eSIM: Experiences with different providers?

[jim584672]

I bought a Mint mobile eSim from Best Buy. Unable to get it activated and working. Mint is apparently useless in this situation. No refunds and no help.

 

[camfused]

Yes, but can you have two esims active at the same time? Otherwise, you would have to keep switching between the two since my phone number is associated with the esim on my (unlocked) US phone while the data only esim has no number.

Also, I wish it was as simple as using Google Voice for certain things. Many projects I consult on require multi factor authentication which includes a verified US phone number. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way around those requirements, so I avoid those projects when I'm traveling.

Yes, you can.

Read my post again. With this technique, you use your regular phone number, therefore MFA works fine.

 

[camfused]

Interesting.

So, if my carrier supports free wifi calling and I am in a foreign country with no international roaming enabled (ie. no cellular phone connection), my call (incoming & outgoing) will route over the eSim data connection and be free?

Well, it won't be free, since that eSim data connection costs money to obtain and you pay per GB, but yes. Or, if you have a wifi connection at your hotel or wherever, then it truly is free. Same for iMessages.

 

[camfused]

I bought a Mint mobile eSim from Best Buy. Unable to get it activated and working. Mint is apparently useless in this situation. No refunds and no help.

Try the reddit community for Mint.

 

[Out of Steam]

My wife and I are using Vodaphone e-sims in Croatia right now. They seem to work fine, though installing was fussy.

 

[walkinwood]

With T-Mobile only WiFi calls to or from a US number are free.

Important caveat! I forgot about that for a while..

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Verizon also has charges for some international WiFi calling. So best to know before you travel how YOUR plan works with international WiFi calling.

 

[jim584672]

Try the reddit community for Mint.

Already tried that. They are not official Mint employees and are unable to help.

 

[FIYes]

Just back from Spain and Morocco. I used KeepGo eSIM in both countries. Connection was good and easy. I also use wifi calling. Since my regular cellular provider is Tracfone, I have no international option with them, but it also means that I don’t need to worry about incurring exorbitant roaming charges.

I kept both sims, Tracfone and KeepGo, active throughout the trip. I was able to use wifi calling when on wifi. I have an android phone. I love having the option of two active sims.

 

[HarveyS]

Lots of good info on this thread. But not all info discusses the phones being used.
Caveat emptor : the phone you have will limit your ability to use e-Sims. Please do your due diligence and look to a few youtube videos to see how to make your specific phone model and operating system work best.

 

[Sojourner]

Caveat emptor : the phone you have will limit your ability to use e-Sims.

Very true. DW's Samsung Galaxy Flip phone does not accept eSIMs, despite being only five years old! All iPhones back to the XR (released in 2018) support eSIMs.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I stumbled upon this video that walks thru how to set up an eSIM on an iPhone. It's informative, although I have already figured out how to do this a few trips ago. But it might help someone wondering what's involved.

Additionally, the video is from a company called Monito. So I went to their website to see what they offer (he refers you to it in the video). It's a basic website to find eSIMs from various vendors that might work for your upcoming travel. Of note, there is a discount code for many of the eSIMs it suggests that you can use on the eSIM vendor's site when you go to buy one. I have NOT attempted to use it yet, but there is an Airalo code MONITO15 which supposedly will give me a 15% discount when I go to buy my Airalo eSIM in a couple weeks. So I'll be trying to use that to save a few bucks.

Edited to add: The discount code worked. 15% off.

 

[HarveyS]

Got this email today from Airalo. "Save on your next eSIM and stay connected during your trip! Use promo code WANDER15 at checkout." Seems that anyone can use it, so here you go.

 

[grasshopper]

Just back from Spain and Morocco. I used KeepGo eSIM in both countries. Connection was good and easy. I also use wifi calling.

My Lisbon to Barcelona sailing cruise last week was on again, off again, to Morocco. Ended up in Gibraltar instead of Tangier. So I had a 1 week Airalo eSIM that won't be used. Just got home today, and still doing laundry, so I will try to get a credit, next week.

 

[AbbA]

So much good information on this thread that I will need to use in the future to dig deeper. I will clearly need to update my Moto G7Play to something better. I never liked Apple products due to its monopolistic behaviour but perhaps when one of my kids needs to upgrade theirs in a couple years I'll (reluctantly) take it and see what I have been missing. They use iPhones 14 so it will have capability of NFS and accepts a few eSIM cards.

This year will be OK because my DD has a Visible plan here and I will purchase a data-only eSIM for the EU. I found two very helpful threads for her situation on Redditt: iPhone 14, Visible plan in the USA, but getting data-only eSIM card for overseas and how to make it work to make Wi-Fi calls, etc. I had to read both threads twice to grasp the information and steps on how to setup correctly, so hopefully it will work for us. Here are the links in case anyone else might need help:

https://tinyurl.com/544v4mfc

and

https://tinyurl.com/ye25vw4r

 

[AbbA]

When DW and I were in Italy last year, we used data-only eSIMs and had absolutely no trouble. We never had a single instance of needing to place an "old school" phone call to a local number. Everyone we needed to contact (Airbnb hosts, tour operators, restaurants, ticket offices, taxi services) could be reached via text or WhatsApp. And we could still do FaceTime audio calls to reach anyone with an iPhone, since FT uses your phone's data line.

