Reducing cell phone bills when out of the country
If you are a cell phone user planning to travel to out of the country, there are several ways you can save money on your bill.
First, tell friends and relatives that you’ll be out of the country and that barring emergencies, email will be the preferred method of communication except. (Since simply using your phone less when out of the country will save you money.) You can also give them land line numbers to contact you at in case of an emergency or poor cell service.
Next, make sure that your cell phone will work in the destination country, especially if you must use it for business. (For example, Sprint works fine in the US, Mexico, and Canada, but not at all in Europe.) If your cell service provider has service in the country you’ll be visiting, contact them to set up international roaming service. (Sometimes they have roaming service available that is specific to a particular country, as well.) The fee to add this service is usually low, and you’ll save money on every call.
If you travel out of the country regularly, depending on your provider, you may be able to buy phones that accept different SIM cards for the destination countries. Or there’s always the “disposable” cell phone option. You can wait until you get to the destination country and buy a prepaid phone once you get there to use for calls. This option is usually much cheaper than having multiple cell phones or paying roaming charges if you’ll be in the other country for a longer time period.
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June 20th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I started using prepaid cell phone options whenever I was in a foreign country and it worked so well (economical) that I went onto prepaid as my primary phone as well. Because I’m often away for extended periods of time I found it works out better to get prepaid top-ups every time I’m back rather than keeping a contract going. My favorite carrier is Tracfone and right now I’m using a plan called StraightTalk which has incredibly low rates for fairly heavy use. It’s actually much cheaper than an equivalent contract plan.