In these tips for cheap international phone service, we are going to teach you to maximize your potential at getting free coverage and combining it with low-cost plans. We are going to explore a wide variety of scenarios that can help you know how to get coverage while you are abroad. It’s important to note that in most of the articles on the site we talk about ways that you can get coverage basically at all times. In some of these scenarios, you may have to go sometime without actual coverage. At times this is basically the best way to be able to lower your phone expenses.
Another thing that is very important that we point out is that the cost of coverage across the world is going to vary a lot! It’s not going to ever cost the same to try and get coverage in London or Dubai as it would, to obtain coverage in central America or parts of Africa. That is also something that we are going to be discussing here. Ideally, when you are done with this article you are going to be able to come with a strategy to obtain coverage wherever it is that you are traveling.
- Should You Just Ditch Your Regular Coverage?
- Is Buying A Foreign SIM Card An Option
- Plan Your Trip Around Public Wifi Spots
- Call & Texts Using Apps & Free Data
- Renting A Mobile Wifi Spot
- Buying A Burner Phone Abroad
- Is It Worth Taking The Risk of Not Having Coverage
- The Best Tip For Cheap International Phone Coverage
Should You Just Ditch Your Regular Coverage?
We are just so tempted to just say yes, this is the best thing that you can do. Especially since you are going to be eliminating the risks involved with keeping your regular coverage around. The thing is if you don’t switch off your data you could get hit with roaming fees or the pay as you go plans as they are now calling them. There is really no reason to sugarcoat this. The rates that you are going to be paying with most of these plans are just borderline insane. Having said this, there is an option that could be worth exploring!
You could have your daily travel pass as a backup plan and then just basically wifi hop all over the place. Just use that daily pass for particular days. It can make a lot more sense when you are traveling from the USA to Canada. That is because the fee for most daily passes in Canada and Mexico is only 5 dollars instead of the ten dollars that you would be paying in the rest of the world. If you are there a week and you paid 10 or 15 dollars and you basically wifi hunted the rest of the trip it can make sense.
On the other hand, if you are there a week and you use the daily pass every day, 35 dollars for coverage it could probably rival what you would have paid for a SIM card in Canada. So you could make the argument you spent 10 more dollars and avoided the whole SIM switch issue. 35 dollars for coverage in Mexico does not make sense at all! You could get monthly coverage on a prepaid plan for like a third of that in Mexico. With virtually any other country where the rate is 10 dollars a day, it just doesn’t make much sense regardless. Buy a SIM card and quit wifi hunting.
Is Buying A Foreign SIM Card A Tip For Cheap International Phone Service?
We want to point out that these first two tips for cheap international phone coverage are for people who are open to paying at least a bit for the coverage. If you want to literally spend nothing on phone coverage we are going to be getting into that here shortly. Now, buying a SIM card is the number one option that you are going to have particularly on long trips. That being said, if you are used to the unlimited plan that you have at home adjusting to a limited SIM card can be tough.
You can buy a SIM card for 25 dollars on average virtually anywhere in the world. Obviously, 25 dollars worth of coverage in Europe is not going to equal 25 dollars worth of coverage in South America. If you are in Europe or particular parts of Asia you are still going to want to limit the amount of data that you use and the calls that you make. You can have your phone on at all times though and take calls. That is pretty much the big advantage here. With the other methods, you would basically have to walk out of your hotel with a phone with no coverage.
Still, if you want to get the most out of the basic package that you bought you are going to want to make sure that you switch over to wifi coverage whenever possible. If you are able to master this you are going to be able to get coverage for a month for around 25 to 30 dollars in Europe! As we mentioned before if you spend 25 dollars of coverage in other parts of the world you may not even be wifi hunting at all. You can actually get unlimited plans in certain parts of the world with that kind of money!
Plan Your Trip Around Public Wifi Spots
This is the first tip on the “tips for cheap international phone coverage”, list that involves the possibility of not having to spend an extra dime for coverage while you’re abroad. If you are visiting an industrialized country or part of a country virtually anywhere in the world these days, you are going to find public wifi. Many cities around the world actually have maps that detail the exact location of these spots. Let’s say that you start your days out at a hotel that has wifi coverage already built into the cost that you are paying per room. From there you could literally plan your trips to include stops at public wifi spots.
There are of course a couple of things wrong with this plan. You are not going to be able to have coverage at all times. This can be a problem especially in a foreign country where you may need to use a maps app often. There is also a problem in that you would actually be forgoing your phone coverage per se. All that you would have is the ability to use the mobile apps that are active on your phone. We’ve mentioned this before on other parts of the site, if you travel a lot you are going to need to learn to rely on apps for communication. Especially if you happen to be traveling on a budget.
This is a particular tip where you could be very strict and just shut off even the possibility of your regular coverage kicking in while you are on the trip. The biggest upside is that you would essentially not have to pay a dime for the wifi. Who do we think this works for? Easy, it works for parents who are traveling with teens mostly. It can keep your kids off their phones for a while, save you a ton of money as well! Ideally do plan those wifi stops, especially if you have very phone-centric kids.
Call & Text Using Apps & Free Data
Make the move to communication through apps. This is the best tip to allow you to save money while you are abroad. Mainly because you won’t have to worry about the minutes that you spend on a call, especially if you are using free wifi. Take advantage of these opportunities. In America, we are actually seeing a lot of traditional methods (yes SMS texting is now very traditional) continuing to be used. Most of the world has actually already made this move. The argument against it though is that you may still have to call a landline or cell phone for business reasons or to make a reservation at a hotel. We would agree a lot of companies need to adapt as well. Just switching your personal communication through to apps can save you a ton.
