Best Travel Sim card?

[ramboflyer]

On our last overseas trip in 2015 I purchased an Australia Post travel sim card which I have kept active. With this sim you are allocated a Estonian (sounds like something out of Dilbert) phone number.

It worked out ok but I wonder if there is a suitable alternative where you can keep your own number? This can be helpful for those back home you didnt give your Elbonian number to and sometimes you give airlines and hotels contact numbers and out of habit you give them your normal mobile number.

I was told in the past that Vodaphone have a sim you can use for $5 a day. You are charged if you use the phone and then only a maximum of $5 a day. I dont know if I misunderstood or if it has changed but having a look at the Vodaphone web site it seems that you have to sign up to a plan and then your $5 gets you access to your normal phone and data usage.

I dont want to sign up to a plan as I am very happy with the Aldi prepaid deal that I currently have.

We are heading overseas again later this year (Italy & Greece) and I wonder if there is a sim where I could keep my own number and not cost a fortune. Data is not that important as there plenty of free wifi to use these days.

 

[Austman]

OP asked about keeping their own number.

Own number is limited to your service provider, if you are with aldimobile then the only option to keep own number is to pay aldimobile charges for international roaming.

You can port that number to a telstra prepaid, I guess. Then you can buy the international roaming data packs. But will have to pay telstra call rates for the rest of the year.

OR get a Telstra prepaid SIM before you go and simply forward the aldimobile number to it?

OR Maybe aldimobile has something similar to Telstra's International Roaming Browse Plus Packs?

 

[TheRealTMA]

You guys are crazy. Just get a local sim and pop it in your phone. Despite what you think - You do not need your aussie# connected 24/7 while overseas, and if you do - get a dual sim phone which man are better than iphones anyway.

Perfect answer, trippin_the_rift. And now that Europe (currently still including UK) have abolished roaming charges, it makes no sense to pay $thousands to Telstra for roaming data charges. For example a one month O2 sim in London comes with effectively unlimited calls (not to Australia), texts and 12G(!) of data for UKP20. No brainer IMHO. Trivial to swap sims if you need to once a day to check for msgs or redirect your Australian number to new number while you are way.

 

[Vic]

OR get a Telstra prepaid SIM before you go and simply forward the aldimobile number to it?

OR Maybe aldimobile has something similar to Telstra's International Roaming Browse Plus Packs?

That should work. But telstra travel pack value is really dependent on length of travel. Need to check the cost of the options. I think my $85 vodaphone trip was going to cost $160 with telstra
something to check for aldimobile.

or redirect your Australian number to new number while you are way.

and incur international costs for any forwarded calls.

 

[Bundy Bear]

You guys are crazy. Just get a local sim and pop it in your phone. Despite what you think - You do not need your aussie# connected 24/7 while overseas, and if you do - get a dual sim phone which man are better than iphones anyway.

I would have trouble finding a local sim card shop without using the phones data to actually find it.

I used simcorner for a recent 2 week trip to the US $55.00 + shipping which includes 4gig of download, I managed 2.3gig in 2 weeks, maybe I was using Facebook lots and using live video. I didn't have to worry about data limit and it was handy for the navigation.

 

[Vic]

I'm also going to guess the needs of someone who asks abuot best value business class flight to europe because they fly they 12+ times per year are very different to someone taking a once per year holiday.

 

[Austman]

It depends too on your travel patterns.

My last trip to Europe was just for 5 days in Europe but included 4 stops in Asia and SE-Asia.

I'm not sure I want so many local SIMs!

The $29 Telstra prepaid data pack (and it's not really even $29! - that's from the recharge credit - so it's basically free for many) worked instantly in all 5 places. And I didn't even get through 50MB of it ...

 

[equus]

This is getting OT, as it is not travel SIM, but if we are talking about which plans best support international roaming, then some of the Optus Business (including Small Business) plans start to look attractive if you don't mind a fairly large spend, and need a fair chunk of local data.

For $105 per month (I did say fairly large spend), you can get 20GB local data per month, with 1GB of International roaming -and unlimited talk and text - local and international roaming.

I am on a slightly older (and cheaper) version, which includes 10 days per "month" (billing month) of their version of the travel pack, which is $10 per day, for unlimited calls and text, and 50MB of data (but which aggregates for consecutive days - so 10 days is 500MB). Depending on how long a trip, and whether it spans multiple billing months, this works out quite nicely.

Back on topic, for the OP, why worry about your number? As TtR has said, why do you need to worry about your Oz number for calls? If you have a spare handset (and you can get as cheap as you like, no need for a smart phone, but get something unlocked), simply put your regular SIM in the cheapy, with the number diverted to voice mail (assuming yoy have it). This also works well to prevent the phone ringing in the middle of the night in your local time zone because someone has taken to call you on a whim. Assuming you can roam and receive SMS for free, the cheapy with your SIM will get the SMS to say someone has left a message. Use your locally acquired SIM to call up your Voicemail and/or call back whoever called you - or alternatively, ignore them and enjoy your trip.

