International plan or prepaid phone

[texas bound]

I have AT&T for my IPhone 5S and they told me I could get 30 minutes for $30. In reading Rick Steves, he said he buys a prepaid phone and a sim card when he gets into port. Has anyone had experience with purchasing one of these prepaid phones? Wonder which would be the better deal?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Depends on where you are going

Get your phone unlock

In Italy get a TIM card

http://www.international.tim.it/en/tim-welcome

[Illyria]

Almost anywhere in Europe - if you can get a prepaid phone with a SIM card, you can pretty much guarantee that it'll be cheaper that $1 per minute... no European in their right mind would pay that :)

[WestLakeGirl]

Where will you be cruising?

[vulcan1971]

Consider switching your mobile carrier to T-Mobile. They will pay your ETF to switch companies. Text messaging and network data are free and calls are 20 cents per minute in 110 countries. See details on the T-Mobile website.

 

Sent from my Samsung Note 2 on the T-Mobile 4G LTE Network

Edited July 9, 2014 by vulcan1971

[Lsimon]

I really looked into this the first time we traveled to Europe. I considered the up front cost of a sim card, minimum amounts to prepay it or set up service, the fact that anyone trying to call us would have to call a different phone number in Europe rather than our home number in the USA (try explaining that to elderly parents or others who would only call if there was an emergency). We also considered our expected amount of usage. My conclusion was the best deal for us was just use our existing phone without any special international package. Also consider that the international sims you buy in Europe probably will only work on land and not on the ship at sea. The ship at sea rates are totally different class of service and bill differently than land based international roaming.

 

Unless you expect to use your phone a lot and make lots of calls you will probably be better off just sticking with your current ATT phone and line. Whether or not an international package makes sense depends again on how much you expect to use the phone. $30 for 30 minutes is only a good deal if you use the entire 30 minutes. If you use only 15 minutes then you're paying $2/minute for the package whereas having no package at all would only cost you $1.50/minute. Also consider that the international land packages do not include service at sea on the ship.

 

The only thing you have to do for using your phone overseas is to make sure that international roaming service is enabled for your ATT account. This does not involve a setting on your phone nor does it require the purchase of a package nor any other fee to ATT. It is just a setting at ATT which is sometimes off to prevent international usage on your account unless you request it to be turned on.

 

The only package you MUST have is the international data roaming package if you intend to use cellular data on land when you are overseas for things like email, internet browsing and apps that connect to the internet. With a package cellular data usage is somewhat reasonable but without an international package it is very very expensive. If you do not buy a cellular data package make sure your cellular data roaming is switched off and leave it off.

 

ATT rates and info is here http://www.att.com/att/global/affordable-world-packages/?calling not that there are tabs on the left side for data, messaging and cruise ship info.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Lsimon

[jkgourmet]

Here's a thought: No phone at all. We do access the Internet and email via WiFi while in port. But no need for phone services. Nor do we miss or desire phone calls while on vacation.

 

Whatever emergency exists will be there when we return or have resolved itself.

 

(I admit, we have no small chikdren. But my parents didn't have cell phones when I was a little kid. They travelled, we stayed with relatives, and it all worked out okay.)

[Tommy3putts]

Depends on where you are going

 

Get your phone unlock

 

In Italy get a TIM card

 

http://www.international.tim.it/en/tim-welcome

 

 

This is correct. Depends nowhere you are going. Also as stated above it depends on what you need your phone for. I had a family emergency and that occurred two or three weeks prior to the date of our cruise so I felt the need to stay in communication with family and work in the United States. If you just need internet. Wifi maybe smarter and easier.

 

For example. I just returned from our 11 night Mediterranean cruise. I had my AT&T iPhone5 unlocked prior to leaving. And when I got to Rome three days prior to the cruise purchased a TIM card. (NOTE IPHONE5 has a nano SIM card. But regular MicroSim cards can be trimmed to fit in the phones slot). I was extremely glad I did. Worked great. The only catch is that you will likely need to get other SIM cards depending on what country you're in. For example in Istanbul I purchased a Vodafone SIM card for Turkey. The person at the store informed me that this SIM card should work for a few days in Greece also. However this was not the case, the card would not work at any of our grease stops. I decided not to get a SIM card in Greece and really didn't miss it for a few days.

 

The main benefit of having a SIM card in your smartphone is that you will have both cellular and data service. However, this does not guarantee that you will have data service on your phone while at sea and should not be considered a substitute for Wi-Fi. Note however, that quite frequently during our Mediterranean cruise we were close enough to shore that I did get data service on my phone but you cannot predict when or where.

 

You may want to check in and see if there's a European wide SIM card available rather than having to purchase a SIM card for each country. Rumor has it that this will occur within a year or two in the EU. Also heard that there are maybe some online sites that sell these European wide Sim cards. However my understanding is that these can be expensive.

 

Also check out the ROAMER APP. this is a great app that I used at the recommendation of one of the users on this form. It links your American phone number to the phone number associated with the Sim card that you purchase and allows cheaper calling to and from your American phone number. It worked great for me.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Tommy3putts
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[floridatravelersforlife]

I have tried it all and found the best solution for us was buy Global Text messages from our Cell provider, ATT, and use our phones for Messaging only while overseas. Use Skype from Wifi or hotspots for voice. It's easy to suggest to buy a phone and minutes, but too many times it's too time consuming to find a reasonably priced package for tourists. At the airports they see you coming and rip you off and unless you do your homework and find the retail outlet( whatever it may be) you'll spend your precious time hunting down that phone that may or not be available to non residents. It depends on the Country.

 

I totally agree with T Mobile. They are the best around the world. they provided our home cell service for years until they scaled back and our house reception went downhill.