Over the past decade and during countless work and personal trips, I’ve tried many different international data solutions. These included the usual suspects: local SIMs, international roaming, and Google Fi. However, none of these options were particularly satisfying in terms of convenience, price, or performance/coverage. In fact, they were often quite frustrating.
When we started traveling full-time, I needed to optimize our international data plan options. Initially, we opted for an unlimited plan with Holafly. This was convenient at first because we didn’t have to worry about data consumption. We used this setup for several months before realizing we were overspending.
First of all, unlimited plans are much more expensive than prepaid plans. Also, we found that when we’re in countries with reliable WiFi in hotels or homestays, we use far less data and really couldn’t justify the extra expense.
On top of that, since we move to a new country every month or so, we end up buying a brand new plan each time. This means we’re wasting money by leaving behind plans that still have time remaining.
Because of all this, we’ve switched to another e-SIM provider that solves these problems and also addresses some of the issues I had with other international data solutions. For instance, there are several reasons I can’t stand buying local SIM cards:
- The one in the airport is often closed, so you have to find one on the streets. But since you don’t have a data card, you don’t have a convenient way to look one up!
- The security at these stands is laughable. I never feel comfortable walking away with a photocopy of my passport sitting in the open on the desk of a kiosk.
- The top-up process is painful, often requiring you to find another kiosk location and involving the purchase and installation of another SIM card.
- It’s difficult to determine what the coverage and performance will be, and the agents are often more eager to sell you a card than give you the full story.
- You can’t tell what your consumption is, so you’re prone to running out of data when you’re in an unknown location in an unknown country.
New e-SIM providers are popping up everywhere now, and the challenge is finding one that addresses these issues while keeping costs low. Many of these companies are starting up without the beneficial infrastructure that can give their customers a quality user experience.
Years ago, it was fine if you offered a QR installation process. It’s fairly simple: you just scan the QR code using your phone’s camera, follow the prompts, and voilà. But this requires that you have two internet-connected devices, which can be a challenge for solo travelers, those setting up a connection for the first time, or those who have lost their data and need to set up or re-up their existing plan. This is why I strongly prefer an e-SIM provider that has a mobile app to simplify the installation process. Here are a few things I look for in an app
- The ability to shop for additional data cards and/or re-up your existing e-SIM card. Sometimes you might want to use a regional plan instead of a world plan to save a few bucks, or go with a cheaper country-specific plan if you don’t plan to visit other areas.
- Notifications and the ability to check the consumption of your plan. There’s nothing worse than getting stranded somewhere because your data plan unexpectedly runs out.
- The ability to manage e-SIMs from my phone. My wife isn’t technical at all, so I like being able to handle our e-SIMs. For her, it means she always has data and never needs to think twice about it.
- A user-friendly app with a helpful guide that explains what to do before you do it. The e-SIM configuration is fairly rigid once it’s complete, and help personnel will be limited in what they can do to troubleshoot. Even more so if you can’t reach them because you have no data!
We now set up our e-SIMs before takeoff on our trips and simply activate them when we arrive. It’s SOOO nice to be connected instantly upon arrival. It saves you the stress and annoyance of scrambling to figure out a local SIM option when you get there.
After traveling to more than a dozen countries over the last year and a half, we only use Airalo e-SIMs. They’re a lifesaver. By the way, you can use this link to get $3 off. This is in addition to the credits you earn each time you get a new SIM. Enjoy!
By the way, if you’re interested in knowing how we use e-SIMs to get free international calls, you’ll definitely want to check out this post!
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