I found the esim Airalo to be excellent. Set it up before you travel. Turn it on when you land. It finds the local networks.
Absolutely do not use the free internets in cafes etc. They are unsafe.
E sims are essential for online banking.
Many mobiles do not support eSims although more do every new generation. Why are they ‘essential’ for online banking?
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Agree, but there are other options to using unsecured public wifi/hotspots. Most accommodation we found now has secure encrypted wifi connections. Using a VPN is also useful when travelling irrespective of the type of internet connection used is also recommended, noting in some countries VPNs are blocked as the government monitors all communications.
I avoid doing any internet transactions in relation to personal affairs, such a accessing banks online, when travelling. Internet connection is principally used for communications and catching up on news.
True, no public wifi is safe to use unless you’re connected to a VPN service. If you will need to use wifi at all while travelling, you should get a VPN subscription and use it.
When we last travelled overseas - pre-pandemic - I subscribed us to SurfShark VPN and configured our phones to have the VPN on all the time.
Any of the reputable VPN services that have servers all over the world should be OK. You want it to be able to connect to a server that’s reasonably close to wherever you happen to be, so you get reasonable network performance.
I use the word “essential” As esims are secure.
You are of course, correct that some phones do not have eSIM Accessibility. However, this has rapidly changed in the last four years. I guess my warning just relates to not relying on public Internet except for maybe Google Maps.
I purchase a SIM in Australia before I leave the country from a company called Prepaid SIM Australia.
They offer SIMs for different countries, and for different timeframes. You tell them which SIM you want, and the date you want it to start. When I travel to the US, I usually have the SIM start on the day I am travelling to the US & I change the SIM in my phone just before I get on the plane. That way, my phone is usable as soon as I get off the plane at my destination.
Yes, it will give you a new phone number, But phones these days store your contacts numbers on the phone itself, rather than on your SIM, so you will still have all your contact information. You won’t know the new number until you put the travel SIM into your phone. I have used this company 4 times in the past two years, and never had an issue with them.
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What do you need to do while you are there? Last year (Germany, France, Switzerland, England) we just activated roaming on our Australian sims, adding $25 worth of credit. It was enough for the phone calls to accommodation providers etc and a few sms to each other that we made. After a month when the credit expired we still had most of it left. There was free wifi almost everywhere we went so no need for data use. Since I was on holiday I didn’t answer any work calls. Receiving SMS (eg banking) is free
The better way is to use your regular credit (or debit) card that doesn’t charge any fees for currency conversion/overseas transactions. Travel cards have several problems: 1. Fees to buy, transfer and use (or not use) them, 2. Currency exchange rate risk, 3. Paying another fee to get unused money back into AUD, 4. Difficulty getting unused money off the card when you return.
Just to clarify, VIsa and MC have excellent conversion rates - fees are added by the banks - but not all of them. AMEX however still charge high fees, even on their travel focused products.
Another option is OSMAND - offline maps for the whole country if you like and it has turn by turn navigation. It cannot give you real-time traffic updates though.
You don’t need a e-sim to receive the 2 factor sms for internet banking (if one is required) - why would an e-sim be required?
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Too many assumptions here. All banks warn customers to only use secure wifi. On the public wifi’s any number of scammers can get into your system.
Two factor is not secure enough to play amongst the scammers.
It’s not that expensive. If e-sim not available, purchase data when travelling (not from the outraged priced Telstra who charges $10 per day)
As I said earlier, all public wifi is unsafe, and one should only use it with a good-quality VPN in place and active on your phone / tablet / laptop before the connection is made. Regardless of which country you’re in.
About bank security requirements / recommendations: text to mobile phone is the least secure method of 2FA. Select a more secure alternative wherever possible. For example, most Australian banks can provide (for a small fee) a hardware digital security key to use for 2FA codes, instead of text to phone or email.
Those tags are very good. HSBC uses them.
I do get concerned with misinformation somewhere that could put travellers at financial risk.
Customers may find their bank now favours a customised App installed on one’s mobile device rather than supplying a physical token. Suncorp appear to be on this pathway. Although Suncorp for now still supports using an RSA token.
