How to Save on Roaming Charges with Your Smart Phone

If there is a road trip in your near future, whether you are traveling domestic or international, those roaming charges on your smart phone can be very expensive. We have some tips on how to save money on roaming charges with your smart phone and not break the bank while still enjoying your vacation.

Preparing Your Smart Phone Before You Travel

There are a few preparation tips you can do before you begin your travel. First, estimate how much data you will need on your vacation. The best way to do that is to track your data usage on your smart phone a few days or a few weeks before you travel. You need to reset the smart phone's data meter, usually under the Settings menu in the smart phone. Reset it to zero and then keep track of your usage for the next couple of days or the next couple of weeks. This will give you an estimate of your data usage.

Next, contact your smart phone carrier and sign up for their international plan. Without a roaming package especially international, the charges to your smart phone bill can be astronomical. Many times signing up with a carrier is just a phone call to customer service and having the package added to your account.

If you have chosen not to sign up for a smart phone international plan, there are a few things you can do to minimize your roaming charges. Find hot spots so that you can surf the Web, get your email and use any apps for free. You can also set up any applications that might push data to your smart phone and eat up your data allowances. Also make sure that your email is set to manual download and not automatic. This can save you on your data charges as well.

Using Your Smart Phone on Your Trip

While vacationing with your smart phone use these tips to save you money on roaming charges. Whenever possible make sure to download email, news, videos, or status to your Facebook in a Wi-Fi hotspot. Make sure that your smart phone is on Airplane mode so that you are not charged with any received calls. If you need to make a call try using an app like Skype mobile so that you can save money on by using making an internet phone call.