What do you do about you - and your kids! - using their phone abroad and all the costs involved?

[toosweaty]

We are going abroad, long haul. It will be expensive to make calls, send texts etc or I can get a daily data travel pass which is about £7. Either way, i can cope without. But I pay for my DC's phone. I don't want to take it away from them but I also know they won't care about clicking on You Tube!

How do you deal with this?

I thought about getting us Sim cards in the country we're in and using those? Does anyone know if all sim cards fit all phones and if our contacts on our phones are stored on hardware or the Sim?

We are going to the US later this year. I am wondering about this/ I definitely will pay the £6 a day that O2 charge for myself.

For my daughters I am wavering but I think I am erring towards the side of just paying it for all of us. It's a one off big holiday so in the big scheme of things it's not that huge a cost compared to everything else for the convenience it will bring.

We also have a couple of longish train journeys plus the oldest is likely to go out by herself a bit and I need her to be able to contact me.

DD and I will just stop the mobile data and use the hotel /public wifi. DD has ASD and for her music is a big soothing mechanism so we need to make sure she downloads her music instead of streaming.

DH can use his workphone abroad, he has a daily bolt-on when not in Europe so this will be used for any on the go things.

Easy to say that we survived without phones or internet but the whole infrastructure was different. Paper maps anyone?

If the oldest is going out by herself, that's different, but for anyone else could you not just have it set up on one phone, and use the hot spot facility so everyone can use the data from that phone?

It might not be practical or even possible - but it might be worth looking into.

Sadly me and the teenagers can't live without our phones! Highly recommend E sims. We always use hola fly. Very easy to install and they have packages from a few days of data to a month. Currently writing this from abroad using hola fly sim.

And you consider that a holiday?

DH and I get eSIMs for the destination. DDs told to turn off data roaming and only use WiFi or use one of our phones as a hotspot.

Luckily, I'm on an old legacy O2 tariff that includes data roaming worldwide so we used my phone the majority of the time. DH picked up a PAYG sim as well. DC just turned roaming off and used wifi when they could.

For Europe/ Asia look at Lebara (or i think Id ir smarty do the same) for a 30day sim only... much cheaper than paying £6 a day in roaming...

I'm not certain they do e-sim but it won't matter for data and WhatsApp saves your number. Be careful about tethering from 1 for all kids though as not all include tethered data!

And make sure your kids phones have a cap on them. Mine cannot spend over their monthly payment so would not be able to pay to roam if not included!

@ISeeMisledPeople I dont have a huge amount of data on my contract so not sure it will support two of us.

She's the one with the unlimited data.....

Another vote for an e sim

Professional long haul traveller here. The single most important thing to do is to set a spending cap. That way there is no way they can inadvertently run up a bill of £1000s. Secondly, make sure all phones are set to ‘roaming off’ before you leave home, then use Wi-Fi. As someone who spends a large amount of my life overseas in a wide range of countries, in recent years there have been very few places I have not been able to find a local Wi-Fi connection. Even in far flung places most tourist attractions, cafes and bars will give out a Wi-Fi code for travellers. Thirdly, if you do need to use data roaming, check to see if the country you are visiting has a deal with your provider. Eg I am with O2 and can use my standard UK minutes in some places, but in other places the cost of data is ludicrous and can easily run to your spend cap limit in seconds.

The only times I have ever bothered with an E sim are when we have been travelling long distances on public transport and needed internet in order to be able to consolidate fluid travel plans. The rest of the time, if it’s just for FaceTiming friends and watching inane YouTube videos, you - and your kids - would do well to spend a bit of time not permanently plugged in.

We don't have international coverage on their packages so they're restricted to hotel Wi-Fi only.

I've always just made sure they turn roaming off when they're outside of an area that their package works in. They are with GiffGaff so there is no chance of them running up a huge bill - they'd have to add PAYG credit.

I buy mine a £20 PAYG SIM card and swap their SIM for that while on holiday, but use the hotel free WiFi too.
No nasty surprises then.

I came on here to say have a spending cap, then at least you aren't going to run up expensive bills if they switch it on when they shouldn't. Other than that turn off data & use WiFi which will be widely available. I remember DS2 being terrified of losing his Snapchat "streak" with someone at the age of 16, but he survived (as did the streak!).

We tend to pay for roaming on one phone (either mine or DH) so that we can use it when out and about, mainly for maps etc. everyone else just uses wifi.

e sims feel new but you keep your own number and are very straightforward and you can choose in advance how much to spend/ data to buy. I’m getting some for all of us via an esim. We are using nomad but there seems to be lots of choice. Worth looking into as it’s so much cheaper than the daily charge and basically no more hassle and use the same number …

Thanks so much everyone.I'll def get a spending cap put on, @backinthebox - really good idea.

We're going to Thailand. I have no idea about esims. Do I just get them there?

Wi-Fi only and make calls over WhatsApp, FaceTime or messenger.

Both my DC are away in long haul destinations. They have both got a local SIM card. Both of their phones are direct from Apple. So are open to use with any sim.

youll be able to buy sims when you get there. I bought a $20sim in the US and used it for 2 weeks, for Google maps, checking on stuff while travelling etc….

you can buy travel wifi that you take with you,

but I’d buy a local sim when you get there for one phone at least.

You can get local SIM cards in Thailand cheaply and easily. Airports and any 7/11