Using your cell phone overseas can be a costly experience. For this reason, if you want to prevent paying enormous phone bills when you come back from your trip, please follow the tips below to using your cell phone overseas.
How To Use Your Cell Phone Overseas?
In fact, there are a few things you must do in order to be able to use your cell phone overseas. For instance:
Unlock Your Cell Phone (if it is not already unlocked).
The first thing you want to ensure when you are traveling over seas with your phone is to have it unlocked. So no matter where you are traveling to you must have an Unlocked cell phone in order for you to be able to use your phone there.
With all this said, the most common unlocked phones that work almost any where in the world are GSM unlocked phones.
How To Unlock Your Cell Phone?
Simple. If your cell phone is currently locked to your cell phone provider, you need to call them and ask them to unlock it for you and explain to them that you are traveling over seas and you want to use it there. Usually they will do it for free under certain conditions (check with your carrier on that).
Moreover, you could go to any mobile store in your area and have them unlock the phone for you. This can be done for a small fee.
Ensure Your Phone Will Work In The Destination You Are Traveling To
So ensuring your phone will work in the destination you are traveling to is by far the most important thing to do before you leave for your travel. For instance, most countries of the world (especially Europe) run on GSM networks. So if you have an unlocked GSM phone, it should work almost anywhere in the world.
On the other hand, if you have a Verizon or a Sprint cell phone which run on CDMA network, they will not work in Europe. You then must purchase a new unlocked GSM cell phone.
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Furthermore, there are countries in the world such as countries of Europe that use the dual-band frequencies of 900 to 1800. Unlike the States, they use band frequencies of 850 to 1900. So please ensure your phone is compatible with these band frequencies in the country you are traveling to. Other wise, you will have issues with your phone there.
How To Use Your Cell Phone Overseas?
Check For International Roaming Packages
As you already know, most cell phone carriers now have roaming plans which they offer to their customers when traveling abroad. With this said, these maybe expensive to use, depending on the carrier you are currently with. So make sure that if they have good travel packages or roaming plans you enroll so to avoid enormous phone bills when you come back.
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With this said, if your cell phone provider has roaming packages in the destination you wish to travel to, please ask them and see how you can opt in and ask as many questions so to not be surprised with your phone bill when you are back from your trip.
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Turn Off Cell Data And Use Wi-Fi Instead
So if you are staying at a hotel over seas or at a place where there is free WiFi available, ensure you turn off cell phone data and use the WiFi instead. This way, you can use your phone for free without having to worry about incurring enormous phone bill when you come back.
If you are not sure how to turn off cell data and turn on WiFi, please check out the video below for further instructions on how to do that.
Furthermore, you could also put your phone in Airplane mode and connect to a Free WiFi network. Please check out the video below for more information on how you can do that.
Use Google Voice or Skype Instead of Making Calls
This is basically using these free VOIP apps in order to make calls back home so you can stay connected with friends and family while away. The best thing to do is to have these Apps already downloaded on your phone before you leave for your trip.
Furthermore, once you are connected to a free WiFi network, you can make calls using these apps to call friends and family back home at no extra charge to you (as long as you have data roam turned off and you are connected to a free WiFi network).
Use An International Roaming SIM card
If your cell phone provider does not have a roaming package for you that meets your needs or is rather expensive for you to use. Instead you could simply purchase a local SIM card in the country you are traveling to, or you could even purchase a SIM card online before you leave for your trip.
For instance, when traveling to Europe, there are great SIM cards that can be purchased (must be used on Unlocked phone in order for them to work properly) ahead of time and they work great for when in Europe. They are more cost effective to use than to have to use cell phone provider’s roaming packages.
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