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First check to see if your current carrier offers an international roaming plan. Sprint and T-mobile offer international roaming as part of your current service, you get unlimited data and texting but have to pay 20 cents a minute for calls. You have to check to see if where you are planning to visit is included, if not you may ask them to unlock your current phone for an international SIM which they should do at no cost. Last resort is purchasing an unlocked phone, you should be able to find some good smartphone options inexpensively online.
Although some American carriers offer good international roaming plans, it is still good to purchase a local simcard if one wants receive local calls within the country of travel as most local (physically outside the USA!) people will not want to call a person's American cellphone number which is an international phone call for them.
Although some American carriers offer good international roaming plans, it is still good to purchase a local simcard if one wants receive local calls within the country of travel as most local (physically outside the USA!) people will not want to call a person's American cellphone number which is an international phone call for them.
Depends on the amount of calls that you think you may make but I was recently in Europe and used Uber several times and I had no issue with the drivers calling me. Also, although I don't think this applies to the OP, but if you are planning on going to several countries during the trip you may end up having to purchase several simcards over the course of your trip.
If you order the currency from your bank in advance you don't have to pay the service fees. That's how we did our trip and it worked out great! Also ditto the calling the the credit card companies.
Sure, the bank doesn't charge you a fee. No, they make their money giving you a horrendous exchange rate that is 5-10 per cent worst than the published rates.
Sure, the bank doesn't charge you a fee. No, they make their money giving you a horrendous exchange rate that is 5-10 per cent worst than the published rates.
Wasn't true in my experience. Our bank gave us a lower rate than the published one actually but we do all of our banking for both personal and business purposes with the same one so maybe that played a role.
Take a credit card that does not charge international transaction fee ( I have Capital one Visa which is Chip and signature card and Andrews Credit union that is Chip and PIN).
Have a print out of the flight itinerary. The EU officer wanted to see that 3 weeks ago at Amsterdam and so did the guys at the gate in Nairobi airport four days ago before he let us into the terminal.
Upload a copy of the Passport to DropBox or Onedrive or even send it to yourself as an attachment in gmail. That way, if you have lost your passport you can print one and take to the US embassy. Also carry a photocopy of the passport with you in a different piece of luggage.
Carry an ATM card to take out local currency if the shops and other places country you visit does not accept credit cards much.
Upload a copy of the Passport to DropBox or Onedrive or even send it to yourself as an attachment in gmail. That way, if you have lost your passport you can print one and take to the US embassy. Also carry a photocopy of the passport with you in a different piece of luggage.
If you are a US citizen or other eligible person and have a smartphone you should download the Mobile Passport App. You can store your passport information and
at some airports it can help you speed through immigration which can be a help if you don't have Global Entry.
If you are a US citizen or other eligible person and have a smartphone you should download the Mobile Passport App. You can store your passport information and
at some airports it can help you speed through immigration which can be a help if you don't have Global Entry.
I used that 4 days ago coming back from Nairobi, and it worked like a charm at Atlanta. The person guiding the line knew about it and we were the only ones who came up to the scanner to use it. The officer gave a card and we collected the luggage and went through the green "nothing to declare" customs lane. There the officer made us open the app again and checked the selfie photos we had taken there against out actual faces. That took a minute or two.
Download the app before the trip, use the app to scan the bar code of your passport and it will come up with the details. Have someone take a clean photo of your face against a white / beige background and save it. Do it for all members. Before your last leg to enter USA fill in the remaining details of country of origin and airline used and check off a couple of things. Just after you land turn on your cellular data and hit the "I have Landed" button. Within a few seconds you get QR codes on the app that you can use to bypass the lines. I have Global Entry but my family does not, and this was a fast entry into USA
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I would bring a change of clothes in your carry-on bag in case your luggage is lost or takes an extra day to get there or if you spill something on yourself on the plane.
Call your cell provider for phones. When I did I found out we already had global roaming on our phones with free data and texts. Actual phone calls would be 20 cents/min but we never used it - just face time via wifi and texts/data.
I used that 4 days ago coming back from Nairobi, and it worked like a charm at Atlanta. The person guiding the line knew about it and we were the only ones who came up to the scanner to use it. The officer gave a card and we collected the luggage and went through the green "nothing to declare" customs lane. There the officer made us open the app again and checked the selfie photos we had taken there against out actual faces. That took a minute or two.
Download the app before the trip, use the app to scan the bar code of your passport and it will come up with the details. Have someone take a clean photo of your face against a white / beige background and save it. Do it for all members. Before your last leg to enter USA fill in the remaining details of country of origin and airline used and check off a couple of things. Just after you land turn on your cellular data and hit the "I have Landed" button. Within a few seconds you get QR codes on the app that you can use to bypass the lines. I have Global Entry but my family does not, and this was a fast entry into USA
This is very interesting! We will be flying internationally via Miami in October and I see MIA is on the list of airports that are on board with this. Thanks for the info.
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