captainflyer

Hi,

I am planning a trip to UK, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand then back to the US. What is the best International Roaming SIM Card?

Thank You!

Dubai Stu

Look carefully at New Zealand. For some reason, that is a country which has less roaming agreements than it should.

For example, United Mobile (Riiing) doesn't work down there. I like globalsimcard.co.uk's sim because it has a good feature set and a number of "free incoming calls." 09.is probably has the best number of list countries, but I've seen some complaints about them on prepaidgsm.net. 09 also does not have voicemail.

Hint: you can get a free US phone number from voicestick.com that will forward to either of these numbers for about US$0.18 a minute.

muddy

T-Mobile has a pretty good add-on for international roaming. I dont think they charge extra (at least not expensive), but you do have to request it. A lot of Europe is 99 cents (US) per minute. The thing I like about it is (assuming I understand it correctly and Im pretty sure I do) is that the rate you get while in a country doesnt change no matter where you call. So if you are in Germany, it cost 99 cpm to call US and 99 cpm to call Argentina.

More expensive than a local SIM but a lot more convenient.

http://www.t-mobile.com/Internationa..._RoamWorldwide

ob1

Buying local cards that have free incoming and then signing up for a jajah.com account could work out cheapest if you are able deal with the process

ob1

I might be wrong but I think yes PLUS the local roaming charge as well?

jason8612

I was looking into the same thing, but all of these for USA or Mexico or Poland have a surcharge. If any card has free calling to those 3 countries, ill get it.

Dubai Stu

09 has free incoming in Poland and Mexico. You are not going to get free incoming in the US. The US gouges for providers for roaming privileges. The best you can do there is something like globalsimcard.co.uk which offers free call forwarding to the US and free incoming in many countries.

jason8612

I read about 09. Only problem its icelandic #. Ill have to get a USA transfer # to point to it.

Dubai Stu

Callbackworld has a US toll free number which is US$0.15 a minute. They charge a US$1.00 fee for the number.

Voicestick is a US geographbical number that they will give you in the area code of your choice and it is like US$0.18 a minute.

muddy

No additional roaming fees are charged, its just the flat rate charge (99 cents for most of west Europe). This is what I like about the plan ... no surprises when I get my bill.

Dubai Stu

I am sorry Muddy, but I really disagree with you on this point. In fact, I had to engage in a battle of certified letters NOT to get put on the T-Mobile "World Class Roaming Plan." To remain on the old "variable rates," I have to stick with a 2001 plan which means I am giving up 200 or so minutes a month, and giving up free nights. T-Mobile has tried to make it inconvenient for folks with the old plan by taking the variable rates off their website, but it is still way better. For example, in Israel, I paid $0.06 a minute to place a local calls. On "World Class," roaming it would be $2.99 a minute.

T-Mobile's World Class rates are fairly comparable with the rates that T-Mobile charges in Europe. The European Union recently found these rates are excessive and has been pressuring the European arm of T-Mobile to reduce roaming rates way below these rates.

Notwithstanding this, I still use a roaming SIM and a callback service. It is vastly cheaper than the old variable rates, let alone the new World Class Rates. I receive calls in over 80 countries at $US0.14 a minute and using a call back service at the same rate.

The day T-Mobile makes me give up variable rates is the day that I quit T-Mobile.


Stu

pdhenry

Grandfathered plans don't really help the OP though, do they?

muddy

Details on the callback thing and roaming sim would be great ... whats your set up?

Not being argumentative, but what were you disagreeing with? I go to Germany and talk 10 minutes and am charged $9.99 .... are you saying I am misunderstanding my bill?

GUWonder

You are paying way more than I would.

muddy

It's more than Id like to pay too!

I only use it when I dont have a way to Skype. I used to do the local sim card juggle, but it was usually around 50 euro cents per minute on top of the ~$30 sim card and then I had to worry about the acct expiring, remembering the phone numbers, changing the sim, etc.

My situation is a bit odd, I guess. I might be in any of a number of countries every other month for 3 months and then not back for a year.

What are some cheaper alternatives without multiple sim cards?
Note: my calls a variable country x to country y .... neither x nor y are fixed ... so I think a callback service wouldnt work for me.