Cheapest way to use your smartphone internationally

[-Lew-]

1 hour ago, longterm said:

We went ahead and made the switch

 

Well, that's a surprise!  I thought you were a dyed in the wool AT&T guy...

 

Welcome to T-Mobile!!  Hope your experience is a good as mine.  

 

You mentioned $100 per month for two phones.  We're at $90 for two with auto-pay on our debit card.  Were you offered that option?

 

Be sure to install the T-Mobile and T-Mobile Tuesdays apps and sign up for their dining rebate program.

 

Enjoy...

[longterm]

6 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

When I go into my iPhone ‘cellular data’ there is an option in blue ‘convert to eSim’. What would be the difference in doing this than purchasing eSim from an outside source? I am with ATT of that makes any difference 

You can convert your SIM to an eSIM, but it’s still connected to your current provider. If you want to get cheap service overseas, and don’t have T-Mobile, you’ll want to get an additional eSIM. 

[longterm]

46 minutes ago, -Lew- said:

 

Well, that's a surprise!  I thought you were a dyed in the wool AT&T guy...

 

Welcome to T-Mobile!!  Hope your experience is a good as mine.  

 

You mentioned $100 per month for two phones.  We're at $90 for two with auto-pay on our debit card.  Were you offered that option?

 

Be sure to install the T-Mobile and T-Mobile Tuesdays apps and sign up for their dining rebate program.

 

Enjoy...

Well I selected a different plan, but now I’m wondering what the difference is. 
 

i won’t get the new SIMs until Monday or Tuesday so I have some time to investigate. 

[longterm]

48 minutes ago, -Lew- said:

Be sure to install the T-Mobile and T-Mobile Tuesdays apps and sign up for their dining rebate program.

I’ll do that!

[longterm]

1 hour ago, -Lew- said:

You mentioned $100 per month for two phones.  We're at $90 for two with auto-pay on our debit card.  Were you offered that option?

From comparing the two plans, they are similar but not identical;

 

Go5G gives you 50GB data, then throttles down; Magenta gives you 40.
 

In Mexico Go5G gives 15GB of data, Magenta only 5. Since we go to Cancun every year, we will stick with that Go5G plan.

Edited April 27, 2023 by longterm

[Ray4Fun]

We are on 55 plan. With two additional iPads and extra Netflix. 

[longterm]

3 minutes ago, Ray4Fun said:

We are on 55 plan. With two additional iPads and extra Netflix. 

Go5G 55 includes Netflix and Apple TV+;  I’ll be adding my Apple Watch as well for $10/month, and will get a $150 rebate when I do. 

[loriva]

3 hours ago, Ray4Fun said:

Thank you... Oh the phone must be unlocked? Or locked phone is OK, As in an iPhone 13 and above I am asking to. 

 

The phone must be unlocked.

[Vineyard View]

I checked around with a few friends about T-Mobile in our area after reading all this. I didn’t get great feedback on the coverage here. Some experience was pretty recent but maybe I will investigate further because you all have a lot more knowledge on this than I do! 

Our  ATT plan is no longer available and newest plans are a lot more expensive, so it has kept me with them. About the same as you are quoting. I called Verizon since they were advertising free 14 to switch. What a scam that is. Only if your trade in is worth $1k or more and then they will do me the favor of charging me $80/per phone. That was a big NO. 
 

[longterm]

OK, my wife and I made the switch from AT&T to T-Mobile. Our experience wasn't without some frustration, but we got it done.

 

We paid off both phones so that we could get them unlocked; that was required before we could proceed.

 

The 1st rep told me she was sending me SIMs for our 2 iPhones; only after she shipped them did I realize that my iPhone 14 Pro, and my wife's 12 Pro, don't HAVE physical SIMs or a SIM tray--so this was unnecessary, and caused us to wait days, only to throw the SIMs in the trash when they arrived.

The first phone didn't take the eSIM properly, and after the 3rd or 4th person I dealt with (either by phone or chatting on their online chat), I was told that the only way to fix it was to go into a local store. This turned out to be untrue, but that was only one of several mistakes made by T-Mobile reps. We finally deleted the eSIM that never fully activated and redid the process--which I could have done at home, and it worked fine.

 

The 2nd switchover went flawlessly in about 5 minutes.

 

At any rate, we now have international data and texting; data speed will throttle down after 5GB. Since I do a lot of data transfers when connecting to my 25 servers in Atlanta, I'll probably burn through the 5GB fairly quickly, but if I have to, I can always buy an Airalo eSIM if I want to.

 

But the best thing is that we were spending almost $200/month for our 2 phone plans, without the installment charges for our 2 phones. Now we're paying $100/month for both phones, and get Netflix & AppleTV+ for free as well. Such a deal!

[-Lew-]

42 minutes ago, longterm said:

The first phone didn't take the eSIM properly,

 

Your experience switching over was not unlike mine...and I did ours at the T-Mobile store.  My DW's transfer from AT&T worked flawlessly; mine did not.  After a number of false starts the T-Mobile rep was finally successful.  Since then I have found T-Mobile's customer service to be top-notch.

 

I know you're an Airalo fan, but I found the following of interest, you may too:  Top Europe eSIM: Holafly vs Airalo.

 

By the way, check out T-Mobile's new Dining Rewards benefit.  It's fairly new.

 

[longterm]

1 hour ago, -Lew- said:

 

Your experience switching over was not unlike mine...and I did ours at the T-Mobile store.  My DW's transfer from AT&T worked flawlessly; mine did not.  After a number of false starts the T-Mobile rep was finally successful.  Since then I have found T-Mobile's customer service to be top-notch.

 

I know you're an Airalo fan, but I found the following of interest, you may too:  Top Europe eSIM: Holafly vs Airalo.

 

By the way, check out T-Mobile's new Dining Rewards benefit.  It's fairly new.

 

Actually, I haven't used Airalo in a foreign country yet; I tested it here for our upcoming trip to Tuscany in 3 weeks, but now that we have T-Mobile, I don't think we'll need it. 

 

I saw the Rewards benefit thing last night, but I'm not comfortable with letting a service monitor my debit card usage--which is what they do. They also send "targeted ads," which means they'd be flooding me with unwanted advertising... so I deleted the app. 🙂

[KittyKat28]

On 5/3/2023 at 12:48 PM, longterm said:

OK, my wife and I made the switch from AT&T to T-Mobile.

 

@longterm...  Can you relate your experience with T-Mobile in Europe?

[Redtravel]

T-Mobile is German based. I have a stronger signal in Europe than in USA.  Just switched from ATT to T-Mobile.  T-Mobile has good deals if you switch…rebates and new phones only pay the taxes.  In Europe, T mobile is free data and texts.  Calls are 25cents per minute.  Att international plan cost $10 per 24 hour period if you use your phone for anything.  

[longterm]

4 hours ago, KittyKat28 said:

 

@longterm...  Can you relate your experience with T-Mobile in Europe?

It was fine. We were in Tuscany, so a lot of our trip was spent out where there were very few cell towers, but in towns, it worked just fine. 

 

T-Mobile and AT&T use the same technology, so (at least here in the US) I see the same signal strength with T-Mobile that I had with AT&T, and the exact same cell coverage.

 

Paying only a dime per minute for cell calls was nice, plus I was able to use my phone as a hotspot without worrying about it.

[astridwilson]

Do they work on at sea days on cruise ships for data? 

[-Lew-]

1 hour ago, astridwilson said:

Do they work on at sea days on cruise ships for data? 

 

Yes.  Put your phone in Airplane Mode so it does not access the ship's cell service and turn Wi-Fi on to access the ship's Wi-Fi network.