fees of around .25 cents a minute. You’re going to get “hit” with these fees if you just arrive abroad, power up the phone and make a call.
The other option that you’re going to have is to activate an International Day pass. This is the option that gives you data, talk and text abroad for 10 dollars a day. If you’re on an unlimited plan, you should be able to call back home without getting charged extra fees for the day. We’ve usually looked at this pass from the data perspective, but it can make a bit more sense if you’re someone who makes plenty of calls per day. Particularly when you include the possibility of getting charged with data usage if you make a call from abroad without a day pass. If you don’t make sure your data is off when you’re roaming, the bill can be dangerous.
Is It Worth It To Make International Calls On AT&T
These are usually tough questions to answer. Particularly, because it’s one of those things that we’d have to analyze on a per-case basis. That being said, paying the extra fees for international calls only makes sense these days if you absolutely have to call a cell or a land line directly. This was usually the case with businesses. Now, though, most businesses are also moving their communications through apps. It just seems to make more sense to get an unlimited plan and use an app that’s going to use up data to make the call. Rather than using your regular cell phone and gobbling up minutes.
The biggest issue that we’ve seen people have is that they have no clue what they are paying for on their plan. We always say if you go abroad or call abroad, it’s a good idea to have a personal plan in place to get that done. We don’t necessarily mean buying a plan from a wireless service provider. We mean a literal plan. For example, if you’re going to call family members in Europe consistently, then paying the extra 15 dollars is probably the best way to go. If you have to make calls to landlines or cell phones. If it’s just a one time thing, maybe you’ll get a dollar added to your total at the end of the month, tops. Don’t worry too much about it.
Again though it’s hard to really measure worth here. A lot of people are going to say it’s worth it for me to pay an extra 15 dollars to feel that I can call abroad freely. For other people, 15 dollars is half of what they are paying per line on the monthly bill. They may be looking at, like, another Netflix subscription or something like this. They don’t want to add another thing to their monthly expenses. If that’s you, then take your calling through apps!
Making Phone Calls Through Apps
If you’re going to make a personal call or a business, it would probably make more sense to do so through apps. Granted, some apps don’t have the best call features on the market, hi WhatsApp! However, you’re not going to have to count the number of minutes that you call. Unless of course you’re on the free version of Zoom. If you’re at home though, meaning in your home country, on an unlimited plan or Wi-Fi connection you’re virtually making a “free call”. It may not be directly free, but making the call or not probably won’t change your bill at the end of the month.
One of the downsides to this type of calling is that the other person that you’re trying to call has to be on the same app. In some apps like Facebook, and Telegram, the person has to have an account with the service. Google meet is the same way. On the other hand, there are apps like Zoom where they need to have access to an email address and can just follow a link. Zoom for example could be better for calls between people who are not necessarily friends or close business associates. Different apps are going to have different requirements to make these calls. The calls that are made through the internet don’t have a cost as long as you have a stable connection. At least not a per-minute cost. This is what makes regular international calls AT&T so expensive.
Usually, Data Is Not Free
We just got done saying that you need a stable internet connection to be able to make calls through apps. When you have that, the call is free. This may seem a bit contradicting then, but usually, data is not free. Particularly, it isn’t free when you’re traveling. As we said, on an unlimited plan at home, you’re pretty much paying that plan to be able to make as many calls as you want. Plus, of course, all of the other things that you want to do on the web. Essentially, data is not free, but you pay a set rate to use virtually as much as you want. On unlimited plans and home use.
If you’re abroad, and you’re using the data on your regular plan to make a call, that can be a double whammy. Sure, you’ll have minutes left. However, international data can be more expensive than international phone minutes. If you’re in your home country, and you want to make a call through an app, make sure it’s through a Wi-Fi connection. You can connect in a coffee shop at your hotel or even in free Wi-Fi spots in the city. Data or an internet connection is something that we sometimes take for granted. When you go abroad though, you realize it’s not as easy to get. Be careful with that. Particularly if you want to make calls through apps when you’re abroad.
International Calls AT&T – Conclusion
Making the occasional call abroad is going to maybe cause your regular monthly to go up a dollar or two. When that’s the case, it’s probably something that you don’t need to worry about. If you like not having to count the minutes a call lasts, then certainly there are plenty of options that we’ve laid out that could work for you. From getting an add-on for international calls, AT&T has a decent option. Not too much wiggle room, just the 15 dollar fee, but a decent option none to less. If you’re going to call landlines or cell phones directly, it’s probably an add-on that you want to have on your plan. You’ll spend those 15 dollars really quickly on a per minute rate, for sure.
With the rise of unlimited plans and the fact that Wi-Fi is more openly accessible even in other parts of the world, moving your international calls through apps is also a viable option. There are some drawbacks. You need to make sure the person is on the app, and that you have a stable connection before you call. It can seem like too many hoops to jump through for some people. Maybe jumping through those hoops is worth it at the end of the month. Ultimately, that’s a personal decision that each AT&T user is going to have to make. When you’ve gotten a scary bill at the end of the month, though, the idea of free calls sounds superb!