falkenad asked:
So I am a resident of Canada, and this summer I am taking a three week trip to Ireland, Bavaria, and the Netherlands. While I am in Europe, I want to keep in touch with friends and family back in Canada. Maybe via Facebook Mobile, not sure if that works where I am going. I plan on buying a cheap, unlocked phone from some online vendor. But if I want a good sim card for texting back to Canada to use whilst in Europe, what is my best option?
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So I am a resident of Canada, and this summer I am taking a three week trip to Ireland, Bavaria, and the Netherlands. While I am in Europe, I want to keep in touch with friends and family back in Canada. Maybe via Facebook Mobile, not sure if that works where I am going. I plan on buying a cheap, unlocked phone from some online vendor. But if I want a good sim card for texting back to Canada to use whilst in Europe, what is my best option?
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As far as I know there is not a sim card that works in all of Europe that doesn’t work on roaming (ie you buy in country A, but as soon as you cross the border to country B then you start paying a different price and usually a very expensive one!)
So you may have to consider buying ‘pay as you go’ sim cards which are pretty cheap. In the Netherlands at least you can get them anywhere like newsagents, supermarket’s, petrol stations, phone shops etc.
i can only speak for the netherlands, but sim cards are pretty cheap (around 15€, depends on the provider), and usually you get 5€ already on it, the rest comes after you have logged in online. but the problem is that usually takes about a week or so. so if you are planning to stay for a shorter time, i’m not really sure if it pays off.
but on the other hand i think texting to canada may still be way more expensive if you keep your canadian card (have no idea on prices, so you might want to check that).
oh and another thing, i’m not sure it counts for canadians, but when a friend from usa was visiting me in the NL, it turned out they don’t use sim cards so her phone was useless. in the end she just bought a prepaid phone together with the sim. (the cheapest ones are approx. 20€ of which 15€ is usually your credit, so you pay 5€ for the phone in the end. but still keep in mind that a lot of providers request an online signing in and then they send you additional credit later via post, which may be a problem for you). but for my friend it was useful as she stayed for 3 months.
so anyway, have a good look at the options. and mind that you’re going to have to do it in each country that you go to in europe, because these telephone companies all work on a national level.
good luck and have fun on the trip!!