I use a GigSky (have been using them for years, should probably look at alternatives) eSIM when travelling from Canada to the US. I leave my regular SIM on but use the GigSky one for data.
When I arrive in the States I get a text from my provider (Telus) saying that I won’t be charged for incoming texts or calls that I don’t answer. Outbound SMS texts and phone calls would cost me but I don’t use those.
Who’s your provider? You should probably look at what their roaming packages are like and consider having one of those active just in case you end up in a scenario where you have to use your home provider account. The rest of the family is on Koodo and they roam for $10/day, but only on days that they actually do something that sends voice, SMS, or data. That’s not a bad fallback and it’s included in their plans.
I’m with Telus. I have a good plan ($55 month/100GB) but roaming internationally is $14 a day. I think I’m going to go Airalo. My only concern is it’s only data. I rarely use data (corrected - VOICE), but in the event I want to make a phone call…
For phone calls (rare for me), I use Fongo. It lets me make and receive regular phone calls via data, though it’s through a different number than my usual one. I think they’re based out of Waterloo, ON, so they’re avalable to Canadians
I actually forced my phone to stop using the email address because years ago it seemed that was causing conflicts. I will do anything I can to not have to revert to that.
Since I have recommended giffgaff above for those travelling to the UK – starting with today’s update of their app, you can now get and activate an eSIM in the app itself and then choose one of the prepaid plans.
(Previously you had to buy a physical giffgaff SIM first and then transfer it to an eSIM using the app.)
Perhaps this is also a viable option for those of you who are visiting the UK (in addition to LycaMobile, linked in one of the previous posts above). Similar to LycaMobile, you probably need to be in the UK before you attempt to activate an eSIM.
