We are going to London for 4 months and are really struggling to figure out if we should use our international plan from T-Mobile (keeping our US phone #s) or if we should get an e-SIM and switch to a local UK phone #.
Our phones are fully owned, so technically, we can change out the e-SIM. Any advice for pros / cons of keeping US phone # vs. getting a local one? Thanks so much!
A local SIM will be cheaper (take a look at giffgaff esims). The only reason you might want to keep your US eSIM in is to receive calls or texts on your US number. Not sure how US plans work, but I normally keep my home SIM in to receive any texts (which is free) and use a UK SIM for calls and data.
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Keeping the TMobile will be easier if you can afford $50. I live with mine in Europe.
Does your phone allow duel Esim? I have T-Mobile and find the initial free data allowance to be insufficient. I add a Euro Esim and newer iPhone settings allow a toggle between my regular Esim and the Euro Esim.
Any advice for pros / cons of keeping US phone # vs. getting a local one?
Some US web sites are blocked to any but US IP addresses. Very common with my state government websites like for drivers license renewal. From time to time I encounter it with US businesses as well. My US phone will connect, and my US phone when used as a hotspot, will allow my laptop to connect. TMobile has free wifi calling and texting. If you put the phone on airplane mode and turn on the wifi and have a wifi connection and someone calls your number, it will ring just like if it were on the network.
Check your own Tmobile plan but I think many of them international is free. Subject to paying for calls. But we have used Tmobile just text or WhatsApp (which has text and calls) on many trips with no issue. You could see how you do when you get there. If after a while you find you need to do a lot of local calling and WhatsApp doesn't really work for you, then get esim then.
A couple of other things to consider:
-do you do banking or other services that you need the double authentication by text to your US phone number while you are there?
-do you know what happens to your favorite apps if you change out the sim?
Laurie Ann, good points. I get texts with access codes for a number of my accounts, Google even. And yes, international is part of my TMobile and if I were a bit more careful to wait till I got a wifi connection before uploading pictures. The standard data allowance would be enough. But when it's not, it's cheap. I don't pay for the additional till things slow down and if I am traveling over the end of the month I essentially get twice the free data.
Yup, maybe someday someone will convince me that I need the benefits of two sim cards, but not yet. Better I think to buy a second phone for the European sim, that way you have the security of a backup phone. I live in Hungary and love the security of my US phone and my Hungarian phone.
I always obtain a European SIM (in my case, eSIM) when I travel to Europe. My phone is dual-SIM, and even though I make the European SIM primary, I still can send and receive texts and phone calls with my US SIM.
Bottom line: you don't necessarily "lose" your US phone number when you obtain a local SIM overseas.
We have T-Mobile and it works just fine for us. We had a 10 week trip in Fall 2022 and I used my phone quite a bit for mapping, research , etc. Once I had the map going I would out it in airplane mode. After we ran out of our 5G the first month we used the slower service and when our new month started we were much more careful to use WiFi. I used texting and WhatsApp a lot. I don’t think I had to make any calls, but I have in the past and for .25 per minute and I think my longest call was .50 when I had to call a relative for something. You can make calls over WhatsApp or facebook messenger for free if you have WiFi. The two times I changed out SIM cards, back in the days before smart phones, I had problems with them. I prefer to keep my own number now.
For TMobile users I guess if an esim is substantially less than $35 for a typical 3 week trip, sure. You could load that then switch back and forth between the US sim, the esim and wifi ......
Good advice here. I'm with Tmobile, mainly because I really want to have my "normal" phone number working. As mentioned, I might need that for 2FA with varous accounts, but also because I like texting friends and I can't see asking them to dial country codes and possibly pay big fees for international calls or texting. And also, if a big issue or medical problem came up, either for your or for family/friends back home, you might want folks to be able to easily contact you with a simple phone number. I don't expect a doctor's office would be able to dial +44 xx-xxxx-xxxx to call me back. There would be a lot of missed calls.
As for data, you might want more data than the free Tmobile data. In England, you'd get free texting, and free data, but the data is about 256 kbps, which is so slow, you might not be satisfied. I believe your option would be $35 for 10 days and 5 gb., or $50 for 30 days and 15 gb. A local sim or esim might be $5 for 5 gb. or so, so much less.
And make sure you have the Tmobile app installed on your phones, and get familiar with using it. Might come in handy if you need to buy more data.
Like Mr. E, I really feel better having a second, backup phone on a trip in case I need it. That makes it very easy to buy a cheap data sim when I see a phone shop. Even better, get a pay as you go esim like Roamless on your backup phone. You could use it as a hotspot and use Wifi calling on your main phone.
I have generally pay what amounts to about $3 per GB for the data-only eSIMs I buy from Airalo. I typically spend multiple weeks in each country; I'm not sure how much a 3-, 5- or 7-day eSIM typically costs.
