Google Fi? E-sim? Been told to have a "plan B" and need advice

Hard to say what issues your friend had with Google Fi, one thing people miss is that you need to have the service, and use it, in the US for something like 60 or 90 days before you travel internationally, I have heard of people who get the plan, then travel the next week and no service.

I have had Google Fi for 4-5 years, taken the phone on a half dozen trips to Europe, some 8 countries, and have not had anything other than the typical spotty service issue on occasion. The plan I have is something like $35 for two phones and $10 a Gig for data, you can get other plans, calls in Europe do incur a charge.

Since your phone is older, it likely does not have dual SIM or e-SIM capability, if it did, then you could keep your home plan that you select, and have a separate SIM for Data and/or calls. Otherwise, just buying a local SIM would work for you, give you calls and Data.

That's probably what happened. They switched right before they traveled. I had no idea that you have to have it for 60-90 days. I wish there was a way to verify this. If it is 60 days, I can switch and be OK. If it's 90, it's too late. My phone has esim capabilities. It is dual sim but only has one physical sim slot. Another friend told me an esim would not work for them when they were in Holland. They had to buy a physical sim when they were there. Then, when they got back, their old sim got damaged and they were not able to use their phone for calls or text until they bought a new USA sim. I really do not want to go through this stress.

I know that you said that you don't want to do Verizon due to your family member's experience, but it sounds like they didn't sign up for an international plan, so that's why they had an outrageous bill.

If you sign up on Verizon for an international plan, here's the ones they offer
1. Travel pass
$10 a day and charges you only on the days you actually use it
2. Monthly plan
$100 a month

We always opt for the $100 plan and it has worked flawlessly in numerous European countries and in Vietnam last year and China last month. I can use my phone exactly as I do at home.

What’s included for the monthly plan:

• Unlimited data (After your first 20GB of high speed data enjoy
  unlimited 3G data)

  • 250 minutes
  • Unlimited texts

I usually use wifi when I'm at my hotel, but I didn't in China and I still didn't exceed the 20GB of high speed data during the 18 days I was there.

Probably not the cheapest way to do it but I don't want to waste trip time mucking with it so it's worth it to me.

Thank you for your helpful advice. I was able to get to a human at Google Fi and they told me they do provide physical sims along with esims. They said I did not have to be a customer for 60-90 days but that it is best not to sign up right before travel. The Rep I spoke with said 30 days is recommended.

The issue with Verizon for me is their cost is too much for me to use in the USA (I think they told me $85 a month) so if I were to switch to them, I would only use them for a month or two and then switch to a cheaper USA plan. The plan I am on now is only $25 a month and I can make cheap international calls from the USA. I am willing to pay $85 a month for a couple months just not for long.

I think if your phone can handle an e-sim, that might be the way to go if you don't want to change providers. If you search "e-sim" on this forum, you'll find lots of suggestions. Personally, I also like no-fuss solutions and am willing to pay a bit for that. To me, paying for an international plan is just a baked-in travel costs and a pretty cheap one at that. I will echo what Patricia said about Verizon (I have used both the month plan and the Travel Pass, zero issues), and add that they now have an Unlimited Ultimate plan that includes international talk/text/data. I just switched to this since we plan to travel 2x year, and the cost was not much more than what I was paying. Just spent 2 weeks in Spain, worked perfectly for navigation, train tickets, etc.

I've got a 2-year-old Pixel 6a.

Before I went to the US recently I bought an eSIm from https://www.getnomad.app/

When I arrived in the US I still had my UK number to receive texts and calls but switched on the eSim so got all the data I needed via the eSIM.

So my occasional text from the US to the UK was expensive using my UK provider (giffgaff), 30p I think, but everything else was on data with the eSIM.

That's what I'll do in future - keep my normal number but get data with an eSIM.

I have used Google Fi in about 10 countries now with zero problems: Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but not Norway.

I recently used it for 3 weeks in England. Texting and data worked like they do at home as soon as my plane landed. I have the $10 / GB plan. I use very little data, mostly for Google Maps, so in 3 weeks it cost less than $3 for data.

I did not make any normal phone calls, only Whatsapp calls. Regular calls do cost extra, but the rates for many countries are a penny or two per minute. Check rates for your destinations.

I used to use AT&T for $30 /month, and $50 for 30 days of international roaming.

