Using a UK mobile on holiday in USA - best approach?

[longhaulLaura]

Going to NYC for a week at Easter and want to know the best way to be able to use our phones out there without going bankrupt! We are a family of 4 but only 3 of us will need phones. We all have Iphone SEs and are on GiffGaff so no contracts.

We don't envisage needing to use the phone much for actual calls except for making reservations at restaurants and attractions. But I would like for us to be able to communicate if we split up and do different things. I would also want to use Apps for maps, restaurant guides etc. so need some data package I guess? Won't be calling home at all. Where possible we will use wi-fi but there may be times when we need to use 3G/4G. Can anyone advise on the best, most economical way to do this? Am posting this again as it may have got lost in the longer New York thread I am on. Thanks!

You can probably get a local SIM at the airport for your phone. I did that when I went to NZ, came with minutes included. Have a google and see if they do it at your arrival airport

You can get a pay as you go sim from 3G in this country and set up a USA call plan with them before you go. We did it last summer and it was £20 for 3gb and 1000 calls and texts. It was so useful for taxis and reservations. Remember to switch the sim on the flight and keep your UK one safe

What slalomsuki wrote.

www.giffgaff.com/roaming-charges is also useful to read.

Quite a few have us roaming free now

My o2 does and my kids 3 phones. Pretty sure my wife’s Vodafone does as well.

Go into your nearest three store. Get a one month sim which gives use abroad. Activate it while in the uk and off you go.

Here you go

O2 roaming is not free outside of Europe unless that has changed in the last 3 months. Best to do what Slalomsuki suggested and get a local SIM card. Often you can do it at the arrival airport where they will set it up for you. You need to make sure your phones are unlocked. When you SIM swap, tape your U.K. sim to the inside of your phone cover if you have one.

If you have a contract with three, the plan you are on extends to the USA and 70 other countries at no cost. www.three.co.uk/feel-at-home/

Use WhatsApp for communicating with one another.

Don't you have to have a wifi connection (or 3/4G) for WhatsApp though?

Thanks everyone. Theres a SIM deal that looks attractive via Three as some of you have mentioned. It appears to be offering 30Gb of data for 1 month and the ability to use that in the States, all for £25. Am going to find a Three shop and see if it’s as good as it appears!

We are planning a trip to Florida so I am a member of loads of Facebook pages to help planning. The three sim is discussed a lot. You just have to remember to put it in your phone and switch it on before you go otherwise it won’t work.

I was in the USA/Canada for three weeks last summer. I used Vodafone’s world traveller (or something like that). It was £5 for the days I used it, so no more that £100 for the whole trip.

This gave me access to my UK plan, so same phone, text and data allowances. Although it might be more expensive than some routes, I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t have to switch SIMs and change my phone number, so everything that worked in the U.K. worked in North America.

I notice that the 3 deal said that you couldn’t use your phone as a WiFi hotspot. I definitely did this with Vodafone, as my DCs were WiFi only and occasionally needed a connection outside (our week in Canada was back in the 1950s).

I used my phone loads and didn’t get any nasty surprises when we got home. I used it in the same way I would use it at home, so internet, Waze, sending photos on WhatsApp, etc. I don’t use 3G/4G for videos.

In the past, I have had problems with international dialling codes (eg +44), but apps like WhatsApp and Uber just cope.

We went to NYC with teenagers and set up a family Facebook messenger conversation. It's very easy to get free WiFi everywhere you go there. And you can call via the messenger app too.