Paying monthly phone bills is a hassle but if you need to save up while able to call and text your friends abroad, we can provide some tips that may be effective for you.
I said “MAY BE EFFECTIVE” because these tips are not guaranteed to work on all mobile phone bills. After all, each service has its own system.
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Use Call and Text Apps Instead
Not having at least one chat app on your phone will make you look like a nomad. What you want to do is install a chat app like Viber, WhatsApp or even Facebook’s own Messenger. While it is awesome to have unlimited calls and texts even when you have friends overseas, it costs on the monthly bill. However, a chat app costs $0.
To make it effective, simply go for a cheap mobile plan and use a chat app frequently instead. The monthly bill will drastically reduce.
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Switch to a Cheaper Phone Carrier
There is no shame in using a cheap phone carrier like Freedompop, Metro or Simple. In fact, a lot of people have been switching from major phone carriers like Verizon, ATT, T-Mobile and Sprint to simpler ones. That’s because these high-profile phone carriers cost a lot while users get so little from them. So why pay more when you can pay just right?
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Some Phone Plans Specialize in Oversea Calls and Texts
Phone carriers like T-Mobile and Xfinity (check out the Xfinity review at DailtWireless.org to learn more) include plans that let you communicate with people overseas for a reasonable price. Not only do you get to talk to them as much as you want, the service will even throw in some other bundles such as added hotspot 4G LTE data and some extra free calls and messaging locally.
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Use VoIP Phone Services
While it is nice to have an app, sometimes you don’t want to pay for the mobile data. Fortunately, some phone carrier services like Freedompop will let you call and text your friends freely. How? Through VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol. This is how it works: as long as you and your buddy use Freedompop together, you will never get charged for calling and texting.
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Use the Local Region’s Phone Carrier
If you are traveling abroad, you may want to switch out your nation’s service and swap it with a sim card of your visiting country’s phone carrier. It beats having to waste so much valuable data abroad when your phone carrier doesn’t have coverage there. So, just ask the locals what they use and adapt. Besides, sim cards are cheap and easy to buy.
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Go for Prepaid + Chat App Combo
Look, prepaid is significantly cheaper than postpaid. Yes, they are quite barebones indeed but you only need to pay whenever you use the phone to call, text and browse.
In this case, download a chat app via wi-fi, and use that instead of your phone carrier’s calls and texts. It beats having to pay every month. Besides, chat apps do not cost a single dime so as long as you have an internet connection.
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Forget Bundles and Go Barebones
If you insist of not wanting any extra goodies from major telcos, you can always pick their basic plans. From there, just have yourself a long-distance or chat app to communicate with your friends free of charge. However, I do recommend that you stack up on mobile data especially if you are planning to keep on calling and texting your friends abroad for hours in a day.
This also works if you are traveling to a different country and you want to update your friends about your exploration.
Who Says You Have to Pay a lot to Communicate with Friends Abroad?
Much like anything else, you can life hack your way on monthly phone bills. Apply any of the tips provided in this article and watch how big your savings are!