Then I switched to Tmobile to save money. Now I pay $35 /month, but have free roaming in 11 countries and free texting/calls in 204 countries. The international roaming add-on for the 204 countries is $5/day or $50 for 30 days.

So Verizon sure seems like the most expensive way to go if someone travels.

For anyone considering switching, be sure to look into the coverage in the areas you live in. For some people, Verizon has the best coverage, although Tmobile has more 5G.

If you do use one of those 3 plans internationally, look closely at the details of the specific plan you are considering as far as cost to call the US from outside the US. For some plans, it can be very high. That's why you hear about insanely large bills from Verizon, people were calling home, while using the wrong plan (or no add-on).

If calling home is too expensive with a plan you are considering, you can always use Google Voice, or TextNow or such, to have free text and voice, but it won't be from your "normal" phone number.

While I'm typing so much here, I'll add that Google Maps didn't work because it needs data. A valuable tip I learned from this great forum was to use Organic Maps (Android or Apple). It works great, it's free, and you download all the maps for a country or area, at home using wifi. After that, no data needed.

We have Google Fi on our cell phone. It is our only cell service here and abroad. The plan costs us $25 a month. We do not use data when we are at home in the US as we don’t need it but have used it abroad (Norway and Scotland come to mind) to help us find our hotel after arriving. Of course, there is a charge for that. We didn’t incur many charges for data overseas as we didn’t use it that much. Calls when abroad are $.25 a minute. We have even used the cell service in Antarctica aboard a ship that had wifi to make calls. We are huge fans of Google Fi. If you go with that service, just make sure your phone will work with the service. It works for us.

I’ve had Google Fi since it started many years ago, traveled to 3 continents and have it open on my dual sim phone right now in France. No problems.
edit: traveling around Armenia in 2019, when I approached the Turkish border, the phone posted “welcome to Turkey”, close to the Azerbaidjan border, it pinged “welcome to Azerbaidjan.” The phone had no problem picking up the different networks. Unfortunately, both borders are permanently closed, but the phone worked fine in the Republic of Georgia, too.

Thank you all for your helpful advice. This forum is the absolute best when it comes to people being very specific, which I like ...LOL. I am leaning on the Google Fi option as I will need live Tube/Public trans information when I am in London for a couple of days and will definitely need the live public trans information when in Norway. I remember the last time I was abroad in Ireland and when walking around Dublin, could not get the "you are here" to follow me around but my friend (who was from Holland) was easily able to so he was our guide. Same with live bus updates there. I could not get them but he could but that is because I did not plan well and was not able to use data on my phone.

I'm looking at PureTalk's rates and it looks like international usage for calls and texts isn't too expensive: about 10 cents a minute for calls and 10 cents per text. It's not clear to me whether they charge you for both incoming and outgoing texts or only the latter; something to check into. Their data rates could get to be pretty huge, though, at 10 cents per MB (or about $100 per gigabyte, which isn't a lot of data).

You might consider getting a data-only eSIM to add to your phone, assuming the phone is unlocked. That would allow you to continue to use your existing plan for calls and texts while turning off data roaming on PureTalk and using the data eSIM instead. Example providers are Airalo and Nomad.

Interesting....I did not know there was an option like that. I will look into it. I think the International calls and texts only work when I am in the USA. But, thanks for your advice as it is worth looking into. I hope this thread helps others, too. Lots of valuable info on it from seasoned travelers.

Re Google Fi:
You do need to activate it before going abroad, but it doesnt’ have to be 60-90 days prior. We activated our Google Fi about a week before we traveled. Check their website for details.

We switched from AT&T to Google Fi on May 1. We have newer iPhones (13 and 14). Our experience so far:

The good things about Google Fi:

-It worked automatically and perfectly when we landed in Tokyo. No reconfiguring phone settings, turning on airplane mode, etc. it just worked.
-We were able to keep and use our US cell phone numbers (a nice feature for family at home if they need to contact you).

The PROBLEMS with Google Fi:

—We switched about one week before travel, and something got horribly messed up. It took days to straighten out, and in the meantime, we had NO cellular or WiFi service on our phones. If you switch, do it a few weeks ahead of travel, and DON’T try switching on a Friday. “24/7” service is bullsh%&$. Customer service seems to be nonexistent on weekends.

— If you switch to Google Fi, you will be committing to Verizon’s network in the US. For us, Verizon doesn’t quite have the coverage we had with AT&T, which is a little disappointing.

