If you’re going on a holiday abroad this summer, you probably need to use your smartphone while you’re there. Even though we all managed international travel before the age of the smartphone, these days our devices are used for everything from Google Maps to airline tickets, currency conversions to cameras.
Your smartphone is an indispensable holiday item, but unless you have a fancy roaming plan with your mobile provider (and sometimes even if you do), using your phone abroad can be incredibly expensive. The results of Brexit and the rise in the cost of living have resulted in more stringent roaming rules, with many of us experiencing some serious bill shock once we get back to Blighty.
UK mobile operators can charge you hefty sums per day in countries such as the USA just to use your existing plan. EE charges £5 per day or £25 per week to use your phone across the pond.
The way around this expense is a relatively new technology called eSIM. This lets you buy a pay-as-you-go, no contract data plan for the country you’re going to so that you can use the internet, apps and online services just like you were at home.
And before you ask, no, this is not a sponsored article. I have not been paid by any company to tell you this. I’m just writing to you as a person who has been just as frustrated as you in the past that I haven’t been able to use my phone on trips without access to dodgy hotel Wi-Fi, and I want to share the affordable solution I’ve found with an eSIM provider.
An eSIM is an ‘embedded SIM’, a virtual SIM card that lives inside your phone, lying dormant until you want to use it. Unfortunately, not all smartphones are eSIM compatible, but every iPhone since 2018 has supported eSIM, and many new models of Android phone do too. You must check yours is compatible because otherwise this method won’t work.
There are many eSIM providers but I have had great success using Airalo. All you need to do is download the free Airalo app for iPhone or Android and you’re away. You create an account and then you can search by country or region and are presented with roaming packages.
For example, if I were off to Spain and wanted some mobile data access, I might opt for the package below, which offers 10GB of data for 30 days for £12. That’s a decent price considering there are no contracts here, you just pay for what you need. If you run out of that 10GB, you can top up your allowance using the app.
Check out the Airalo website and sign up for a free account
And rather than pay EE that £25 per week to use my phone in the USA, Airalo is currently offering 10GB for 30 days for £20.50. I always buy data-only plans as any calls I make are over WhatsApp or FaceTime, but you can also buy eSIMs with minutes and text allowances if you prefer.
Once you’ve purchased the package, the app will then show you exactly how to apply that paid-for plan to the eSIM in your phone. You can only have one running at a time, but once one has been used you can remove it to free it up for another plan or another trip to another region.
You then just need to make sure you tweak your phone’s settings to ensure mobile data is running on your eSIM while you’re away, and turn data roaming off on your UK SIM, and everything should work.
I’ve used Airalo on trips to the US, New Zealand, Spain, Germany and Slovenia and have never had any issues. Airalo offers eSIMs with local mobile operators and tends to offer the cheapest prices it can.
In the US, where there aren’t any nationwide operators, Airalo can offer you a package that combines coverage from T-Mobile and Verizon to give you the best national roaming experience possible.
If you only need a smidge of data on your trip to download flight tickets or call up Google Maps, you can get 1GB plans for as little as £3.50 that last seven days. It’s a small price to pay for the convenience, and for avoiding extortionate roaming charges from your UK provider.
You can check out the Airalo website for more information or download Airalo for iPhone or Airalo for Android.
There are other popular eSIM providers out there such as Holafly and GigSky, but I haven’t used those services – but I can tell you Airalo has saved me headaches and money on my last few holidays.