phones overseas

[dingelberry]

Im looking at overseas travel at the moment and was wondering if its better to take my own phone or just buy say a pre paid when I get there ? Im told the cost of calls can be expensive .

[MickyB]

When I went OS a few years ago I got my phone unlocked by my provider and then purchased a pre-paid SIM card when I got to my destination.

[Gadgetgeek]

I'd go with a burner. much easier to keep track of costs, and making sure it will work with the standards you need it to. Depending the country/s you are traveling to, some are really good, some less so. No real easy answers.

[photohiker]

When I went OS a few years ago I got my phone unlocked by my provider and then purchased a pre-paid SIM card when I got to my destination.

+1 That's what I do.

Research suitable sims before you leave. Whirlpool forums can be helpful.

[GPSGuided]

All varies these days, pending on the country you are going and the volume of calls required. If travelling through multiple countries for a relatively short period, an international roaming package from your home carrier may be more economical. For more extended stay and use within a country, a local prepaid SIM may be better. Also suggest looking into VoIP options whilst overseas and use it to make cheap international calls through wifi or mobile data. The third option is a 3rd party roam SIM (typically on a number from a Baltic State countries). I have not opted for it in the past while some have found them convenient. YMMV.

[dingelberry]

Thanks for the help will proberly go with the prepaid but will keep looking at the other options given here .

[GPSGuided]

BTW, even if you are buying local prepaid service, you'll still need a phone, probably your present one if it supports the specific country's network. Some countries use standard that's different to ours and even GSM has differing bands. Current high end smartphones are capable of multiple services but you need to check, and the specific carrier.

[RonK]

Im told the cost of calls can be expensive .

The cost of international roaming calls is very expensive and should be avoided. The cheapest alternative is to use SMS.
If you have a smartphone, buy a local sim with data. Use Skype if voice contact is essential. Otherwise use SMS, eMail, Twitter, Facebook to keep folks at home informed.
As others have posted, check that your phone is compatible with the local network first. If not, cheap prepay handsets are available in many countries.
If you are going to NZ, check out the Vodafone NZ Travel SIM.
For $49 you get 3gb of data, 200 minutes of calls and 200 txts to NZ and back home. There is also a cheaper plan with 500mb of data for $29.
Voda has kiosks at NZ airports so you can have a working phone within minutes of arrival.

[Johnnie Walker]

If you're with Telstra, Telstra Travel Pass: https://www.telstra.com.au/international-roaming/mobiles-on-a-plan
I use it a lot for New Zealand, $15 gives you 3 days unlimited calls / SMS to Australia and 150 mb. of data.

[Gadgetgeek]

Can't believe I didn't think of this before. if you can live with trying to find wifi, pretty easy at places like McDs and various coffee places, then stuff like viber, whatsapp, skype all work well. Main thing is what do you need it for? if all you need is a little email check, then just stick to wifi stuff. you won't get your current service for anything like a price you are paying now without a huge amount of research that quickly expires. but wifi works the same everywhere, and there are some nice and cheap devices you could take if you are in a high-theft area as well. kinda best of both.

[vicrev]

Can't believe I didn't think of this before. if you can live with trying to find wifi, pretty easy at places like McDs and various coffee places, then stuff like viber, whatsapp, skype all work well. Main thing is what do you need it for? if all you need is a little email check, then just stick to wifi stuff. you won't get your current service for anything like a price you are paying now without a huge amount of research that quickly expires. but wifi works the same everywhere, and there are some nice and cheap devices you could take if you are in a high-theft area as well. kinda best of both.

Works for me,everywhere...........

[GPSGuided]

VoIP over wifi has saved me big time in the past when I had to call international for various reasons, especially those long calls to call centres eg. Banks, mobile carriers, airlines etc. With VoIP, those long calls are affordable or free when it's routed to my home VoIP service. To resolve a blocked credit card, it could easily cost up to 3 figures on roaming or blow all the quota on local prepaid.


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[keithy]

BYO phone and a prepaid card is a good option.

What you can also do if you have a phone/tablet that does wifi, is pickup a Wireless 3G or 4G router that can accept a prepaid sim card. I've done this for a few years and it lets you use Wifi data through your phone or tablet, so you can make calls using Skype or what ever voip program you use, and email/message/sms.

Quite a few providers in Europe have cheap prepaid data only starter kits. For example when I went hiking in Romania, I picked up a Vodafone prepaid data sim, and it was around AUD$8 for 1Gb that lasted 30 days for a 3G card, or it was only ~$12 for a 4G sim with 4Gb allowance. Scandanavian countries the prepaid data is more expensive - norway I found was the most expensive around $45 for a 1Gb prepaid, sweden was around $25 for a 1Gb 30 day card. Iceland was surprisingly cheap and fast at around $12 for a 1Gb data card through vodafone or around $20 for a 5Gb. I've used prepaid sims in France and Germany as well, but mostly phone sims, without data plans. Using the prepaid data sims and an iphone or ipod means you can use imessage for messaging, and facetime or skype for calls/video calls.

In Asia some prepaids are cheap, like Thailand, I used a dtac prepaid data cards that had 7 days unlimited internet usage for around $10, and the internet speeds were pretty quick as well. Prepaids were a bit more expensive in Singapore, but cheaper in Malaysia.