International SIM card: how to call from abroad?

How do I phone your loved ones from abroad with an international SIM card? Here are all our tips to save money!

When traveling abroad, it is not uncommon that you have to make a call, because you have to face an unexpected situation or simply give news to your loved ones. I remember that ten years ago, calling from abroad in France was a mission generating a sometimes exorbitant surcharge. You had to buy prepaid call cards, find a phone booth or go to a cybercafé equipped with phones... For a few years, the majority of people have a smartphone in the pocket but there again, you need a WiFi connection or access to mobile data, which can cost expensive according to the country where you are located.

Now a wide range of solutions exist to phone from abroad. Today, what is called the roaming – a feature that allows you to use your phone or any connected device, when the network of your operator is not available – is simple if you travel to the European Union. But what about the borders of our old continent? Here are the alternatives to the international package to contact their loved ones and phone from abroad.

Use mobile application

Before approaching the interest of an international SIM card, we can of course use the sim card of its usual mobile operator to phone from abroad, but sometimes you will need to activate an option to use its international package. It is also necessary to make sure that your mobile phone works well in the destination country and check the rates from abroad of its mobile package that are often very high. If you are in a 3G/4G-covered area or have WiFi access, you can use the Skype applications, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp to call from abroad. Personally, I always use WhatsApp on my trips, but only in WiFi when I go to the inhabitant via Airbnb.

But how do we do if we don’t have a WiFi connection? Since June 15, 2017, European Union imposes on operators allow their customers to use the same services as in their country of residence through the intra-community countries. In Europe, a mobile package works as in France, with unlimited SMS and MMS and 1 to 100 GB of mobile data. But outside the European borders, the activation of mobile data often generates an exorbitant overcost. During my travels outside of Europe – in Taiwan and Bosnia – in 2017, for example, I had additional costs to pay because of my repeated connections to the 4G...

Choose a local SIM card?

We can, in the old age, opt for the local SIM card of the country in which we go but it will have to be changed at each border crossing. And in each new country visited, you will have a different phone number: difficult in this case, to be reachable by your loved ones. I remember when I left to live a year in Australia – before smartphones – I had to regularly buy credit coupons in a tobacco office and enter the code to recharge my credits and call to France: fortunately, this solution, very expensive to call from abroad, is now over!

To avoid this coffin, you can buy an international SIM card, which you can use anywhere in the world: book accommodation, call a taxi, find someone, go with GPS, organize your day, call a loved one for an emergency, etc. There are many reasons why a traveller calls, sends an SMS or access the internet from abroad.

Explod International SIM Card

Launched by the Explod operator, this international SIM card operates in 194 countries and is associated with a unique phone number, allowing to connect anywhere in all countries of the world. It will allow phones from abroad in France, with a prepaid international package. First, Explod offers four SIM cards at different rates:

• 35 € : the SIM card and 15 € of credit,
• 50 € : the SIM card and 35 € of credit,
• 75 € : the SIM card and 65 € of credit,
• 95 € : the SIM card and 95 € of credit.

This is to consult online the rates of communications in force in the country concerned, and to purchase online the Explod international SIM card . Once the credits are exhausted, it is possible to reload its SIM card through the interface of its account on Explod. End roaming costs and problems roaming ! We can then call from abroad for €0.20 or €0.50 per minute, while before, making a call out of France could cost up to €2.5 per minute! Data prices are also cheaper than a classic mobile package. Note that once the international SIM card is ordered, mail is free.

In fact, we always know what we pay and there is no surprise related to the out-of-pocket. We order online for its international SIM card Explod, which we receive by post and we can call from abroad, without commitment or subscription. The Explod solution also allows you to reserve the card at any time for a second trip: there is no limit of validity or peremption: therefore, it is very appreciable.

Main photo credit: Pexels – Bruce Mars