How to keep in touch on a long trip?

[Princess Fiona]

Newbie extended travel question:
I will be going overseas for a couple of months to the US.
Planning on using my existing phone with a local sim (AT &T) and data, my current plan here is post paid with Telstra.
What should I do to set myself up so that I can still access urgent voicemail messages to my Australian number but not require to re-mortgage my house when I get back?
I would like to use my US number for all routine things while away, give to significant friends/family to txt me so the Australian calls would be expected to be low volume but I need a way to keep track of them.
Is this even possible if the SIM card has been removed from the phone?
Grateful for any answers to above
PF

 

[erkpod]

Divert your Australian number to your US number? Or does that mean refinancing the PF Castle?

 

[bismarck]

I usually have my old iPhone 3GS with data roaming turned off and Do Not Disturb permanently on (to block calls) then just check it every now and then to see if I have a text message advising of a voicemail.

There's also the service which records a ten second voice message and sends it as a text. I wonder whether Telstra would let you specify a different number for sending the text to.

Alternatively (and I don't know how important it is to get messages quickly so this is probably the other end of the spectrum) you could set up an answering service. Something like this Business1300 | 24/7 Live Telephone Answering Service

 

[RB]

Newbie extended travel question:
I will be going overseas for a couple of months to the US.
Planning on using my existing phone with a local sim (AT &T) and data, my current plan here is post paid with Telstra.
What should I do to set myself up so that I can still access urgent voicemail messages to my Australian number but not require to re-mortgage my house when I get back?
I would like to use my US number for all routine things while away, give to significant friends/family to txt me so the Australian calls would be expected to be low volume but I need a way to keep track of them.
Is this even possible if the SIM card has been removed from the phone?
Grateful for any answers to above
PF

From my experience of reading posts on here I would be sending Drewbles a PM.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Divert your Australian number to your US number? Or does that mean refinancing the PF Castle?

That's my worry

 

[JessicaTam]

When i go O/S I change my voicemail message to say 'Don't leave a message - send me a txt or email instead', then I just leave it on 'do not disturb' (an iOS phone). It really shows who listens to the message, BTW.

 

[erkpod]

That's my worry

Considering the low chance of you getting a call, that is the lowest cost option that I can immediately think of.

What I have done in the past is get an Australian Skype number. Divert the Aussie Telstra number to the Aussie Skype number & any phone calls will go to your Skype voicemail. Added benefit for free Skype to Skype (uses data).

 

[neon_crossing]

My advice would be to make a new voicemail message explaining you are overseas and that you check it once a day/every 2 days. Then load up some cash on Skype and use your data/wifi to call the overseas voicemail number to access your voicemail. I do it all the time when I am overseas and it is faultless. And a lot better than diverting calls. call whoever your mobile provider is and they will let you know what the number is and ensure you have a pin to access it.

Also:
You can also buy a subscription to Australia on Skype to get better call rates/minutes or/and even an Australian local number. You can divert the Australian 'online' Skype number to divert to your USA number and that way you can leave it as an option on your voicemail for people to call incase they need to contact you urgently. A very cheap way to get diverted calls and they can pay at local rates.

I would also recommend T Mobile for a provider in the USA. Depending on how long you are there but they have a prepaid $3 a day deal for 200meg data per day. Not bad. they can set you up instore in about 5 mins.

 

[JohnM]

T-mobile is the outfit that cove & Mrscove recommended for a well-priced unlimited outward calls plan from LOTFAP, but nothing said that I can recall about how to handle incoming traffic.

 

[markis10]

Considering the low chance of you getting a call, that is the lowest cost option that I can immediately think of.

What I have done in the past is get an Australian Skype number. Divert the Aussie Telstra number to the Aussie Skype number & any phone calls will go to your Skype voicemail. Added benefit for free Skype to Skype (uses data).

I agree with this, plus you get quick notification of messages via the Skpe app.

 

[DeKa]

When i go O/S I change my voicemail message to say 'Don't leave a message - send me a txt or email instead', then I just leave it on 'do not disturb' (an iOS phone). It really shows who listens to the message, BTW.