The other big upside to this is that there are a ton of apps that you can use to communicate with people. Zoom has been one of those apps that have actually proven that they can be a lot better than a traditional phone call. A lot of these apps make communicating much more dynamic. Again, we understand older people are a bit alienated with this type of communication. It may be time though, to actually start investing in making sure that your parents and grandparents learn how to use apps to make calls and texts. Getting wifi or data abroad is just 100 times cheaper than getting phone coverage. If you can’t remember any of the tips for cheap international phone service, but you remember this one it could be enough to save you thousands of dollars!
Renting A Mobile Wifi Spot
This is an option that we’ve explored a length on this site. We always keep coming back to the same thing. It could make sense if you are traveling with a large group. The number is around 5 people because most devices are only going to be able to take that many connections at a time. If the companies that offer this service figure out a way to lower their rates they would be able to give phone companies a run for their money in some niches. That does not seem like something that is happening soon.
It seems a bit odd to have this option on a list of tips for cheap international phone service. Since our biggest knock on these devices was the fact that they were not cheap! When you are dividing the price though into 5 pieces then it makes a lot more sense. If you are traveling as a group you could get everyone in the group to pitch in. This can also be a great option if you are traveling with your family. You are not going to want to buy international SIM cards for all of your kids. Getting a mobile wifi spot can be a good way to actually allow them to have phone coverage without it costing you a fortune.
If you are traveling on your own this is not really going to be a viable option. It is sometimes branded as a way to be able to get coverage on multiple devices. If you buy a foreign SIM card you are going to be able to do that without having to spend the amounts that you typically would with a mobile wifi spot. Ironically the mobile wifi spot option can be a great way to save money while traveling, it can also turn out to be a very expensive way to get coverage. It really depends on how and with whom you happen to be traveling.
Buying A Burner Phone Abroad
Essentially buying a burner phone and using it with a local SIM card would be the same thing as putting that SIM card on your regular phone. What allowed it to make it to this list of tips for cheap international phone service, is the fact that doing this eliminates the potential of having to pay any type of roaming fees, plus it protects the data on your regular device. We know that today with dual SIM capabilities on phones this option could go the way of the dodo. As of the time of writing, we still believe that there are tangible benefits to going with this route. If protecting your data is important this is certainly something that you are going to want to look into.
You can have a burner phone that is not literally a burner phone, but a travel phone. We’ve talked about how it can be hard to take an iPhone to a different continent because you are going to have to mostly rely on current regulators to be able to charge the phone. With an Android phone, it’s a lot easier to get a local charger for little money. Strictly speaking, this option certainly offers more benefits outside of just the coverage. It may be a little expensive to buy the phone the first time around. You can actually also do this with an older phone. That you may not be using on a regular basis anymore.
If you’ve read some of the other articles on the site you probably know already that we have embraced the burner phone idea before. Really it’s a great way to protect your data and actually give yourself a chance to bargain hunt for the cheapest SIM card deals. Without having to worry too much about compatibility. If you happen to be an avid traveler this can certainly be a way to consistently save money on phone coverage.
Is It Worth Taking The Risk of Not Having Service?
What we are referring to here are the options that we talked about where you would just rely on wifi coverage and you would actually not be spending any money on your coverage abroad. If you do that, there is a great chance that you are going to come to a certain point on your trip where you are not going to be able to find a wifi connection. That may not be a big deal depending on where and how you are traveling. Here are some scenarios that we’ve explored to give you a bit more context about what we actually mean.
Let’s say that you are taking a trip with a group of people and basically you have your whole trip planned out and you are going to be with a tour guide the whole time. In these instances, it may not even make sense to look for extra coverage. You are going to be taken care of virtually on your whole trip. The same thing applies to people who are traveling to resorts and have no plans to leave the resorts. This could be like a trip to Disney World or a trip to Las Vegas. If you are on resort property all of the time there is a good chance that you are going to have wifi coverage available all of the time!
Are there trips that you definitely don’t want to risk going on without proper phone coverage? Of course, if you are taking a road trip for example having coverage at all times in a foreign country is a must. Also if you are visiting just any place that you are not familiar with and you are going to be out and about quite a bit, having coverage can help you prevent any less than ideal experiences to say that least.
The Best Tip For Cheap International Phone Service
If we had to pick our best tip to get cheap international phone service we would say that is using free wifi and communication through mobile apps. The problem with this tip though is that not all wifi connections are going to be strong enough to hold up a full call on WhatsApp or Telegram. This is very typical of free wifi spots that you can potentially find out in a public place. Usually, the speed and the type of coverage that you can get in these spots is going to be quite limited.
The one thing that is very important to note if you are looking to stick to just using free wifi is that you should really plan your trip ahead. What we mean by that is know and understand where you are going to have coverage. If you are headed to a resort in any country it’s always going to be a good idea to know what type of coverage you actually expect to have within the confines of the resort. Is the free wifi limited to the rooms and lobby areas? At times it can extend to some pool or entertainment areas.
If you are taking your family on a trip and you plan on using this strategy, mainly because buying your kids all a foreign SIM card seems insane, it can still be a good idea to have a backup plan. That backup plan could be to buy just one local SIM card. You could be paying around 20 to 30 dollars for decent, but limited coverage in most countries. Yet, this coverage should only be used in very particular circumstances. Another thing that is actually quite obvious is the fact that if you are vigilant about the amount of data or minutes that you actually spend there is a chance that you could be saving more money.