— Our first bill, after returning from 3 weeks in Japan, was over $100, which is more than I expected, though I suppose less than our AT&T bill would have been with monthly charges plus the $10/day international roaming.

I’m hoping we made the right move by cancelling our AT&T plan and switching to Google Fi. We have 3 more international trips scheduled in the next year, and having our own phone numbers is important to us.

I hope this info helps.

This is what Google Fi says about their network:

"Google Fi Wireless provides fast, reliable nationwide 4G LTE and 5G coverage through the T-Mobile network."

"Additionally Google Fi Wireless users have access to multiple carrier networks to stay connected as they travel domestically and around the world."

From:
https://fi.google.com/about/coverage#what-is-unique-about-the-google-fi-wireless-network-and-where-can-i-check-network-coverage?

If you are in an area that does not have good TMobile coverage, then you may be switched to another carrier, such as Verizon.

I have used Google Fi eSIM without issue. It turns on when you change countries, but there can be a 5-10 minute wait for it to come on. This freaked me out the first time but you have to be patient (I am not).

As others have pointed out, you shouldn't activate Google Fi right before you leave. You don't say how long you will be traveling, but they do require the majority of the usage over a 90 day period to be in the USA, not overseas. Here is the Google Fi international roaming policy: https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6157794#zippy=%2Cinternational-roaming-policy

Assuming your phone is unlocked, your "plan B" could be to get a SIM card while you're in Europe. Ideal, no, but it is an option. Also, I believe Google Fi still offers physical SIM cards, so you could get that and get a data-only eSIM and be covered there.

As for navigation, I recommend CityMapper for transit - they have major cities (London, Oslo) and it works fantastic.

Thanks again for the insight. I was worried about something going wrong when I first switch and being without a phone as I live alone. Or, when I get back to the USA. I am traveling in mid-August. I was going to switch in July but maybe I should do it while I am still at work so if something happens, I have people with phones around me (I am a teacher).

I will definitely order the physical sim and go with the best plan for the travel month and then switch to a lower cost plan when I get back. I am probably not going to travel internationally again until next April (2025).

BY the way...I am also not patient ;-). The last time I was at Heathrow the wait at Immigration was over 2 hours. Luckily, I had a doctor note stating I am not able to stand for very long but still had to wait in line about an hour. That's where I am landing this time so the last thing I need is to fool around buying a sim card there.

UPDATE....and welcome advice.
I switched to Google Fi on my Pixel 7a phone and will have been on the service about 30 days prior to my travel to London. The Customer Service People said my phone should work "normally" when I land in London because I have the Unlimited Plus Plan.
I still seem like I need some answers or clarifications.
My needs:
Phone Calls: Call hotels, taxi services and restaurants in the UK, Norway and Holland. Cannot be dependent on an internet connection so these will have to be voice-only calls.
Text Messages: Text friends that are in the UK without an Internet connection.
Data: I need this mainly for Navigation and Live Transport Apps while walking on the street and cannot be dependent on having a wifi connection.
I heard that Google Fi might not work every day of my trip or be painfully slow. A friend recommended that I also install an Airolo esim and use that for data. I am all new to all of this. The last time I went abroad, I had a phone with a UK number that I used for voice and text and a Smart Phone for Internet but the Smart Phone never worked for navigation, maps, apps unless I was in a hotel or place with fast wifi. Never worked on the street.

You have unlimited data, anywhere in the world, with your Google Fi plan.

So no issues with navigation or real-time app needs.

Texts are also free. Calls will cost $0.20 a minute, but for your purposes, that
should not add up to too much. You will still have your US #, so dialing a hotel
in UK requires using the full # as if you were calling from your house in the US.

I suppose that it is possible that anything can happen but I would not worry about
getting another E-Sim card before you leave. If something goes awry, you can just
go to a local phone store and they can assist you.

Thank you. That is what I am hoping but I did have a friend recently come back from Europe and the UK and they said their E-sim would not work. They had to get a physical sim. They have an Iphone. I have the Pixel 7a as my main phone so hoping Google Fi will be more compatible. But, I also read about people who arrived and their Google Fi plan stopped working. They thought it was because they were not on the plan for a long time. I will be on it for about 30 days prior to my departure. Not very long either so reading about these issues had me concerned.

You have unlimited data, anywhere in the world, with your Google Fi plan.

