the cool thing about europe, is that a few years ago the EU passed a law stating that phone plan (for a lack of better words???) companies could not charge roaming fees if their customers used their plan outside of the country they purchased it in. this means that my belgian based provider is not allowed to charge me extra for using data in italy. we love that for us!
first things first, some (american) providers will not let you remove your sim card from your phone if your phone is not completely paid off. if you’re anything like me, that means you’re in a “oh crap” situation because you owe too much on your iPhone and paying out the butt for an international plan is just too dang expensive.
so, after much research (and actually doing it!) I finally figured out the cheapest way to do it. borrow an old phone that has a hot spot capability and one that does not have a sim card and is unlocked. people tend to have older iPhones just laying around- I borrowed my aunts iPhone 3GS (thank goodness she kept the charger). bring your phone with you, if you packed light -see my previous post on that here-, this will be your camera for your trip.
the first country you land in, head over to the nearest Orange provider (yes- that’s the name of the company). buy the plan that works for you. the plan I had was non contractual, cost me 10 euros a month, and came with 5 gigs of data and 20 mins of call time to other european numbers. you can add on extra data at any point for a couple of euros.
so now is the complicated part:
- keep your personal phone on airplane mode, shut off cellular data, and enable wifi calling only
- insert your new sim card into the extra phone you brought
- anytime you need to use data, hotspot your extra phone to your personal phone
- done!
it seems difficult but its actually not. this enables you to use your phone the same way you always have- just be sure to use whatsapp and not your regular way of calling/messaging.
I hope this saves you $$$ and any frustrations! it worked great for me, and I did this for 6 months. happy travels!
