Travel & Holidays Mobile phone calls while travelling overseas?

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by Gockie, 25th May, 2017.

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  1. Gockie

    Gockie Life is good ☺️ Premium Member

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    Hi everybody,
    How do you manage incoming phone calls while travelling overseas?
     
  2. dmb1978

    dmb1978 Well-Known Member

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    Take sim card out before flight, use whatsapp and buy cheap sim card at location ;)
     
    MTR, Blacky, Terry_w and 2 others like this.
  3. Terry_w

    Terry_w Lawyer, Tax Adviser and Mortgage broker in Sydney Business Member

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    Get a VOIP phone number here. Divert your mobile to the voip number and then divert the voip number to your mobile in country. I use Mynetfone and it costs something like 7c per minute.
     
  4. Gockie

    Gockie Life is good ☺️ Premium Member

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    Whatsapp might be the way (if only everybody used it)...
     
  5. Blacky

    Blacky Well-Known Member

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    You also have skype, viber and facetime. All dialing over wifi. It probably covers 90% of the population.

    If all else fails buy skype credit. Dial any number.
    Its probably more expensive than Terry's way, but its still very cheap. $10 usually lasts me 6months or so and I travel a lot.
    And its easy.

    Blacky
     
  6. Casteller

    Casteller Well-Known Member

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    Whatsapp for me, everyone uses it here in Spain (100%), I haven't sent a text message in years. When back in Australia (or Switzerland) I use a local sim card for voice and whatsapp. I try to get people to use it with some success, but some ozzies thought it was "insecure" and wouldn't use it whereas in reality it is more secure than text messages. I don´t use my sim card in another country, charges are ridiculous. For international calls I use Skype credit to landlines/mobiles, or Whatsapp (it has voice also).
     
  7. MTR

    MTR Well-Known Member

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    Love Whatsapp
     
  8. Beano

    Beano Well-Known Member

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    Using Vodafone on the $5 per day plan the calls you receive are free (in most countries)
     
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  9. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    It's better if you have a dual SIM phone. Take your Australian one for incoming calls, buy a local one for outgoing calls and data. Or else leave the Australian one at home.

    I've bought local ones in 4 countries (Asia and Middle East). They vary from $12 to $20 (voice and data) and give you 2GB to 5 GB. Each lasts for one month. Most need ID Some will sell you without ID but 2 weeks in you may get a message (in Arabic) threatening to cut you off unless you provide ID.