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So you are planning to go overseas. Maybe to Europe, or maybe farther afield, and you need to keep in touch with home. You’ve heard all about how expensive roaming can be if you take your U.S. SIM card with you, so you’ve done the sensible thing and looked at international SIM cards. Job done. But are all international SIM cards the same or are there pitfalls you should avoid? Make sure you check the following six things:
Your phone may be incompatible or locked
Your U.S. phone won’t necessarily work in all countries. For the phone to work in Europe it will need to support GSM and be at least tri-band. If it’s a CDMA device or only for U.S. frequencies then it won’t matter what SIM you put in – it won’t work. It’s also possible it’s locked to your domestic U.S. network; T-Mobile US, Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, for example. If so, you’ll need to get the phone unlocked before you can put in a SIM from a new network. If you call your network they should be able to help you with this.
Are incoming calls free?
In the U.S., incoming calls and text messages are often chargeable. That’s not always the case in other countries, especially Europe. Therefore, if you can choose an international SIM card that offers free incoming calls then you can often stay in touch more cheaply by sending a text message and getting someone to call you. But be aware – not all countries may be free. Check the call charges for your destinations.
Does the phone number you get make you expensive to call?
Every SIM has a phone number – sometimes more than one – which in turn will be registered to a country. Even “international SIM cards” have to be registered to one country. For example, a U.S. number will begin with +1, a U.K. number +44, a French number +33. No matter where you are at the time, when people call you it will be as if they are calling that country. So even though you may be in Canada, if you have French SIM and your family back in New York call you, they will pay for an international call to a French number. If you have one person who may be contacting you a lot during your trip, then it might be worth considering an international calling card for them. Also, not every U.S. landline can make international calls by default. Sometimes you’ll need to get this service unblocked by your home service.
Can you check your usage for runaway spend?
SIM cards can be prepaid or postpaid. Prepaid is easier to control spend because you can’t spend more than the credit you put on, but they are less convenient because you have to keep topping up. Postpaid provides more freedom, but you need to keep aware of your call spend. Some of the best providers offer an online way to not only check your usage to date, but also download a record of all your calls.
Check for inflated call rates, especially to ‘local’ numbers
Some international SIM cards offer really competitive headline rates, but these may only be for certain countries and certain call types. Make sure to check the call types for the countries you’ll be visiting. And keep in mind that because these are international SIMs, if you’re in Germany calling a German number this may not be a local call. International SIMs typically come from a single network, the U.S. or U.K., for example, and they roam at reasonable rates. Therefore if you have a U.K.-based international SIM and you’re in Germany calling a German number this is actually a roamed call, not a local Germany-to-Germany call and it could be more expensive.
Beware: hidden data use in smartphones?
If you take a SIM that allows data (for the Internet and e-mail) and put the SIM into a smartphone (i.e. Android, iPhone), be aware that smartphones use data all the time in the background. Even though you’re not browsing, the phone is downloading the latest mail, Twitter feeds and software updates. It may even be synching your photos back to a central server the whole time. If your international SIM card charges for data on a per-megabyte basis, you can easily run up a large bill. Look to choose either a SIM that doesn’t allow data and instead take a separate mobile hot spot product or choose a SIM that has a decent sized data bundle. However, roaming voice and data SIMs with bundles can often be expensive and hard to find.
Peter Whelerton is technology director for the Cellhire Group – a provider of telecoms products for global travelers, specializing in events like the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup. Whelerton has a background in e-commerce and software development and manages teams creating mobile services, applications and websites.
