How do you get the best international phone plan?
A connected smartphone is the most valuable travel tool in your backpack. You can use it to find your hotel with Google Maps, call an Uber, check-in for your flight. But without a locally functional data plan, you won’t be able to do any of that the moment you land in a foreign country. So what should you do? The easy answer is; Google Fi has the best international phone plan. But, there are several ways to use your phone abroad, so lets go over them from worst to best:
Terrible Option for the Best International Phone Plan:
You Do Nothing. You pay up to $4000 for 2GB of data!
Let’s say you don’t bother signing up for an “international plan” with your cell phone provider. You own an expensive phone that you got from your provider for “free” and have a monthly payment plan, so it is “locked”. “Locked” means that your provider (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon) effectively owns your phone, and it is impossible to put another providers SIM card in it and get it to work. If you are in this situation, you are pretty much out of luck. No cell service, no international plan, and no ability to pop in a local SIM card. Even worse, you may get some signal bars on international roaming which will allow you to run up a massive bill that could amount to more than your entire vacation!
If this is your situation, your only recourse is to immediately put your phone in AIRPLANE MODE, and then enable WIFI. This way you can at least use your phone on hotel wifi, with no chance of running up a bill. Remember, cell phone apps constantly download data automatically in the background, even if you are not using it. A phone left on, actively connected to cell towers, and untouched for a week, can still run up a big data bill. Without a purchased global roaming plan, both Verizon and AT&T charge about $2 per minute for international calling from Europe, and $2 per MB of data!! If you spent all day on your phone downloading movies, and uploading photos, it would be possible to run up a $2000 bill in just one day! There are many better ways to get one of the best international phone plans.
Bad option for the Best International Phone Plan:
You own a LOCKED phone, and sign up for a major provider’s “Global Roaming Plan”. Up to $300 for 2GB.
These rates will still be very high no matter which provider you use. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint all have international plans you can sign up for. With these plans you won’t have to pay crazy amounts, like $2 a megabyte, but the options are still terrible. Both AT&T and Verizon offer a $10 a day global roaming plan, which allows you to use your normal data and voice plan abroad for an additional $10 each day you use anything. When you include Sprint Global Roaming, all three plans compare as about the same price. That means you are effectively paying $300 extra per month. This is not the best international phone plan.
One exception is T-mobile’s ONE Plan which allows you to text and browse the web from most countries without roaming fees. But it really only provides the bare minimum mobile internet access at deathly slow speeds of about 256kbps or 2G. It is a great choice for travel to Mexico or Canada, as you’ll get the same unlimited data plans & calling service as you do in the US. Outside North America, I would replace it with a local SIM as soon as possible.
A Mediocre Option for the Best International Phone Plan:
You own an UNLOCKED phone, and you purchase an “International SIM card”. $40 for 2GB
This will allow you to use your mobile cell phone in many different countries. The rates will vary country by country. Be sure to verify that the country you are visiting is covered, and at a reasonable rate. These companies buy up data/minutes from local cell service providers worldwide, and then charge you a premium to use them.
Here are some of the most popular, ranked by how much they charge for a SIM with 2 gigabytes of data;
- WorldSim $33.75
- GoSim $35 to $178 depending on the country
- GigSky $39.99 but good for only 15 days
In my view, worldwide sim cards are a bad deal. You still have to go through the hassle of ordering it and activating it, just like you would getting a SIM in-country. And yet, they are more expensive than a local in-country SIM.
*** ROADBLOCK ALERT FOR USA TRAVELERS***: There are two main types of cellular data networks in the world; CDMA and GSM. In the US, Sprint, Verizon, and US Cellular use CDMA. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM. Pretty much the entire rest of the world uses GSM. Some phones can connect to both networks. So what does this mean for you? If you purchased your phone directly from Sprint, Verizon, or US Cellular; there is a high possibility that it is CDMA ONLY. This means that your phone is a useless brick everywhere else on Earth. Seriously. Even if your CDMA phone is “unlocked”, it can’t connect to a GSM network. If you have such a phone, and plan to start traveling, it’s time for a new phone.
Cheapest Option for the Best International Phone Plan:
Buy a local SIM card on arrival. $5 to $20 for 2GB.
The cheapest way to communicate and get mobile internet access abroad is usually buying a local SIM card. You cannot do that if your phone is locked, so pay off that new iPhone ASAP!
