Traveling is a wonderful activity most people partake in. Unfortunately, no matter how fun traveling is and how excited you are about your next trip, it has its headaches as well. The biggest issue travelers usually encounter is high phone costs.
The simplest way to ensure you don’t rack up high phone bills when traveling is to leave your phone behind. This is the true meaning of being disconnected. However, realistically speaking, this might be like aiming for the moon since you might need it as you travel, like using Waze to find your way around a place, having your travel documents and transactions on your phone, simply getting in touch with your travel companion if you get separated, taking photos and videos of your trip even. If it really cannot be helped, remember these few things.
International roaming
Yes, it is important to let your friends and loved ones that you arrived safely at your destination. Yes, answering that message or call from your boss is essential. However, don’t be surprised if that one message or that quick call will cost you USD 10 to USD 20 easy. One of the things that can save you some dollars is to check if your provider has an affordable traveling plan. For a certain additional amount, you can call and text people without the fear of paying thousands of dollars in roaming charges. Another thing that you can do is to buy a local SIM card and use it for local calls. Just make sure your phone is not locked to your provider. If it is, try to buy an inexpensive unlocked phone that you can use. This is still much cheaper than using your locked phone and/or running up international calls and texts on your phone bill.
Use free Wi-Fi
Most developed countries have free Wi-Fi in public places and they are quite stable too. Instead of using your mobile data, which may kick your phone bill several notches up, use what is free to access your emails, receive and send messages online or place and accept calls. To make sure you don’t accidentally or intentionally turn on your mobile data, set it to Airplane mode or turn off Data Roaming. This way, it will only work if it detects Wi-Fi. You can also double check which of your apps use mobile data. Temporarily change the setting to Disable so it does not auto-activate and unknowingly start the meter on mobile data. As long as it is free, feel free to reply to a text message or place that call or play pay by phone casino. One caveat though, beware of making online transactions and entering personal financial information while using public Wi-Fi.