» How to reduce the cost of using your mobile phone overseasPlusOne

While there are many websites that can help you reduce the costs of overseas travel on aspects like hotels, airfares, car hire and tours, many people come home to a shock when they receive their mobile phone bill after using it while set to global roaming.

Many countries are notorious for their costs of telecommunications, especially when you have set your phone to global roaming.

Several years ago on a trip to The UK and France, after minimal outbound and inbound calls I was unpleasantly surprised at my next mobile phone bill.

So phone costs were a consideration when our daughter was going on a six week school trip to France (and another daughter subsequently to Russia for three weeks, where call costs can be horrendously high depending on where you are standing when making the call), especially when looking at the call costs from Telstra, our mobile phone provider.

So to options. After hunting around on the internet we happened across TravelSIM. Have a look at these rates tables to see the differences and the savings:

Russia

Provider	Cost to Call Australia	Cost to Receive Calls	Send SMS	National Call	International Call
TravelSIM	$0.44	$0.00	$0.56	$0.44	$0.44
Optus	$6.60	$1.80	$0.75	$2.10	$6.60
Telstra	$8.50	$2.09	$0.75	$1.84	$7.01
Vodafone	$6.13	$1.42	$0.75	$1.90	$7.22

United Kingdom

Provider	Cost to Call Australia	Cost to Receive Calls	Send SMS	National Call	International Call
TravelSIM	$0.37	$0.00	$0.38	$0.37	$0.37
Optus	$3.50	$1.45	$0.75	$1.65	$3.50
Telstra	$2.95	$0.70	$0.75	$1.09	$2.36
Vodafone	$3.19	$1.17	$0.75	$1.57	$3.75

France

Provider	Cost to Call Australia	Cost to Receive Calls	Send SMS	National Call	International Call
TravelSIM	$0.47	$0.00	$0.38	$0.47	$0.47
Optus	$3.50	$1.45	$0.75	$1.65	$3.50
Telstra	$3.00	$0.85	$0.75	$2.12	$3.05
Vodafone	$3.19	$1.17	$0.75	$1.57	$3.75

Rates are per minute/per SMS

TravelSIM is a prepaid service where you use a replacement SIM card in your mobile phone for the duration of your trip, to deliver some great savings.

Because of the interval between trips, we did not want to be locked into any contracts with monthly charges when we did not want to use the service. Fortunately TravelSIM is a prepaid service that has no monthly fees, nor contracts and credit does not expire.

They have a money back guarantee that you will be able to save costs on your use of your mobile overseas.

Another great aspect is the ease of top up. This can be some in just a few simple steps online or an Auto Top up function can be used whereby you can send a prearranged code from your handset to automatically debit your credit card for a nominated amount. This is great when traveling and you perhaps cannot find an internet cafe etc to log in and top up. Of course in our case we topped up the account as needed using both credit card and PayPal.

We could also log in and check on usage, to make sure credit was not being burned up with excess SMS and calls to boyfriends back home!

The ease and cost saving of calling the traveller is great as well and we could simply call the 1800 number and talk for just USD0.35 per minute, with the cost deducted from the TravelSIM balance. We could also send unlimited SMS to our kids for free via the TravelSIM page once logged in.

We found call quality to be just as good as a call within Australia.

Overall we have been more than happy with TravelSIM. The simcard now sits in our drawer ready for our next overseas trip to any of the 150 countries they cover so if I were to want to get into it…

If you would like to make great savings on your mobile phone bill next tip you take an overseas trip, you can buy the starter kit here.