Phone SIM for Canada

[Copasetic]

DD is going to Canada for a year to study at a Canadian uni. She is concerned about landing at the airport on her own and not having a working phone. Has anyone got any suggestions of phone SIMS she could get in advance that would work on arrival?

Phones have international roaming these days.
So you take your phone, top up about £20, use international data for the first day or so, until you can buy a new SIM (in some airports they even sell them) and switch to local tariffs. Depending on your terms, the roaming is actually cheaper in some countries (disclaimer, I'm with GiffGaff which is usually cheaper) but obviously having a local number is useful for getting things done.

To clarify, my advice above is because most providers in North America don't just hand out SIMs the way we can get them over here; when I've gotten SIMs there in the past I had to physically go to a phone shop, take my passport and give full name/address of where I was staying/a working credit card to just get a pay as you go SIM.

Thank you for your reply. I'm with Giffgaff and so is she. When I've gone abroad, if I have had any credit, on my phone, it has gone without me even making a call. Do you know the settings needed to stop that happening? This is why we were trying to avoid putting credit on the phone - because it gets use up. Does she just turn off data roaming?

My son is currently on a gap year in Canada. I set up an E-sim with a company called Phonebox before he went. Can't remember the exact data allowance but I pay about £32 a month. Was very straightforward
Hope your daughter has a great year.😊

https://www.airalo.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImPyb-Y6_gAMVBs13Ch324w-LEAAYASAAEgIDQfD_BwE

i use airalo all the time - really good! But won’t help
with local calls. You could get her one of these for a week so she can then get her bearings and go into a local phone shop for a local SIM card.

Get an e sim - there are a lot of providers you can choose from.
Airalo is a good shout.

I'm on O2 and my phone worked fine out there as Canada is included in my tariff. Didn't need to do anything.