You want to buy a local sim card as soon as possible upon arriving in a new country. Often there are kiosks in airport arrivals terminals. You pick out a pre-paid plan that works for you, and the agent will put the sim in your phone and activate it on the spot. Now you can walk out of the airport with access to all the critical things you need like hailing an Uber, and Google Maps to find your hostel.
You might be shocked at how cheap and easy these local SIM plans can be. I have paid as little as a dollar a day for data plans in some African countries. You may have to provide a copy of your passport and fill out some forms. Many countries want to know who has what phone number in order to track and stop terrorism. Some simply want to be able to spy on their own population.
Besides being the cheapest way to access data, with a local sim card, you get a local telephone number. This is really important if you want to receive calls. With a worldwide SIM or an International Plan, you’ll be able to call people. However, in a developing country cell phone minutes are precious. Nobody is going to call you back if you have a foreign phone number.
If you run out of minutes or data, you can usually top-up by purchasing extra data on little scratch-off-code tickets at convenience stores. And before you start buying SIM cards, make sure you are using a credit card that gets you maximum bonus miles. To learn how, check out my page: Nine Steps to Flying Free Worldwide
The Best International Phone Plan:
Sign up for Google Fi. $20 or less for 2GB in 164 Countries!
I highly recommend that anyone planning to do a large amount of international travelling switch their service provider to Google Fi. With Google Fi, you don’t have to sign up for a pricey “International Plan”. And you don’t get worthless 2G data speeds internationally like T-Mobile’s “One”, you get data at whatever the top speed the local cell towers can offer, which is always at least 3G, and usually 4G.
It offers two plans; With UNLIMITED data plan you get unlimited data use, in 164 countries, as well as unlimited voice and texting for just $70 a month, plus taxes. After 22GB of data use, your data is slowed, but who uses 22GB a month?? You also get Google One membership with 100GB of storage in the cloud.
With the FLEXIBLE plan, you pay $20 a month plus taxes, and $10 per GB of data used, with data above 6GB FREE. Basically, if you go over 6GB a month, your bill is $80 plus taxes, and you would have been better off choosing UNLIMITED. For people who are always under 6GB a month FLEXIBLE is the right option.
With both cell phone plans, you CAN also use your phone as a hotspot tether. There is NO contract, you can cancel at the end of every month. And you don’t get worthless 2G data speeds internationally like T-Mobile’s “One”, you get data at whatever the top speed the local cell towers can offer, which is always at least 3G, and usually 4G-LTE. International voice calling rates are reasonable too, usually not more than 21 cents a minute, and free over wi-fi. And if you are looking for a family cell phone plan, the more phones you add to your account, the cheaper it gets per phone.
I was with AT&T for years, but their international cell phone plan is massively overpriced, so I switched to T-Mobile. I had heard T-Mobile had “free” data in 200 countries. Well, that’s technically true, but its 2G data. Does anyone even know what 2G is anymore? Well, let me tell you, it’s like using that AOL dial-up CD your dad got in the mail in 1993. Not much fun. I spent 20 minutes trying to upload one picture to Facebook in Belize. This year I switched to Fi, and it has made traveling so much easier. I used to have to scramble to buy a new SIM card in the airport of every new country. Now I just use my phone normally.
At home in the U.S., Google Fi uses the cell towers of both T-Mobile and Sprint, switching between whichever has the best signal, so you have more cell coverage than just about anyone else. I have a Pixel 3XL, which is built specifically to use Fi, but most Android and iPhones also work with Fi. If you sign up through my referral HERE, you’ll get $20 off your first bill, and I’ll get $20 off my next bill. Everybody wins!
App Alternatives to “Calling Home”
There is no longer any need to have “minutes” on your mobile phone plan with the many apps available. You can easily circumvent traditional cellular calling when overseas using one of these:
Skype
Skype remains the most popular video chat and voice app. You don’t need the person you’re connecting with to be on Skype as well. With affordable Skype credits, you can call any regular phone number. This may be the best way to keep in touch with grandma.
WhatsApp is a household name all over the world. It has completely replaced “texting” in countries where MMS messages are charged by the message. And it has video-chat just like Skype.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook bought WhatsApp and incorporated the technology into Facebook Messenger. It does most of the same things.
Facetime
If you have an iPhone, you can video chat anyone else on an iPhone for free over wifi.
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