Data while traveling on Google Fi will be charged as it is when you are home. If you signed up for the unlimited plan, you will have unlimited data while traveling for your same monthly price. If you signed up for the Flexible Plan, you will pay the same $10 / GB of data while traveling that you pay at home.

Text Messages: Text friends that are in the UK without an Internet connection.

Short answer: if you can text with them at home without an internet connection (no wifi and no mobile data) then you'll be able to do so while traveling.

Long answer:

You may need an internet connection, even for texts if:

You are sending anything other than a simple text, e.g., if you are sending pictures. Sending a picture with Google Fi, even at home, requires an internet connection - either wifi or mobile data. (This may not be true with your Unlimited Plus plan, you can test it to be sure.)

You are sending a message via RCS, or receiving a message from someone who is using RCS: which is common if you or your friends have an iPhone. (You mentioned having a Pixel phone, but perhaps your friends have iPhones.) If you are sending messages in RCS mode, or receiving messages from someone who is using RCS mode, then you will have to have an internet connection (wifi or mobile data) to send and receive those messages.
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.
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You can test all of this at home, easily. Turn off wifi and turn off mobile data and then:

Send (or try to receive) a photo.

Send a text to a friend with an iphone. If you can send and receive with them without internet, then you are both using SMS. If you can only send and receive with them when you are on internet, then one or the other of you may be using RCS.

You (or they) can easily switch from RCS to SMS for your messaging - a quick Google search should tell you how to do that on your (or their) phone. Then test again.

None of this matters for SMS to SMS text-only messages, which should work without internet on Google FI, at home or abroad.

Really helpful!! Thanks! This explains why a few of my Iphone friends do not get my pictures. As for texting my UK friends...it will just be so that they can meet me in-person. I always use Whats App if I can get an internet connection but the last time I was overseas it seemed like the only internet connection I could get was when I logged in at a hotel or cafe. I had no data at all. Hoping that by purchasing the expensive Google Fi plan that I will not have any issues but I am a "Murphys Law" type trip planner and always plan for the worst. Plus, I travel "solo" a lot and am now in my 60s so I need to be over-prepared.

Hoping that by purchasing the expensive Google Fi plan that I will not have any issues

I have the inexpensive Google Fi plan and I had no issues with data in England.

I will say that sometimes, even at home, if I've had data turned off, when I turn it on it can take a bit to reconnect. Sometimes it's easier to turn my phone off and on again.

With your unlimited plan, you likely won't be switching data on and off. But if you do have any trouble connecting to data, the old restart trick is often the easiest solution.

Thank you! The advice from you and all on this forum might save me from a "panic" when I arrive.

A couple of quick additions. I have been using Google Fi for a bit over 2 years and have traveled to many countries with it. What I have found is that Google Fi is not always on the most capable network in all of its 200 countries. It will connect, but it may be spotty. To keep a good data option, get a data provider on another system on your esim. I have used Ubigi and Eskimo. For example, when in New Zealand, I found that Eskimo has access through a more reliable network. There are nuances of using two networks at the same time, but it has been worth the hassle to learn them. As for the UK, I had no problem working off of Google Fi. I only ran into problems because we were there for more than 90 days. Hence, Ubigi was great to cover the data network.
Hints: Make your phone calls in a wifi zone if at all possible. (I assume you have a phone that allows wifi calling). Google Fi shifts to the wifi and the calls are free even if they are international. There is a hack to force Google Fi to always use data for calling, but it is a bit complex.
Plain texts are always free.

Use Whatsapp or Hangouts for your calls whenever you can. They are data only and you can't be charged for a phone call.
Google Fi works great in the US. I just use Eskimo and Ubigi in the US in order to get a cheaper rate when I don't care about quality as much.

hi im new to google fi and i have a few questions i wondering if someone can help me google fi customer service doesn't seem to understand what i am asking
until now when i was in another country for a long period at a time i used google voice to make calls and text to family and friends in the usa free of charge over wifi or mobile data, i now have a google fi flexible plan and i want to know if it can be used the same way i do know that google fi has the 20c per minute international charge but that's only over cellular my question is if there's someway to make sure that google fi doesn't use cellular and only through wifi or data from my other sim to make calls for free from another country to the usa?
thanks !

whyzeesets, it's good that you started your own thread for your question and I've answered it on your thread:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/google-fi-1d0ccadb-efd1-4c18-9a03-cc2a08ff825f

I am not being obtuse, I actually believe all the options you can get before you leave, or online, are a recipe for trouble. I have never had trouble going to a shop in Europe or the UK (Vodafone/Orange/Three) and getting the person to set up a physical SIM that lasts a month or whatever. Then you know it works.

