Vodafone $5 Global Roaming

Any pros and cons of the above product guys? Looks like one can even sign up for a month to month e sim plan to get the $5 per day global roaming. It is pretty good value, but i want to know if it actually works as well as advertised?

The problem with roaming of any kind is that people where you actually are, or nearby, have to call an Australian number. That may be expensive for them and they won't do it. That's why I prefer the Simcorner product, because it provides a "local" number where you are. Local in Europe means any of the EU/Schengen countries, calls to anywhere from anwhere in that area cost the same. Excludes UK now of course.

I'm with Vodafone and have used $5 roaming with no issues in Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, New Zealand and Indonesia. Last trip to Japan in particualar, it worked out cheaper to use vodafone roaming instead of getting a pocket wifi. If you know you won't need it for a day, it's always good to turn in back to flight mode the night before to avoid the $5 charge.

I am a being fan of roaming, the convenience alone is worth it, especially the receiving of phone calls and messages without having to distribute numbers or change sims.

Plus no commitment, if you decide you don’t like it for whatever reason you can just buy a e-sim online for a local carrier.

mhotchin makes a good point. The ideal solution seems to be to do both: $5 roaming plus a local number, be it e-sim or physical. Don't forget Whats App for calls where both parties use the app, this uses data not calling minutes.

And what is wrong with Skype and similar products? You can call from Skype to phone and it cost peanuts to call Australia. Also you can get fake number in Australia and when people call this number it automatically redirect to Skype. Then you make redirection from your number to this number (or simply let people know this number in you auto-answer greeting) and you in business. I hate roaming when I have to pay more for few days than I paying for unlimited usage for whole month!

I've been using this for maybe 10 years. The only thing to look out for is if you are on a really long trip there is a limit. when i've gone on long (4 week) holidays i've bought a second pre-pay sim.

Check if your destination is included. Canada wasn’t included last time I looked.

I have used the Vodafone $5 for all my travels and works well. Be careful in Dubai no $5 a day there very expensive I used my phone while waiting for a flight didn't take notice of the Vodafone message and received a bill for $600 that was for 3 hours in Dubai. Lesson learnt.

This is exactly why I do not do roaming at all. Mind you that you have to pay even if someone called you when you in "inappropriate" place. However with Telstra roaming happens automatically and there is no way to switch it off (so I been told by Telstra). Therefore only option that I can use if I like to use phone for something like WiFi is to physically remove SIM card from the phone. Yeah, welcome to 21 century!