cell phone

26 Feb 2009 Alli said

Hi everyone!

First of all, I know there are tons of posts dedicated to cell/mobile phones and the desirability of bringing them on tours. I've read through a lot of them but I just can't seem to get the answer I'm looking for, so hopefully some nice Canadian can help me! I'm from Canada and will be travelling to Europe in May. I want to have a cell phone when I'm there for emergency purposes/general "I'm still alive" updates to my parents, but MOSTLY for texting. My service provider in Canada is Rogers. Should I a) not do anything and just go over with my current cell phone and sim card and just use it as need be? Will my bill be astronomical if I mostly just text?? b) have my phone unlocked and buy a sim card for Europe, with minutes on it. Will this be cheaper for me as well as my boyfriend back home who I will be texting most of the time? or c) just buy/rent a European/international phone? I'm quite stupid when it comes to technology, and I've been trying to do a lot of research about this topic and I just keep getting confused!

If anyone could give me some advice that would be great! Thanks for reading this

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• 5 Apr 2013 janix said

  

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• 5 Apr 2013 KiaWest said

  

  First you need to check whether your sim will work overseas. Depending on your plan or if you are prepaid it may not let you call or text at all. Also go to your provider’s website and they should list their international rates, if they don’t call them and ask so that you can work out an average cost per day if you were sending x number of texts per day (parents like conversations so don’t think you could get away with too few). If you think it will be too much then you need to figure out which provider you will go with in Europe so look at coverage and rates to send texts home (may vary in different countries). You can buy international sim cards like TravelSIM which are really straight forward and you can recharge online or get your parents to do it for you.
  Depending on the length of your trip you need to be realistic about your budget. On my last trip (Australia to USA and Canada) I was away for a month with a friend and we shared a phone with a travel sim. We texted home everyday and had a few short emergency phone calls , we spent about $200 on recharges. I prefer this because you don’t get an unexpected bill at the end, everything is prepaid and you can buy it before you leave home so you don’t have a gap between arriving in a new country and buying a sim to let your parents know you got there safe.

  First you need to check whether your sim will work overseas. Depending on your plan or if you are prepaid it may not let you call or text at all. Also go to your provider's website and they should list their international rates, if they don't call them and ask so that you can work out an average cost per day if you were sending x number of texts per day (parents like conversations so don't think you could get away with too few). If you think it will be too much then you need to figure out which provider you will go with in Europe so look at coverage and rates to send texts home (may vary in different countries). You can buy international sim cards like TravelSIM which are really straight forward and you can recharge online or get your parents to do it for you. Depending on the length of your trip you need to be realistic about your budget. On my last trip (Australia to USA and Canada) I was away for a month with a friend and we shared a phone with a travel sim. We texted home everyday and had a few short emergency phone calls , we spent about $200 on recharges. I prefer this because you don't get an unexpected bill at the end, everything is prepaid and you can buy it before you leave home so you don't have a gap between arriving in a new country and buying a sim to let your parents know you got there safe. or Cancel
  • 0 people like this