There are few things more frustrating in this world than coming home from a serene getaway overseas, only to be SLAMMED with data roaming charges when you get back. Sound familiar?
If you’re an avid traveler like me, you’ve likely experienced this at some point. I love traveling, but I absolutely hate the amount of money my phone carrier charges to use my data overseas.
I was thrilled to learn about the prospect of using an eSIM, which is essentially a prepaid data plan/package to use when you travel— for a fraction of the price your home carrier would charge you.
In the past, physical SIM cards were my go-to for travel. But after nearly losing my primary SIM card multiple times, an eSIM seemed like a much safer option, so I decided it was worth a try. Unfortunately though, things didn’t work out quite how I expected.
This is my eSIM horror story, things you need to know about eSIMs so you don’t experience what I did!
Planning the trip
As someone born and raised in Canada, I think it’s safe to say just about everyone looks forward to a winter getaway. Winters in Canada are brutal, so there’s nothing nicer than booking a flight to somewhere tropical in the dead of January.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that flights to Fort Lauderdale, Florida are dirt cheap after the December holiday rush dies down, so my girls and I planned a trip to Miami. (Tip: It’s cheaper to fly into Fort Lauderdale than Miami International Airport!)
I gathered everything I could possibly need and packed my bags right up to the airline weight limit. Who doesn’t need 12 pairs of shorts and 14 bikinis for a six day trip? You never know!
Choosing an eSIM
Recently, I heard about how you can save a ton of money on data overseas by using a mobile eSIM.
Essentially, an eSIM is an electronic SIM card that you download on your mobile device, and it allows you to use local data in whatever place you visit.
Unfortunately, Canada is one of the most expensive countries in the world for mobile data. On top of that, we pay some of the most expensive roaming fees when we travel. Many carriers charge anywhere from $10 – $25 per day just to use your data outside of Canada, not to mention the additional charges for calls and SMS messages!
My phone carrier happens to be on the higher end of that spectrum, but I needed to be able to use my data in Miami to get around, message my friends, and more.
Given the fact that I was going to be gone for 6 days, I was not going to add a $200+ phone bill to my travel expenses, so I opted to try an eSIM for the first time. I bought a prepaid data package, installed it and departed for the airport!
Everything seemed to be working fine with my eSIM when I arrived in Florida. I thought it was a little strange that I could see both the local carrier that my eSIM connected to, as well as the carrier that my home carrier would typically connect to when using my expensive data roaming plan, but since this was my first time using an eSIM I thought nothing of it.
Keep this in mind…
Let the Miami festivities begin
As a group, we had some reservations about visiting Miami in January, given the fact that it’s winter in Florida. We were told to not expect great weather, as it tended to be quite breezy around that time, but the opposite turned out to be true. The weather in Florida was beautiful from the moment we touched down!
We grabbed our bags, picked up our rental car, drove to our Airbnb and organized our itinerary for the week.
Our itinerary was packed with fun activities. We visited South Beach, ziplined, did an ATV trail ride, and visited a ton of chic restaurants and bars in the evenings.
Miami is definitely the place to go to make new connections. The people we met were extremely friendly, and we even spent some of our nights out with the new friends we had made! All in all, it was a 10/10 trip.
Everything was great… until is wasn’t
It’s always a sobering feeling coming down from your vacation high. Although it had been a few days since we arrived back home, I was still in good spirits… that is, until I received my phone bill.
I opened my email to a whopping $347 phone bill. My jaw immediately dropped. How on earth was my phone bill so expensive when I had installed an eSIM and was using it for my entire trip? I checked my eSIM on the app and it said it was active! Although it was a little weird that all the data I had purchased was showing as available…
I immediately reached out to my eSIM provider’s customer service team, desperately hoping for a response. Hours passed, and nothing. Crickets. So much for 24/7 customer service.
I turned to my next point of contact for answers – my phone carrier. To my surprise, they had the answer to my question, but it was not the answer I wanted to hear.
I told them I had been using an eSIM on my recent trip to the USA, and demanded to know why I had received these absurd data roaming charges. They informed me that although I may have installed an eSIM, my primary SIM card had not been switched off throughout my trip, meaning that all the data I had used and the messages I had sent throughout my trip was done on my primary SIM.
I went back and reviewed the instructions for installing the eSIM, which I had followed to a tee, and there was no mention of the fact that my primary SIM had to be turned off to avoid those roaming charges!
Tips for installing your eSIM
Don’t let this story scare you away from trying an eSIM. For my next trip, I went with an aloSIM eSIM, but this time, I made sure to switch off my primary SIM. The result? No roaming charges in sight on my next phone bill!
Using an eSIM is a super effective way to dodge expensive roaming charges when traveling overseas. Here are some tips to follow when you’re trying out an eSIM.
1. Check if your phone is eSIM compatible.
Before purchasing an eSIM, make sure your device is eSIM compatible! An easy way to do this is by using an eSIM compatibility checker.
2. Follow the installation instructions.
Make sure you follow the installation guide that you receive with your eSIM closely. Instructions may differ from device to device.
3. Talk to your phone carrier before your trip.
If you decide to keep your primary SIM switched on to make calls or send SMS messages, make sure you talk to your phone carrier before your trip to ensure they don’t charge you a fortune in daily travel fees (most carriers charge a daily flat rate ranging from $10-$25).
If you don’t care about getting calls or SMS messages (iMessage works over eSIM data), it’s better to just turn your primary SIM off completely.
Of course, a few more simple steps are involved in installing an eSIM, but overall the process is simple and saves you a ton of money on roaming fees.
