Travel SIM cards – are they worth it?
It’s a common story: traveller returns home from fabulous overseas trip to discover that they have incurred an enormous phone bill, often running to thousands of dollars. And it’s not surprising. Your provider will change exorbitant rates for both phone calls and data usage. To give you an idea of what you could be up for, a 2013 report from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network found that Vodafone customers were paying an eye-watering $51.20 per MB for overseas data usage, the highest in the country.
So what to do? In short, plan ahead. You should absolutely avoid using your Australian mobile overseas like you would do at home. Purchasing a pre-paid local SIM for your phone is a great option. The choices fall broadly into two categories – a global SIM bought before you travel or a local SIM bought on arrival. Each has their benefits. With a global SIM you understand the charges and lock it in before you travel. Because you can use them across multiple countries they are very convenient and give good rates for calling Australian numbers. If you’re just visiting the one country, a local SIM will be much cheaper with basic plans starting from around $20 a month. Generally you can’t use these to make international calls though you can receive incoming calls from home. For both of these options you’ll need to make sure that your Australian phone is unlocked and able to be used with a different SIM, so check with your provider before you go.
Before you invest however, you might be able to stick with your current plan, depending on where you’re travelling to. In response to travellers’ complaints about exorbitant roaming fees, most major Australian telcos have also drastically changed their policies and you can now pay a small additional fee on top of your standard bill to access international services. For example, Vodafone offers global roaming at a capped fee of $5 per day in over 40 countries (including most of Europe, the UK, US, New Zealand, Thailand and Singapore). This one fee gives you access to all of the call, text and data included in your current Australian plan – so be careful not to go over your limit. You also won’t be charged the $5 on any days that you don’t use your phone. If you just want to use data, there are also new options on the market. Optus has introduced $10 per day flat rate packs that include 50MB of data per day and Telstra pre-paid customers can now activate International Travel Passes for three, seven, 14 or 30 days priced at $5 or $10 per day (depending on destination) with 50MB of data per day.
If you want to know for certain that you won’t blow the budget, go for a prepaid travel SIM that won’t let you go over the limit. But it’s also worth checking out the options your current provider offers, depending on your call or data needs.
For more information about Over60 Travel Insurance, call 1800 622 966.
Related links:
10 mistakes we all make when travelling (and how to avoid them)
3 common travel illnesses (and how to avoid them)
What to do in an emergency while travelling