I do this too, and use Vodafone's "vacation mode" on voicemail (dial 121 to set it up) to disable leaving messages. Ie "you've called DeKa. I'm away and won't receive your message so please text me on xyz or email me at [email protected]." The voicemail system then says something about leaving voicemail is disabled for this account.

Of course, I may not do this anymore with Red Roaming.

 

[robd]

I did the same as Bismark and carried 2 phones.1 with the Telstra sim (data roaming off), and another with the AT&T sim. Worked well for me.

 

[markis10]

I did the same as Bismark and carried 2 phones.1 with the Telstra sim (data roaming off), and another with the AT&T sim. Worked well for me.

I have a dual SIM phone to prevent carrying two phones, very effective.

 

[UP4014]

Postcard.

There is so much free wifi in the US I wouldn't use a phone (except if urgent).

Matt

 

[kevrosmith]

I transfer my Aussie (post paid) number onto a SIM to put into a basic phone so that I can continue to receive SMS and voice calls if people happen to call (You can get a basic no frills phone from Telstra for $29-$49). Then I get a local SIM to put into my iPhone.

I'm not so much worried about missing calls on my Aussie number, but if you don't have your SIM in a phone, I believe SMS messages expire after a time, and so you may never receive a message people send (if that's important for you - I get business SMS's so it's important for me).

I also have a Skype number, and one time I did re-direct my Aussie number to it and then collected voicemail from it, but I didn't bother with this method last time. I just retrieved my Voicemail direct from Telstra by dialling #101# on the phone: the Voicemail service calls you back (and I assume that was free).

Overall, there are plenty of ways to divert/collect voice calls/messages, but it's the SMS part that gets tricky. I haven't been able to find a way to "divert" SMS messages to another service yet.

If you have an iPhone and use iMessages, it can get a bit tricky then, as iMessages will associate your new overseas number with your iMessages service, and so when you send a new iMessage, you have to specify which "service" to send as: either the phone number or your iTunes account (email address) etc. (People more savvy with these things may be able to suggest how best to handle this).

 

[RooFlyer]

Another vote for taking an old phone with the Aussie SIM in it. Also helps that it has all your Aussie numbers in it. If cough happens, there's a bunch of people / insurance you'll want to call right then, hang the cost (or call on the local SIM phone) and not want to be faffing around with only a local SIM.

Markis10, which dual SIM phone is that? I've looked at quite a few and haven't yet found one that suits.

 

[harvyk]

I'm a +1 for skype... Set up a skype number (AU$24 for 3 months), set up a redirect from your AU mobile to the skype number, set up voicemail within skype. Then you can listen to any voice mails where ever you are. If you have a relatively recent phone, you can also get a skype app for your phone, that way when someone calls your AU phone number, it'll ring through on your mobile via skype. Would also be a cheap way to allow family / friends in AU to be able to call you whilst in the states since to them it would cost the same as calling your mobile locally and there would be no extra charge for you, just a little bit of data.

 

[bobmitchll]

Actually, the T-mobile deal is better than that. $3 a day gives unlimited calls and 200 meg fast data with excess slower. You can elect to spend $2 or $1 giving you only the slow data or no data respectively. If you do not use the account on any day, no charge.

 

[Bindibuys]

Another vote for taking an old phone with the Aussie SIM in it. Also helps that it has all your Aussie numbers in it. If cough happens, there's a bunch of people / insurance you'll want to call right then, hang the cost (or call on the local SIM phone) and not want to be faffing around with only a local SIM.

Markis10, which dual SIM phone is that? I've looked at quite a few and haven't yet found one that suits.

+1 for taking an old phone with us, plus allows me to easily access notes / numbers etc - info held in my phone.
Would also be interested in which phone Markis10 is using.

 

[markis10]

Markis10, which dual SIM phone is that? I've looked at quite a few and haven't yet found one that suits.

Would also be interested in which phone Markis10 is using.

Galaxy S Duos.