How do I use my mobile phone overseas without spending a fortune?

It’s a question that frequently comes up in our Travel at 60 community group on Facebook: what SIM should I use when travelling abroad?

We spoke to Jamie Coleman and Peter Huxley, founders of Australian phone plan provider Cmobile, on the important steps to consider before leaving the country.

In most cases, you will have two options: continue using your Australian plan or buy a SIM local to the area you’re visiting. Each has its pros and cons, and ultimately, the safest bet may be a clever combination of both.

“The most important step to remember,” advises Jamie, “is that international roaming with your Australian SIM will always be expensive. So you’ll need to ask yourself what you want to use your phone for.”

“If you’re not going to be using a lot of mobile data, just sending a few SMSs and making a few calls, your current Australian SIM might be enough.”

“International roaming needs to be activated on your account, so make sure this is something you can do with your current plan.”

“However, roaming for all providers will be expensive, so truly, the cheapest way to save money is to get a travel SIM.”

More recent phones will allow eSIMs, where you don’t need a physical card, but can get it downloaded straight to your phone in minutes.

“Or if you’re going to a country for quite a while, you can actually just get a local SIM in that country, and that will be the ultimate cheapest way,” says Jamie.

“You can get them out of a lot of airports these days,” adds Peter. “Just get a prepaid SIM, it may cost you something like $20, you can pay the same rates as the locals, and you won’t come home to a big bill.”

While this can be very cost-effective, Peter believes it’s important to keep access to your current phone account and number while travelling.

“Even if you have a local SIM, be sure to take your Australian SIM with you and have roaming active, because if you get into a bit of a pickle, or find that thing you can’t live without and need to buy, you may need to transfer some money to your bank account.”

“For this, you will probably need two-factor authentication. Your bank will send you an SMS code. If you don’t have your Australian SIM with you, you won’t get that message.”

“I can’t tell you the amount of times we’ve had calls in the middle of the night with people saying ‘I need to get roaming active because I need to transfer money urgently!’ So it’s always a good idea to have it with you for that reason alone.”

Jamie adds that it’s easier than ever to have the best of both worlds.

“If you’ve got a phone that can take two SIM cards, or an eSIM, you can have both currently active on the same phone at the same time. That’s quite a good and cost effective way to stay connected when you travel.”

Looking to cut costs on your Australian phone plan?

Cmobile are currently offering Starts at 60 readers exclusive discounted phone plans from just $9.90 per month.

There are no lock-in contracts and it’s easy to switch from your current provider without losing your current number.

Happily, international roaming is offered on all plans covered by this offer..

“With Cmobile, you can have international roaming on either of our plans,” says Jamie. “It’s available on Red plans using the Vodafone network and Blue plans using the Telstra network.”

“For our Telstra plans we have what’s called a roaming day track, $10 a day for international roaming with unlimited calls and SMS and 200mb of data. That can be an economic option for some people.”

Interested in reducing your phone bill? Simply fill out the form below and one of Cmobile’s award-winning, 100% Australia-based service team will be in touch.

Or click here to book one of their low-cost phone plans online, here and now, within minutes!

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