Using your carrier's existing local SIM card is usually a bad idea. Service providers have excessive roaming clauses and a controversial practice of applying expensive roaming fees. There are very few exceptions.
With international roaming, you will most likely have much less data with daily limits and higher price tag. Many companies will charge you by the day for your data usage. In some cases, even if you are traveling for just a few days, it can end up being a massive bill.
Nobody knows the price until the bill arrives, and this may be up to 3 months later due to your provider receiving the billing information from the roaming carrier. You need to remember, while using global roaming you pay if you receive calls, voicemail, SMS and emails. That is the risk of choosing to roam.
Rather than pay excessive roaming charges, there are other, much better solutions. Let’s learn about the pros and cons of these two options in a bit more detail.
The first option is to buy a SIM card from a local vendor when you arrive in the country that you will be visiting. Many airports have them. However, this isn’t possible in all countries. Some countries require you to provide proof of residency before you can buy one. For those countries where you can buy a local SIM card, there are advantages because you can usually get these local cards at a good rate. Unfortunately, local SIM cards come with a lot of disadvantages such as:
Traveling to several areas and changing several SIM cards may be annoying.
You may be bound by local internet restitution law which ban you from using certain services and applications, like ZOOM, WhatsApp and Skype
An International SIM card AKA World SIM and Roaming SIM is MUCH LESS expensive than international roaming because you are contracted with only one phone carrier. Also, an international SIM card allows you to use your phone in more than one country. It gives you the ability to be connected to the internet-- anywhere you go. Using a global SIM card in many different countries is advantageous as well as being: