Talk can be Cheap

One of the hassles of going overseas is trying to figure out how to keep in contact with people back home. You know: international roaming fees. Yikes. If you don’t travel out of the country often, you don’t want to have to deal with the production of adding an expensive international calling or texting option to your phone plan.

As it happens, you don’t have to. Here are some tips for keeping in contact abroad while spending less money than your phone company would like you to believe.

Unlock your phone and use an international SIM card

If your phone uses GSM or supports foreign GSM networks and has space for a SIM card — and not all of them do, so check — you can bring your phone along with you and purchase an international SIM card. This means you can keep using your own phone with an international provider’s services and rates. To do this, you first need to unlock your phone.

The FCC has some basic answers on what unlocking your American phone entails, but the long and short of it is you’re going to have to contact your service provider and ask them to unlock it for you. That done, you can remove the SIM card already in your phone and replace it with a new one.

There are several types of SIM cards that will make travel easier. If you’re traveling for a relatively short amount of time and will mostly be in contact with people from home, you might want to invest in an international SIM card that gives you the same low rates across multiple countries, including calls to and from the United States. You can buy these online in America and have them shipped to you before you leave on your trip.

If you’re going abroad to study or to work, get a SIM card from a local service provider. While calls back home will still be expensive, they likely won’t be as expensive as paying the international roaming fees from your provider at home. A local SIM will also greatly decrease the cost of any calls or texts that you make within the country you’re in. Finding a service provider in your country of destination can be as easy as a googling: “[country name] cell phone providers.” From there, you can choose which SIM option looks best to you.

Take advantage of WiFi

This one is most convenient for smartphone owners, but if you have an iPod touch or another kind of portable device with WiFi and app capability (a tablet or a computer), some of this can work for you, as well. If you’re going to a developed country where WiFi is the norm, you can take advantage of this to avoid having to pay for cell phone service at all.

The first step is finding a WiFi signal. If you’re staying in a hotel or hostel, it might come free (or low cost) with the room. Some cities have free, public WiFi hotspots in parks and other public gathering places. If you go to a cafe for coffee, you might get the password with your large mocha — and hey, if you have to pay for using the Internet, it might as well get you a nice treat at the same time.

Got your Wi-Fi signal secured? Good. Now here are some options:

WhatsApp: This IM service looks into your contacts and automatically finds other WhatsApp users with their phone numbers, for Android and Apple.

Skype: This one does it all, free IM, voice and video calls to any other Skype account, and low-cost calls to cell phones and landlines as well for Android and Apple.

AIM: The original instant messenger, now for your smart device, for Android and Apple.

Facebook Messenger: If you and the people you need to talk to have Facebook, this is probably the easiest option for you. It’s like the message feature on Facebook, but for your phone, for Android.

Email: Oh, yes. Ye olde email. If you’re just sending updates back home and don’t really need to be in a one-on-one conversation, email is probably the easiest way to go. Pack all your information into one message and get it over with.