What to know before you buy
Six questions, answered properly. No plan is recommended in any of them — if you read one and buy nothing, it has still done its job.
01
How much mobile data do you actually need abroad?
For most travellers, 1 GB per week covers maps, messaging, email and light browsing. Add photo backup and social media and a week runs closer to 3 GB. Streaming video, video calls or tethering a laptop is what turns a fortnight into 20 GB or more. Buy the smallest plan that covers the trip: unused data is not refunded and does not roll over, and topping up mid-trip takes under a minute.
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02
Travel eSIM or your carrier’s roaming: which is actually cheaper?
A daily roaming pass from your home carrier charges a flat fee for every day you use it, whether you use 20 MB or 2 GB, and keeps your number working for calls and texts. A travel eSIM charges once for a fixed amount of data and nothing per day. Roaming wins on very short trips and when you genuinely need your number to ring abroad; a travel eSIM is usually several times cheaper from about the third or fourth day onward, and the gap widens the longer you stay.
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03
Does my phone support eSIM? How to check in ten seconds
Dial *#06# on the phone. If an EID number appears alongside the IMEI, the phone supports eSIM; if there is no EID, it does not. Broadly, that means iPhone XS and newer, Google Pixel 3 and newer, and Samsung Galaxy S20 and newer. Being eSIM-capable is only half of it — the phone must also be carrier-unlocked, which is a separate thing and the more common reason an install fails.
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04
eSIM installed but no service: what to check, in order
In almost every case the cause is one of two settings: data roaming is off for the travel line, or the travel line is not selected as the line for mobile data. Turn data roaming on for the travel eSIM, set it as the mobile data line, then toggle flight mode for fifteen seconds. If it still shows nothing, select the network by hand instead of automatically. Do not delete the eSIM — deleting it destroys the plan permanently and it cannot be reissued.
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05
How to choose a travel eSIM: the six things that actually differ
Compare six things: the price per gigabyte rather than the headline price, which country your traffic exits in, whether tethering is allowed, whether you can add data without reinstalling, exactly which countries a regional plan covers, and what happens if the eSIM fails. Coverage maps and carrier logos are the least useful comparison — almost every provider resells the same handful of wholesale networks in any given country.
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06
Does a travel eSIM give you a phone number? (WhatsApp, SMS and bank codes)
A travel eSIM is a data plan and has no phone number. It cannot make or receive calls, and it cannot receive an SMS — including a bank verification code. That is not a limitation of a cheaper tier; it is what the product is. Your own number keeps working for calls and texts on your existing SIM alongside it, and everything that runs over the internet — WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, FaceTime, Telegram, authenticator apps — works normally over the eSIM’s data.
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Looking for the settings paths for your exact phone instead? The installation guide covers iPhone, Samsung and stock Android step by step, with figures.