That's what I am hoping for too, but most of the hotels we reserved don't have WhatsApp #'s but luckily appear to be monitoring their Emails quite efficiently so in the worst case scenarios I will need to email them but I'm keeping my fingers crossed we don't have such a situation.

I just need to figure out what GB size eSIM I must purchase. The trip is 35 days, but we can deal with having a 30-day eSIM card.

 

[AbbA]

I had a 1 week Airalo eSIM that won't be used. Just got home today, and still doing laundry, so I will try to get a credit, next week.

It's possible to get a credit from Airalo for the unused GB's?? This did not come up in my research and I would be curious to hear more.

 

[Luvtoride]

We are just ending our 10 day trip to Italy today. I had checked out this thread and researched many of the possible solutions presented here for using our phones and iPad devices. I ended up doing nothing and it appears to have worked out fine.
We have iPhones with T-mobile service. Used FaceTime for calls with family at home in the US and we joined hotel and restaurant WiFi whenever available. I just got a message yesterday afternoon from t-mobile saying I had used 4 Gbit of 5 Gbit of high-speed data provided in my plan for free. If I did happen to go over the 5, “they have me covered with free data at 256k”. Also, on United Airlines whom we flew, we got free “ high-speed”WiFi on the flights (allowing streaming and full internet surfing) thru their affiliation with T-mobile. We may have made a few regular phone calls (non- WhatsApp or FaceTime) that we will be charged .25/ minute. Not a big deal.

 

[audreyh1]

My Lisbon to Barcelona sailing cruise last week was on again, off again, to Morocco. Ended up in Gibraltar instead of Tangier. So I had a 1 week Airalo eSIM that won't be used. Just got home today, and still doing laundry, so I will try to get a credit, next week.

What happened with the cruise?

 

[grasshopper]

What happened with the cruise?

While we had good weather on our trip, a decision by the Capt to port at Gibraltar rather than Morocco was due to some crazy north African winds. We got a little nautical lesson, about the currants going in and out the Mediterranean. The distance between the ports is only 36 miles apart.

 

[audreyh1]

We are just ending our 10 day trip to Italy today. I had checked out this thread and researched many of the possible solutions presented here for using our phones and iPad devices. I ended up doing nothing and it appears to have worked out fine.
We have iPhones with T-mobile service. Used FaceTime for calls with family at home in the US and we joined hotel and restaurant WiFi whenever available. I just got a message yesterday afternoon from t-mobile saying I had used 4 Gbit of 5 Gbit of high-speed data provided in my plan for free. If I did happen to go over the 5, “they have me covered with free data at 256k”. Also, on United Airlines whom we flew, we got free “ high-speed”WiFi on the flights (allowing streaming and full internet surfing) thru their affiliation with T-mobile. We may have made a few regular phone calls (non- WhatsApp or FaceTime) that we will be charged .25/ minute. Not a big deal.

Yes, exactly! T-Mobile has you covered. Using FaceTime over WiFi is a great way to communicate. We haven’t exceeded 5G high speed on either line yet, but next month may be challenging because we’re overseas almost the whole billing cycle. But if one of us goes over 5G the other can still provide a hotspot.

 

[Sojourner]

I just need to figure out what GB size eSIM I must purchase. The trip is 35 days, but we can deal with having a 30-day eSIM card.

Something like 5GB of data should be plenty for 30 days. DW and I purchased a 3GB eSIM for our Italy trip and only used 2GB of it over 15 days. And it's very easy to add more data in 1GB increments, as needed.

 

[Sojourner]

It's possible to get a credit from Airalo for the unused GB's?? This did not come up in my research and I would be curious to hear more.

I don't think they give credits for unused data. The cost per GB is so low that you'd only be talking about a few dollars (as in $2 or $3, literally).

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I have a T-Mobile plan that gives me 5GB of "high-speed" data per month in most foreign countries I would ever visit. But on 2 of my visits, I used more than that and had to buy an added amount. I do a LOT of research and downloads of stuff along the way of my travels and a lot of map tracking. I don't want to be bothered by too much pre-trip downloading and prep work. So, on recent trips, I've been purchasing a 20 GB Airalo eSIM to primarily use for my data needs. In the scheme of a multi-thousand dollar trip, the added $25-$35 is worth it to me to not have to mess around with my phone data plan once I'm in the midst of my trip. I still leave the T-Mobile plan active so that I can call and/or text message using my USA phone number, but the bulk of my data needs is met by the Airalo eSIM.

 

[camfused]

I was thinking of another use for these Keepgo eSims: let’s say you normally have Verizon and you go on a road trip. You get a flat and want to call AAA, but you don’t have a signal. You just switch on the Keepgo USA eSim, which never expires, and if it has a signal (can choose AT&T, TMoble, or Verizon) then you make a wifi call to AAA. Kind of like a back up phone on a different network.

You can do something similar with the pricey plan from USMobile, but it ain’t cheap.