Having a SIM card that does not incur a monthly or yearly fee is convenient when one travels abroad only occasionally and for a very short time.
The per minute price for this convenience is excessive, however. It costs much less (on a per minute basis) even to use a satellite phone (Iridium or Globalstar); satphone calls are about $1/minute and can be placed from anywhere, including the middle of the ocean where there is no cellular coverage. By far the least expensive and most convenient option is to buy a SIM card at any one country one arrives at; most of them sell them in kiosks at their respective airports. Outgoing calls to the US would be 10-20 cents/minute, outgoing local calls would be 1-2 cents/minute, and incoming calls would be free; by contrast, all of these calls would be over $2/minute with the mobal SIM card. Mobal GSM Global Roaming World SIM Card
I've always just bought an international phone card when I've traveled but decided to take my own phone this one time and try one of these sim cards. Well, let me tell you. I made about 45 minuets of calls during a total of 3 weeks and my overall bill was $176. So, if you do the math, I could have spend about $13 American dollars on a 10 euro calling card with 400 minuets and called from the hotel or any public phone....or $176 for less than an hour of calls. This was certainly the worse choice I made for my trip and I advise you to NOT buy this! Amazon.com, please consider taking this off your list of products...it is very misleading and cost consumers way too much money after it is purchased.
I got this Sim card as a freebie from Amazon (along with the purchase of an unlocked phone) and to activate the Sim, I was asked to give my credit card details and the Customer Service rep wasn't very convincing about whether I'd get $20 worth of free minutes. And, when I asked if the Sim would let me know I've used the entire $20 worth, she said NO. I'd be billed on my credit card for extra charges, as long as I use the Sim card.
For people traveling abroad, I'd suggest going with a SIM card from local providers. For calls made from India to US, MOBAL is charging $3.95 per minute whereas, local carriers allow international call for Rs. 10 per minute, which is approximately equivalent to a quarter (25 cents in US).
My husband and I bought this to take on a trip to England. We are in our 70's and wanted the convienance of using our cell phone we use here in America. We didn't make very many calls but have some how ended up with over $200 in charges on our credit card. We know that we didn't use our phone for much over half an hour so we were shocked when our credit card had been charged for so much. It took us over 2 weeks of trying to contact the support phone number and when we did the young woman said that there were a lot of "connection and fees" charged along with the SIM card. So after we were back home we of course never used the SIM card again but then 1 month later our card was charged for another $25. We have tried to reach the people at the Global Sim telephone number but can't get hold of anyone. We're hoping that there won't be any more charges on our card but we are afraid that we can't seperate our card from this company.
I bought this sim card but when I tried to activate it, I was told that only people who have a US credit card can do this. This makes the card worthless to me as I neither live in the USA nor have a US credit card. This information should have been prominently posted along with the advertisement for the card.
The plan says that to make a call from my location would cost 13.99 a minute and recieving calls unwanted or not would be 1.99 a minute. I will never use this card but will save it to remind me never to buy another.
Read the other reviews carefully. Those ranking it "high" may not be well-informed about all options -and there ARE comparatively INEXPENSIVE, easily available options!
You'll need an unlocked quad-band phone (available in all price ranges - sometimes buying one at destination can be competitive re price but not always) plus your own regular service SIM, pre-authorized for international use (call your carrier before you go) to use "just in case" until you decide which service to use wherever you're headed. Even at a dollar or two per min for a "just in case" call, YOUR OWN service will, for those few calls until you get a local SIM, be cheaper. (Or you can always text-message/SMS, cheaper YET, even on your own SIM!) Also pack a good pre-paid international phone card, too, as back-up (amt depending how long you'll be gone and how many countries you're jaunting off to - you can recharge this, too) so you can call home from something other than your cell (which can also get pricy).
On arrival, purchase a local-provider SIM w/appropriate features for you (kiosks, local cell ph provider stores), and add some initial funds to it. Install or ask them to do so. Then buy pre-paid "recharge" cards as needed; not high-priced. I found them even in E Europe (every country) and Turkey - yes, higher per min than a contract, but a TINY percentage of the cost of Mobal or your own cell ph! Take a few minutes on-line and explore regarding this - you will be very glad you did.
I hope Amazon withdraws this from their offerings, I truly do. - Expensive - Horrible - International - Gsm'
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