International Sim Card??

[CoP Luv]

I am going to be traveling in Europe and want to have access to a phone for emergencies. Both of our phones are off limits to new sim cards (one is corporate and one is locked on Straight Talk). I have an old Samsung S4 that is unlocked originally through AT&T that I am thinking about using for calls. We will have both of our iPhones that will be accessible for Wi-Fi, but this would be a true emergency only, no Wi-Fi needed phone.

I looked into two companies: WorldSim and OneSim. Then I also started seeing info on Vodafone or Tim brands too.

We will be in Italy, (possibly) Switzerland, Amsterdam, and Norway. We will be flying through Germany and Ireland as well.

Who has done this? Any sim card brand you would recommend if you couldn't add onto a domestic carrier?

Other ideas??

Thanks!

 

[Alesia]

I bought a world phone sim card before I went to Europe last year and I never could get it to work.

I would just wait until you get there and buy a cheap phone

 

[DizMe]

I paid a bunch to get sim cards for 2 of our phones when we went to England and neither of them worked (one iphone, one samsung). We couldn't get a refund, either. We did manage to do fine with wifi, but sim cards IMO are not worth the trouble. It's quite possible it was a verizon issue but we thought we had that covered before we left.

 

[DizMe]

BTW, I took our phones into Verizon to make sure they were unlocked and ready, and I went to a place in London to have the sim cards put in and was told they were working fine. They were not. I read that Verizon can have a sort of secondary block on things like that even though the phone itself is unlocked; not sure about that, but it was annoying to say the least.

 

[4kids4karen]

For our summer trip to Korea we are renting a Wifi Egg from the airport instead of a sim card for my phone. much easier. Most AirBnB in Korea provide a free wifi egg. We are only staying at an AirBnB three nights of our two week stay we we decided to rent from the Airport.

Wifi Egg or Pocket Wifi is the way to go.

 

[CoP Luv]

I paid a bunch to get sim cards for 2 of our phones when we went to England and neither of them worked (one iphone, one samsung). We couldn't get a refund, either. We did manage to do fine with wifi, but sim cards IMO are not worth the trouble. It's quite possible it was a verizon issue but we thought we had that covered before we left.

We will have WiFi in our AirBnB for the first week, but won't the second week. Do you remember which company you bought yours from?

For our summer trip to Korea we are renting a Wifi Egg from the airport instead of a sim card for my phone. much easier. Most AirBnB in Korea provide a free wifi egg. We are only staying at an AirBnB three nights of our two week stay we we decided to rent from the Airport.

Wifi Egg or Pocket Wifi is the way to go.

I will have to look into this. Is this a WiFi only device? Or can calls be made in and out?

 

[afan]

I will have to look into this. Is this a WiFi only device? Or can calls be made in and out?

You can use skype over the internet https://secure.skype.com/calling-rates?language=en We're going to Paris for a week next month and are also getting pocket wifi. It made more sense financially.

The other option, since you are looking at just emergencies, is to see how much it would be to use the phone you already have. With AT&T I can set it up on the website so it's available to use but if I never turn international roaming on I won't get charged a dime. This way if I needed it for an emergency I would have access and pay like $10 for a 24 hour period and it would go against the minutes/data of my regular plan. Not sure this is doable with straight talk and the other is a corp phone so it can't, though if they need to be reachable for work (which I would hope isn't the case since it's vacation).

 

[CoP Luv]

We will have access to WiFi already for the first week, so we don't really need additional wifi. It is more when we are out and about, just in case. But I guess if we look into a pocket wifi, then we can always FaceTime if needed. How does Skype work with voice calls? Is it a charge per minute?

My phone is locked through Straight Talk and they don't have any international options as far as I can tell. The corporate phone isn't an option since it would be billed to the company, not to us.

 

[Alesia]

We will have access to WiFi already for the first week, so we don't really need additional wifi. It is more when we are out and about, just in case. But I guess if we look into a pocket wifi, then we can always FaceTime if needed. How does Skype work with voice calls? Is it a charge per minute?

My phone is locked through Straight Talk and they don't have any international options as far as I can tell. The corporate phone isn't an option since it would be billed to the company, not to us.

Keep in mind that while you may have WiFi in your hotel or in your house, you won't have it while you're out and about -- and trust me, you'll wish you did.

 

[elgerber]

BTW, I took our phones into Verizon to make sure they were unlocked and ready, and I went to a place in London to have the sim cards put in and was told they were working fine. They were not. I read that Verizon can have a sort of secondary block on things like that even though the phone itself is unlocked; not sure about that, but it was annoying to say the least.

My dd spent 6 months in the UK last year and we visited for 10 days. We both used UK SIM cards with no issue and we have Verizon so I don’t think Verizon blocks things.

 

[Queeneileen]

I have T-mobile which has free international texting and WIFI. You have to pay for calls, but quite reasonable for emergencies. I go to Ireland often and it's great to text the kids and use WIFI any time when I'm there. You could sign up for T-Mobile with your Samsung and cancel when you get home. You can also get "pay as you go" phones when you get there, but you may need one for every country.

 

[Anthony1971]

The cheapest way is to rent a phone. There are places in the US that provide this service with calling etc.
To use your personal phone the company you are with which will have to a mainstream like ATT, Verizon or Sprint will have partners in different countries you will need to pay both large fees and that is providing you have a phone that is capable of being used overseas as most are not with the main exception of the universal IPhone models that are purchased direct from apple and some carriers, ATT in general is not one of them you have a much better chance if it is from Sprint or Verizon. As I said it is far cheaper to and easier to just rent one for a week or two...as you will likley end up with a 200+ additional phone bill upon your return. As others have said disable all and use WIFI but this will not act as an emergency phone.

 

[sarahsays]

I use giffgaff. They will mail you the sim card to your US address and it's a +44 (UK) address. I have been to every place on your list with my UK sim and the EU rate is the same as the UK rate. From what I remember calls to the US are .01 pence/minute and .08p/text and pictures are .15p/message. You don't sign up for a contract, you just use the top-up option.