P.S.
Others such as ANZ offer a physical token device for business customers. For everyday internet banking the only option is the ANZ Shield App, suitable for devices running IOS 10.0 or Android 5.0 or above. If overseas requires one to have access to a secure internet connection and uses your registered Australian phone number with roaming.
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Do you have any tips for setting up esim? We have just purchased one for Morocco and also a universal one for other countries. Also, when you say "turn it on when you reach your destination ", does that mean you just hit ‘activate’? It’s our first time using an esim so any advice is very much appreciated. We had problems last time we travelled. Needed a working phone so changed our phone plan. When we arrived in Japan it didn’t work!
Thanks.
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For Apple phones that support eSIMs:
For Android phones that support eSIMs:
Not all phones support the use of eSIMs. Whistleout has a list of common phones which eSIMs are compatable:
It is worth checking that the phone you have supports eSIMs before making a purchase of an eSIM.
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The only eSIMs I have used have been purchased from a Telco in the Country we visited. In our case they have worked seamlessly and we could continue to use our physical Australian SIM as needed. I found it was often cheaper to buy the SIM in the Duty Free section of the arrival airport if there was a kiosk in it. I know a few destinations offer this in the duty free section. Doing so saves on taxes such as VAT or GST.
About the only setting we (whole family got them) had to change was to make sure while in the OS destination that the eSIM number was set as the primary number to be used. This is a simple choice in the mobile network settings, if you don’t make that change and do not have roaming on your Australian number you will have problems getting any connection while there.
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With my esim that I purchased for Europe I followed the YouTube instructions that are excellent. Your sim will no doubt have that. Mine is an iPhone thus truly simple.
Upload at home and turn on Line 2 when you arrive. The edit finds the local networks. Turn off your home line when you land in whatever country.
Look for YouTube for your brand now
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You haven’t explained why you need an e-sim to keep you safe, what’s wrong with a physical sim? Especially for those of us with phones that aren’t compatible with e-sim, what are the risks?
At least the villain would need to compromise two devices, the phone getting the SMS and the computer doing the internet banking. Better than just access with a password and username.
Apologies. I should have said a regular sim is fine too. E sims are just that more convenient.
My point should have been clearer - never use public wifi when travelling.
Also for added safety use a VPN such as Nord
I always used to buy a travel sim from SIM corner, as they had some of the best deals. I am with Amaysim on my personal phone and they recently introduced roaming. For $70.00 I have a year to use up 9GB.
This makes us less reliant on worrying about a local Sim, as generally, on arrival in countries, we need to find our hotel, check public transport routes (even if they have all been checked before leaving).
I still get a travel Sim for some countries, for my husband, or a local Sim, if it looks like a good deal, beforehand. Both of our phones are dual SIM and not eSim compatible.
My biggest reason for a Sim and not wifi, is that I often still need to do online secure banking transactions. A VPN is not as secure as some believe on public wifi. It gives some protection, but cyber security is the biggest reason for me insisting on us both having some form of using the internet securely.
I don’t need my home number for travel, and will update family on Telegram (or my husband uses WhatsApp).
My credit card was skimmed or hacked in some way on our last overseas trip. I was able to get secure bank verification within hours, and part of the rapid response, on our part, was I had left the business phone with our home Sim, with my daughter, who saw a verification SMS for the bank and let me know instantly. The call minutes became extremely valuable, then.
We prefer to have some measure of contact throughout a trip - A sick animal, broken water pipe, electrical malfunction, are all recent issues on overseas trips and our daughter, who house sits for us, has managed to get these problems resolved, with our input, efficiently.
My only regret with Amaysim Roaming, is that I now receive irritating calls to my personal number, overseas. I find it much easier to be rude, when travelling, though, to telemarketers intruding on my time and my phone still goes onto automatic Do Not Disturb, in the time zone we are in.
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True. Any MFA is better than none.
But if there’s a choice, go for something more secure than SMS.
I joined amaysim last month and was about to pay for international roaming for europe holiday soon.We are visiting family and also want to keep same mobile contact number with airline changes,banking,home contacts.$70 for 9gb.
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