Doing a wonderful 10-day vacation your in September. Did my first overseas trip last November. I have Cricket as my Main phone service...having very basic services @ $35/month. They do not offer International calling, sad. Have another backup emergency phone with T-Mobile pre-pay service. I had to pay extra money for this pre-pay International calling. Found out it is expensive, used up minutes quickly!
I took both my phones...but still had issues with not being able to use maps and such. I am "old-school" , not very techy with all this and Apps.
I was told to load WhatsApp on my phone. It helped communicating with my group and couple of friends here in US.
I learned I do have to have their special plug adaptors for Ireland. I bought one of those.
I'm new to this traveling, but try to be as prepared as possible. Please, I have a newer 15 Plus iPhone and slowly learning the newer options I might use temporarily. What may be the most efficient method of communication, for basic needs...using maps, texting services...? Not real savvy on data usage...
Posted by
Mountains of S. Oregon
1120 posts
I have used GiffGaff in Ireland twice, but a new EU law doesn't allow their phones to work unless you connect to a UK(or North Ireland) tower once, at which point it will work for 60 days. Won't work for you unless you are going to NI right away.
Last year, I had purchased a Maya "data only" esim ($10), but upon arrival, I couldn't make it work for calls (never resolved issue - it could be my local carrier or Maya or me), so I walked into a Three store in Dublin and paid 20Euro for a 30 day eSim that included an Irish phone number and unlimited data. That doesn't work great if talking/texting to folks in the US is important, since there will extra fees. My needs are for Google Maps, the Internet, and booking reservations, for which the Irish phone number works perfectly.
You should be able to make calls and download Maps, etc. with your existing phone IF you are on WIFI (lodging, restaurant, pub, airport). Once you leave the WIFI zone, you won't be able to do anything. WIFI should work to make US calls with the Irish phone, although I didn't try it.
Another alternative would be to switch your main phone to Mint Mobile (which uses T-Mobile networks) at $15/mo and add their international roaming package that comes in 10 day rations ($20??). The $15/mo goes up to $25 after a year.
The carriers know there's confusion about international roaming/calling, which is why they get away with charging so much.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Hi, I don't think I want to go through the hassle of changing my Cricket service on my main phone. With having T-Mobile pre-pay on my second phone, could I change it over to the Mint (?) temporarily? Maybe I need to ask them that...
Posted by
West Michigan
650 posts
Hi msanders0812, welcome to the forum!
The lower-cost companies usually don't have international roaming agreements, and if they do, it can be expensive. The big 3 networks Tmobile, AT&T, and Verizon, all do have roaming agreements worldwide, but the availability and cost depends on which particular plan you have. I'm grandfathered into a Tmobile Magenta 55+ plan. I pay $35 per line/month, and get free text/voice and 5 Gb. of data in over 200 countries. AT&T cost more, and Verizon, much more. But you have options. First question is:
Do you need to have your "normal" phone number working? If so, you need to find out if your Cricket plan supports "wifi calling". If they do, then see what the charges might be. It could be free, or very cheap (like 5 cents/minute or 5 cents per text). If that's possible for you, then you just need data. You don't even need data if you can make any calls or texts when you have hotel wifi.
If you can communicate with friends and family with another phone number, there are other cheap or even free, options. VOIP (voice over internet protocol), is a system where your call or text is sent out over data. That data can come from your cellular radio or from wifi. There are a lot of options for this, Google Voice, Textnow, Facebook Messenger. Other posters will add other methods.
You mentioned Whatsapp. That's very popular but has some limitations. The app is easy do download and setup a free account. It requires that you give Whatsapp access to your whole contact list. I don't like that for privacy reasons, but literally many millions accept it. The main limitation is that you can't call a friend's number unless they also have a Whatsapp account. Many European hotels will have Whatsapp numbers, but many don't. If the folks you call have Whatsapp, you're all set. Another benefit of Whatsapp is that some (maybe many?) Rick Steves tours want to communicate with the tour group using Whatsapp. That would be very useful.
Finally, data. How much varies a lot on what you use it for. Watching videos obviously take a lot of data. Uploading zillions of photos takes a lot. If you can do that on hotel wifi, then no problem. For me, on a 2-3 week trip, I use maybe 5 Gb. of data, my wife may use 10 Gb. Just texting and email use very little.
To get data, the very cheapest way is with an Esim. I assume your iPhone takes Esims. First, find out if your phone is unlocked. If it came free, it may be locked, and an Esim won't work. If the phone is unlocked there are lots of vendors out there like Airalo (very popular here), Most esims cost $10-$20 for 14 or 30 days, and with 5-20 Gb. of data. Easy to setup through their website or app. There are also som PAYGO esims where you give them maybe $10 or $20, and money is subtracted as you use data. They have no monthly charge, so the account balance never expires. Two that I like are Bcengi, and Roamless. Bcengi charges $1.58/Gb in Ireland, and Roamless charges $2.45/Gb. in Ireland.
I'd suggest you figure this out and download an esim well ahead of time to see how it works for you.
You'll have a great time in Ireland! Enjoy!
Posted by
West Michigan
650 posts
Good info from jjgurley. A couple years ago I bought a PAYGO GiffGaff sim on Ebay for $1, added some cash and it worked fine in Ireland, but as jjgurley said, after 60 days at home, it quit roaming, so that's a problem. I also bought a PAYGO sim on the Three network on Ebay for $7.40. Added $10 to it, it worked well in Ireland. It continues to work here in the U.S. on my backup phone. Every year I reload another $10 into it. I'll be using that sim on my backup phone for my trip to Ireland next month.
A possible advantage of a sim like GiffGaff or Three, is that you get a London phone number with it, so making calls to/from any other phone in the U.K. is very simple. Like calling hotels.
Since you have a backup phone, you could consider another sim card for it. Ultramobile operates on the Tmobile network and is pretty low-cost. They have sim cards, only available on Ebay, that only costs $3 per month. You only get 100 texts, 100 minutes, and 100 mb. data, but that fine for a backup. I paid $13 for the sim card. Registered it, and gave them $40, enough for a whole year. This Ultramobile plan also works internationally, but kinda expensive. $1.49/minute voice, $ .25/ mms texting, and $ .50/ sms text.
My backup phone is dual sim, so I have the Ultramobile sim, and a Roamless esim, and a Bcengi esim.