I am not being obtuse, I actually believe all the options you can get before you leave, or online, are a recipe for trouble. I have never had trouble going to a shop in Europe or the UK (Vodafone/Orange/Three) and getting the person to set up a physical SIM that lasts a month or whatever. Then you know it works.

I agree that getting a physical SIM at a bricks-and-mortar shop at one's destination is ideal. It's however not always possible. I couldn't get a prepaid plan in England, as I need eSIM for my phone (I must retain primary SIM for my US plan), and none of the carriers would sell me a prepaid eSIM. I've checked in the other countries we've visited and it's much the same. In many places one cannot even get a physical SIM based prepaid plan.

I'm not sure about the "recipe for trouble;" what calamities do you foretell?

They don't always work as advertised. Sometimes taking days to activate, if at all. I am just saying that in MY OWN experience, I have never had difficulties with the people in the shop doing it, as long as they are employees of the network (ie. Vodafone et al). But if you have to keep your US sim in at all times, then you only have two options: an eSIM or another phone for the trip; one which has two SIM slots. I have done the latter before too.

Also speaking only for myself, the phone is really only necessary for Google Maps. I don't need to call hotels etc very often. Obviously people have different travel requirements (I did spend time last time in London, talking to TfL regarding tube and Oyster card issues, but that was not actually absolutely necessary).

I just got back from a trip to Italy. I used an Airalo eSIM. It worked fine. I was able to download and install it on my iphone before I left. Although there was no way to try it while still in the US.

When boarding the plane, I turned off my ATT SIM as I was turning off my phone. Then when I got off the plane in Italy, I turned on the Airalo SIM. There were no hiccups - phone just started working on whatever network the SIM handled.

Now, my SIM did NOT include a telephone number. It was data only. But the other people on our trip had "whatsapp" and that worked fine for text and voice calls.

When I had WiFi access I could send and receive calls to the US using the iphone wifi calling feature keeping my ATT SIM still switched OFF to avoid international charges.

I want to add that I traveled to UK in June 2024 on Google Fi plan. I had Google Fi plan for my daughter's phone for years without issue. It was reliable for our travels to France and Italy in 2022 and 2023. It was so great that we (a family of four) decided to switched to Google Fi (From AT&T) in May because we got tired of AT&T's $10 a day fee for international use. Unfortunately for all of us, Google Fi failed us in UK. We had very, very lousy or non existent coverage. At first we thought it was because we were out in the Lake District, but coverage was bad in Oxford, Strafford-upon-Avon, and London. It was very challenging since we relied on our phone's Google Maps for driving and navigating. It was very disappointing service and we reached out to Google Fi for help while there. But it was not easy since we didn't have signal. In July, we went to Singapore and the same thing happened. Luckily, connection improved after a few days. Then my Google Fi physical SIM card (at that point only two months old) died. I reached out to Google Fi who said it was a known issue, but they can only mail a new physical Sim to my home address in the US, so I was out of luck. Luckily for me, the rest of the family still had connection through e-sim. I didn't do anything about this after we got back since service was ok at home. Then, recently, my son and I flew to Reno, NV. Coming out of the airport, both of us had no connection and so couldn't navigate to our destination (we are so dependent on our phones these days!). The long and short of it is that Google Fi may be cheaper, but it isn't reliable. Learn from our experience. Lastly, fyi, Google Fi makes leaving it a particularly painful process if you are on a family plan. Probably ok if you have an individual plan.

Anyone traveling overseas should be aware of esimdb.com. It's a website that maintains a database of eSIM suppliers for various countries and regions. It's especially useful in the event you only need the foreign SIM for a week or to. You can filter results in many different ways; I needed an eSIM for 6 or 7 days, 3GB. This website found me one (data only) for $2 US that I can use in both Italy and Switzerland, where we'll spend our final few days. You don't buy eSIMs from this site, but rather from supplier sites it directs you to. It's a great money saver.

I live internationally (Jordan) and have a Pixel 6a. I use Google Fi year-around to call and text family/ friends in the US, and I keep the data off when I'm in Jordan. When I travel and in the US, I turn the data on. I've had no issues with data internationally in countries in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.

Friends who I work with also like the e-sim from the Airalo app. I haven't tried it but lots of people vouched for it.