 

[moa999]

Android Dual SIM with local/roaming SIM

And use All Calls Forward to a local DID (included call on many plans) which then forwards to a VOIP client on your phone (essentially means calls only cost you data).
SMSs to Oz SIM will still come through.

I'm currently using Flexiroam as my secondary SIM

 

[burmans]

My understanding is that within Europe they have or are about to abolish Roaming. As such a local Sim (and it could be local to a cheap country in Europe) seems a much more economical way to go than the $5/$10 per day options offered by Oz Carriers.!

 

[theblank]

But no - the pack you buy INCLUDES local data (technically, you buy a local data pack, and it is free roaming to those countries as provided for in the link above... so you can use it both in Singapore and the roaming countries)

I see they have added this feature now, thats definitely new, and very helpful.

Enjoy your unused data back in Singapore.

I did ring Starhub a year or so ago and whine about this and they told me tough luck.

 

[moa999]

Europe roaming was abolished 15 June, with some limited exceptiona

 

[TheRealTMA]

That should work. But telstra travel pack value is really dependent on length of travel. Need to check the cost of the options. I think my $85 vodaphone trip was going to cost $160 with telstra
something to check for aldimobile.



and incur international costs for any forwarded calls.

Still much better than paying the outrageous prices that Australian telecoms charge for roaming vs £20 a month in Europe.

Last trip to Italy we used a €5 sim for local phone calls and txt access plus 4MBs of data.

 

[serfty]

I'm with Virgin mobile ... Just spent a week in the USA.

For $30, I kept my own phone number and had half a gigabyte of data.

With the amount of WiFi around this was perfectly adequate for 8 days.

My biggest use was google maps using the navigator facility around Texas.

 

[Austman]

I realised that after my trip to Europe with stops each way in SE-Asia and Asia, I did another trip to another 2 non-European countries.

I still had data left on my Telstra international roaming.

So all up, over 3 weeks, I used international data roaming 8 times in 5 countries (only 1 in Europe). And used a total of less than 100MB! All the rest of my data use was with free wifi.

I had to first "tame" my data gobbling iPhone7. Basically with a few settings that stop all the data hungry apps and background data use except when a non-metered connection exists or when the app is specifically activated. This is useful even in Australia!

And turn off mobile data until you actually need to use it. And after using it, turn it off again.

And don't use video when data roaming!

It worked for me. And effectively cost me nothing (or a max $29 for others) as it was from my recharge credit.

No change of phone. No change of plan. No change of number. No buying local SIMs. No buying any other SIMs.

But some careful mobile data use taming.

Certainly not for everyone!

 

[VPS]

Depends what you want - when I get off the plane and want to go somewhere then I want data then and if I'm coming home late I don't want to have to search for free wifi to work out where I am.

I'm in Europe for a few months and have put my Aussie SIM in an old phone and check it occasionally but I think 99.9999% of my acquaintances knew I was going to be away because I kept telling them. I've got the 3 mobile for 20 pounds a month and 12 gb data and more texts and phone calls than I'll want and now the free roaming in Europe is working I think it's great value.

 

[theblank]

Still much better than paying the outrageous prices that Australian telecoms charge for roaming vs £20 a month in Europe.

Not any more. Prices have come right down in the last year or so

 

[TheRealTMA]

Not any more. Prices have come right down in the last year or so

But prices for roaming are still effectively theft. Roaming is one of the greatest ripoffs from Telecos since it effectively costs them nothing extra. Just a club where they all contrive to act as a cartel so they can scam customers from other areas. Our pollies should take note of the EU and ban roaming charges altogether.

 

[TonyHancock]

Certainly not for everyone!

This is the beauty of travel, there is no one size fits all. I alternate between Vodafone $5 per day for the short Asian trips and local sims for my longer European and US trips. I am definitely data hungry though and have to say I have not had the same joy with free wifi. It try to use it where possible but in the UK there is just not enough for me.

I use a cheap Microsoft dual sim phone and have also been known to carry as many as three phones with me, but unsurprisingly the Nexus running Ubuntu dos not get used often!!!!!

 

[Vic]

Still much better than paying the outrageous prices that Australian telecoms charge for roaming vs £20 a month in Europe.

Only if you do something like forwarding an Australian number to an overseas local sim. A number of option have been outlined to have not outrageous costs using Australian telecoms.

There is also the trade off between cost and convenience. I'm even one of these iphone types who is then limited by the lack of dual sim. Many years ago I did get the dual sim iphone case that was sold onboard qantas. But upgraded phones before getting a chance to use it.

 

[jenib]

Like others on this thread, we use the vodaphone $5 international roaming (free in NZ). We also use the family sharing option so my plan costs $50 per month and partner and daughter's plans are $25 per month (and this gives us 10 gb/month in 50 countries and $300 worth of calls). If I travel alone for business I can claim the $5 per day back from tax. If we are travelling on holidays as a family, we use my phone as a personal hotspot and turn data off on the other phones. Seamless and works well and we all get to keep our numbers.

I really like the convenience of just being able to turn on my phone and be back in contact., search the tipping expectations in particular US cities (always forget/too busy to do this before we travel), use google to see the best ground transport options etc etc etc