If you are planning for a trip concerning business matters or for a normal vacation, then you ought to follow a few tips that will prevent you from bloating up your mobile phone bills and have hassle free network coverage. Many service carriers end up charging heavy premiums for the calls made by you when you are not inside your metro area; hence it becomes important for you to check the range of coverage and rates with your service provider. A few choices that are open for you are:
- As soon as you reach your destination, purchase a phone calling card and make use of it from payphones or hotels.
- Usage of your existing phones should be avoided.
- Purchase a new SIM for your current phone.
- Buying a new SIM and new cell phone.
Some of the tips that you should follow so as to cut down on your calling rates are suggested below:
- Roaming: Before you leave for your destination, make sure you have all the necessary information and details about the roaming charges that are different for different service providers so that you can keep a check on your calling and other usage.
- International Travel: Almost all the service providers will offer roaming plans for international travels that will enable the users to use your mobile phone in any country you visit. International rates for roaming can however result in extremely undesirable and unreasonable figures. You should normally consider buying a prepaid or a new phone or SIM, for which you pay-as-you-go, as soon as you reach at your destination. The local plans for prepaid connections will help you in saving a lot of unnecessary expenses as well as forwarding your regular mobile number to your international number, which will help your family and friends to get in touch with you very easily.
- Unlocked cell phones: Using your own mobile handset when you are travelling abroad will definitely prevent you from getting a new cell phone with the plans for prepaid connections. If your phone is bought directly from your service provider, then there is a great possibility of your phone being locked to the network provided by the service provider. In that case it won’t be possible for you to use a SIM card of different network service provider. The way out for you is to make a call to your service provider and try explaining to them about your international trip, which might solve your issues. The service providers will give you the unlock code that will enable you to use your phone for a different carrier.
- Chargers: Your cell phone will be incomplete without its charger. So it’s very important to stuff in the charger inside your travel bag, so that you can use your phone without any interruption and also save the money that you would have ended up spending for the charger. It is advisable for you to carry an extra battery so that you can use your phone continuously in case you can’t charge your phone and you fear that it might get switched off any time.