How we keep cell phone expenses low as a nomads

Being a nomad and moving between many different countries staying connected can become quite expensive, especially if you are not careful.

This brings me first to make you aware of the roaming setting on your phone. On my iPhone, this setting is under Settings, Mobile Data, and Mobile Data Options. If you click this you will have an option to turn on or off the Data Roaming setting.

Having this on as you enter new countries can become very expensive as your phone will continue to download data as if you were in your home country. We, therefore, have this turned off when we are traveling and start the hunt for Wi-Fi hotspots when we land.

But there are other options.

One thing is simple as your local carrier providing an international plan. I have a T-Mobile plan from the States, that provides data and a preferential calling rate. Steinar has a Norwegian carrier, and with the EU regulations that came in place some years ago, he can roam in Europe as if he is in Norway. No extra cost.

This changes however when we travel outside of Europe, such as Panama or Thailand where the roaming charges are outrageous.

In these countries, we choose instead to get a local sim card. In our experience this has been super easy to get, just make sure you bring your passport.

In Thailand for example, most 7/11 will sell sim cards. As an example, a 30-day 10Mbps sim card costs 350 baht.

With the data connection in place, we use Skype if we need to make calls to a landline or mobile phone. We have however noticed that calling is a rare occasion as most communication, whether it’s with businesses or people are done through WhatsApp or Line (in Asia).