Bcengi eSIM

A few other points:

• They offer a family plan. Seems like you can add family members and all share one account.
• You can turn off auto-refill.
• A potential negative is that you have to load it in $25 increments. So depending on how much you travel and how much you use it, you could have that money sitting unused in your account until your next trip.

That sounds interesting — have you already tried Bcengi yourself, or are you still just looking into it?

It definitely seems like a different model compared to Airalo’s country- or region-specific plans. I’ve noticed there are a few other services offering something similar too, like Roamless, Yesim, eSIM.sm, and Surfroam, which also let you use a single eSIM across multiple countries with pay-as-you-go data.

Would be great to hear how Bcengi performs in practice if you end up testing it!

Thanks, Lane, that sounds interesting. I've been using my T-Mobile int'l plan, which is free, but for more than 2 weeks, I usually run out of high-speed data, and have been adding on, which costs $$ depending on how much. But I've been thinking lately of using an eSIM instead of just adding onto the T-Mobile plan, so I might check that out next time.

I am curious, though. Can you stop the auto-load of data at the end of your trip? Although I guess it just stays there like you mentioned above. What about if you cancel your account? Do you get the excess refunded?

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm considering it for my upcoming trip. However, for some of the countries I'll be visiting, it doesn't appear to be cost effective. So I will have to do some price comparisons.

Mardee, I used to use my Google Fi plan abroad, but they got wise to me. They require that you use their plan primarily in the US. Since I wasn't using it in the US, they canceled my data plan. I now only use Google Fi as a phone plan. But it wasn't free. They charge $10 per GB wherever you are, which is significantly more than Bcengi charges in most countries.

Lane, thank you for the heads-up. Like Mardee, I'm a satisfied Tmobile customer, but after a week or two, my wife uses up her 5 gb. of high-speed data, and we have to pay, I think, $50 for another 15 gb.

So I've been using Roamless. As mentioned, it's very similar to bcengi, the Roamless data is pretty cheap at $2.45/gb in the US, but bcengi is even cheaper at $1.68. You can buy only $10 worth of digital wallet, and they accept Paypal. I see that with bcengi, you can buy as little as $10 also (if you select it), and they accept many credit cards and Apple and Google Pay, no Paypal.

I couldn't find which networks bcengi uses. We have a cabin up in the woods, with almost no Tmobile coverage. The AT&T signal is much better. So when I'm there, I use the Roamless esim, and get data from the AT&T tower. I can call/text using wifi calling also. Roamless can use either Tmobile or AT&T towers. Works great for me.

I'm going to give bcengi $10 and try it out. I'll then find out what networks in the US it uses.

Thanks for the good info!

For US Yesim app is even cheaper then Bcengi they have Pay & Fly for 1.5$ /GB (AT&T, Verizon). Or surfroam 1.3 €/GB (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon).

In case you are in USA only for limited number of days fixed package will be cheaper you can get as low as 1$/GB (for 10GB and more).

Update: I just made an account online (there is no app), they verified the email with 2FA. Very easy. I added $10 to my digital wallet, activated quickly. Scanned the QR code into the app for my esim adapter, no problem. On my tablet I manually searched for networks, and I could register on either Verizon or AT&T, so that works well for me. Data is $1.68/Gb for the US, Germany, Ireland, Italy and others. They say 200+ countries. And the APN for Bcengi appeared in my tablet automatically. Works fine.

Unless you watch movies or use large amounts of data, I think the PAYGO plans are a much better deal for use as a travel plan.

Agree. PAYG rates can be better for a frequent short trips or when you consume low amount of data per trip (<10GB).

Good to know it worked with bcengi.

travelerguy, good to know. I might try something like that for here at home. I live in a rural area and generally cell service is good, but there are times where I can't get a signal through T-Mobile, so it would be nice to have another option .

I used Holafly on a recent trip to Bolivia. Holafly appears less expensive (Bcengi charges $5.82 per GB in Bolivia), but the catch is that even if you buy a 5 GB or 10 GB package they speed throttle you after a few GBs. I ended up with very slow speeds and couldn’t use all the GBs I bought. I’m hoping that Bcengi doesn’t speed throttle, since I’d be paying per GB.

Update on Bcengi: I went up to the north woods of the Upper Peninsula, to a cabin with almost no Tmobile signal. So what worked great for me was to use my TCL tablet with a Bcengi esim. I manually selected the good Verizon signal, and activated the wifi hotspot on my tablet. Then I connected my phone to the hotspot, activated wifi calling, and voila! my cellphone works perfectly normally. At $1.68/Gb, I burned through a whole $3 in a week.

My cellphone has a Tmobile Sim and a Roamless esim. I did try getting esim data (no problem) and using it to run my Tmobile sim, but I don't think I ever got that to work. It seems wifi calling only works with wifi.

I was just in India and used Bcengi there. I used just over 13 GB at a cost of $36, which is less than their website's listed cost of $3.20 per GB. I liked that it seamlessly charged my credit card when I used up my $25 allowance, and I still have a balance that I can use going forward. No wasted data.

I never got 5G in India. It was 4G only. I don't know if that's how it is in India, or if the network(s) Bcengi uses there don't support 5G.

I'm now in Bhutan and it is not working at all here. They say it does work, but at a cost of $21.17, I'm glad it doesn't. I checked into Airalo, but a 1GB package is $12 and 3GB for $29, so cheaper than Bcengi, but still not worth it for me. Holafly doesn't offer a package for Bhutan.

I also use Google Fi primarily for phone line here and abroad; at home I rely on wi-fi and supplement it with Airalo eSIM when traveling abroad. I think this is a good combination; I get to keep my regular phone number while abroad (to receive 2FA code and making calls when without wi-fi access) and still have affordable eSIM data plan. Google Fi does limit data usage to no more than 90 days while traveling abroad; its data rate of $10/GB can be expensive but it becomes free after 6 GB ($60 is the maximum charge for data usage).

In 2023 and 2024 Google Fi cut off my cellular data (but not phoning or texting capability) before I'd been in Europe for 90 days. I think it was more like Day 86. I received a warning message a few days ahead of time. For some reason that did not happen this year when I was again out of the country for about 140 days. I don't know whether there was some sort of hiccup in what must surely be an automated process or Fi has changed its policy. Or I suppose my having used little Google Fi data might somehow have made a difference (though there's no such loophole as far as I know).

Like Mindfulness I've been buying eSIMs in recent years since Fi's charge for cellular-data use is painfully high if you're on a low-cost plan that charges separately for data. The plan works for me since I use very little cellular data while I'm at home, and it keeps my total cost even lower when I depend primarily on the less expensive eSIM option while in Europe.