General eSIM questions

Hi Sandi,

When we went to Italy last summer we used Airolo eSIMs for our phones. We have Android phones, so I'm not sure exactly what you mean about losing your iPhone information -- what information exactly? We were able to receive texts at our regular number when we had WiFi access, but we turned off our mobile carrier SIMs for cellular use. My recommendation is that you ask anyone who must contact you when you're traveling is to contact you via WhatsApp rather than SMS texting you and you will definitely receive their messages. We used WhatsApp to communicate with many of the places we stayed for checkin, etc.

For a 14 day trip we had 3GB of data (each) and it was PLENTY for using maps, WhatsApp, etc. Airolo eSIMs can also be topped up if your initial purchase wasn't enough. Anyway, I was a bit nervous before we went but it worked great. And you can 'call' each other on WhatsApp as well, which definitely came in handy when we accidently got split up using the Rome Metro :)

You won't lose access to any data - data isbstored either on the handset itself or on cloud services, so will not be impacted by changing SIMs.

As is normal in Singapore (and many other countries) my carrier doesn't charge for roaming access, only to make and receive calls, and to send texts. That means I have roaming active on my home SIM, and can receive texts for free. I believe US carriers may be different.

You won't lose the information stored on your phone. You will lose the ability to receive phone calls made to your home phone number or to make cellular calls. [Edit--This is wrong--I was thinking about swapping out a physical SIM; see jphbucks' post immediately below. ]

I have an Android phone, so I don't know the details about how things work on an iPhone, but when I purchased my first eSIM and Googled to find out how to continue texting, I found iPhone info very easily; it was trickier for me to located online info about setting up my Android Phone for outbound texting. From what I read, it's easy to continue receiving texts via your home eSIM when you have an iPhone. The question is how much, if anything, it will cost you. My phone plan is from Google Fi, which gives me free texts, so my only issue is fiddling with the settings so my phone uses the original SIM for outbound texts. (For whatever reason, the inbound texts arrive without my having to do anything.)

You will lose the ability to receive phone calls made to your home phone number or to make cellular calls.

This is absolutely false. I'm not sure why people keep perpetuating this.

Some iPhones can accept both eSIMs and physical SIMs. For those models (my wife has one), the following is true: assuming your US plan employs an eSIM, it's possible to receive and send texts and calls usung your US phone number, but only if the foreign SIM is a physical card. A second eSIM will override the initial US eSIM. I'm not certain how eSIM-only iPhones work, but Apple can tell you.

I use an Android phone, and my US SIM is a physical card. When I get a foreign SIM, it's always an eSIM. I do not "lose" my US phone number or plan; they remain usable. But they become secondary. (I could also set the foreign SIM as secondary, but why would I?) That's kind of the whole point of a dual-SIM phone: having access to two separate phone numbers (and their associated service plans) simultaneously.

To the OP: texts should come through on your US number so long as you don't enable a "Do Not Disturb" condition, on most US cell plans. Depending upon how your American cell plan charges for overseas texts, that's an option. As for data usage, I typically use between 5-10 GB per month in the US, but my usage roughly doubles when I'm overseas. Maps, Google Translate, podcast downloads etc. I use wifi as much as possible, but I avoid it when the wifi is unsecured (public places). It's just a security safeguard for me.

Also see: https://support.apple.com/en-us/118227#:~:text=While%20you're%20abroad%2C%20you,plans%20on%20supported%20iPhone%20models.

Thank you all so much. I’m going to go with an eSIM rather than paying AT&T’s exorbitant rates to use my phone overseas.

You’ve been very helpful. I will have secure WiFi for a chunk of my trip so I’ll just switch between the eSIMs on my phone when not out and about.

I so often travel to Europe that you’d think I have this all down by now!

Sandi

Newer iPhones are eSIM only but still have dual SIM capabilities. Pretty much works as jphbucks outlined above. On my trip last September I turned off data roaming on my US SIM and on for my Lyca mobile UK SIM. I have my phone set so that callers that are not in my contacts don’t ring through. I saw several on my recent calls log. Texts came through just like at home. I changed the call setting depending on which phone number I wanted to use to make the call.