Data-only global eSims are super cheap. Having done a lot of international travel lately, this is undoubtedly the best way to go.

Cheaper and better coverage too.

Also, things like iMessage, FaceTime and Signal definitely work with those sims. Not sure about "wifi" calling or SMS with your home country's plan though.

Where would you recommend someone find one of these? Do they expire, or could I get one to cover years worth of travel? Thanks!

Eskimo has a 2y global SIM, excluding a handful of countries, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40382377

I've used the Airalo app to buy data-only eSims in multiple regions, and they have global ones also. I would guess it's not as cheap as you'd get if you waited to buy from local providers in arrival, but it's very convenient.

+1 to Airalo. The country specific ones are super cheap. $7 for 2GB or something like that?

I once did the 30-day Global one for I think $20 for 4GB or so. Worked all over Europe + Middle East. Was very impressed.

I had international roaming on the $25/month tmobile prepaid, but if I'm saving ~$8/month (25/month was all in, 15/month charges taxes), I can figure something out if I need it if I leave the states.

My two work trips a long time ago, I managed to get prepaid sims abroad that worked enough.

Pretty much nobody offers meaningful domestic roaming anymore, no matter the cost, so while I'd love that, I'd need a dual sim, dual active phone to approximate it, and I don't care about dead zones near me enough to do it. But my spouse and I are on different networks, so if we're both somewhere we rarely both have no coverage.

I'm looking to switch to Visible here soon after being on Google Fi for many years. Just looks like a cheaper rebranded Verizon to me, and has all the features I would need for a cheap price.

https://www.visible.com/

I moved from T-Mobile to Visible, and my SO from AT&T to Visible. It was well worth it, we now pay $80 combined with unlimited 5G (incl. cellular for our watches) and have had no issues. We've been to concerts (Taylor Swift) and never had any issues with our connection. So far, this was a great choice.

I switched away from Visible to US Mobile due to deprioritization. I believe they now offer a non-deprioritized plan for $40/mo though, but U.S. mobile is less expensive for a non-deprio plan.

The new yearly Visible+ plan has 50GB of non-deprioritized data a month, not that I ever really had an issue on the normal Visible plan, free calling in Canada and Mexico, 2GB of data a day in Canada and Mexico, double the tethering speed and a free global pass per month. It is $395 which works out to $32.92 per month.

On Visible, your first 50GB of mobile data are not deprioritized.

Some people use a lot of mobile data - but I'm on my phone all day/night for business and pleasure, watch a lot of video content etc, but usually am within Wifi range of my home or office. I struggle to use more than 6GB of mobile data per month...

Before switching to Visible, I worried a lot about prioritization etc. After switching from Verizon (proper) -> Visible, and I can honestly say I haven't noticed any difference in performance. My bill is significantly lower though, which I do enjoy.

Looks like that's only on the nicer plan?

Looks like you're right. I pay $35 a month for my line - there's some $10 monthly credit they applied to my account. With their annual payment option, it's $33 monthly.

Visible is really good, only reason not to use them is when you have to travel internationally a lot.

What keeps me on a postpaid plan is that I like not having to worry about my phone plan when I go abroad on vacation.

Haven't done that in a year and a half, but when I spent a few weeks out of the country it was a simple matter of buying a $30 prepaid SIM from a vending machine at the airport and having more data than I had time to use. Honestly, no contracts or carrier locks has always made it easier to deal with travel compared to friends who occasionally have issues just swapping SIMs.

Unfortunately, the increasing prevalence of eSIMs in new phones makes temporarily switching to a foreign carrier far more inconvenient than "just buy a SIM at a vending machine".

The increased prevalence of eSIMs has made using a foreign carrier easier than ever. You don’t even need to find a vending machine or store. You can purchase your eSIM online before you even get to your destination.

The last time I traveled to Europe, I got an eSim for like $20, and they emailed it to me. I had coverage before the plane taxied.

iPhones (and probably Androids too) support up to 10 eSIMs with 2 active at the same time, if I'm not mistaken. And you can buy data eSIMs before even leaving the country in an app like Airalo.

Yes, it's much easier to buy ahead of time in the app and have it automatically activate upon arrival, instead of having to find a kiosk in the airport.

How so? I have my US number on an eSIM. If I went abroad, the hardware slot is available. Or, pretty sure I can just add a second eSIM, no?

I’ve been on prepaid since at least 2015 and never have had a problem with roaming in the US.

I use Mint Mobile because it's cheap and has been reliable for my family.

A couple of months ago, I traveled to Belize with my iPhone 14 Pro, which only has eSIM. The websites for the two local companies said that I could buy them at a local store but none of the stores at the airport sold eSIMs or SIM.

Mint Mobile offered me 10GB of data for $40/week. Plus fees, as it turned out, so total of $42 or $43. I took it because I couldn't find a local solution and it was only about $20 difference.

I was happy with the service. My wife uses prepaid Verizon and it was $10/day for their service in Belize which is more in line with what I was expecting. We ended up never feeling like we needed to turn it on.

Half of the time we were in the mountains where there wasn't any cell service so I only ended up using about 1GB of cellular and the rest the resort's WiFi there. But it was nice to be able to search on the road for restaurants, coffee stops, etc.

On a trip to Croatia and Italy a few years ago, the situation for local SIMs was confusing enough that I ended up not using any cell service, just downloading maps from Google Maps in offline mode from the hotel WiFi. Worked great with just GPS but only for places I'd pre-selected - no searching for anything.

Google Fi plus wifi calling or whatsapp/zoom/etc.