When we decided to take a one-year trip, one of the most confounding pre-trip logistics was what to do with our cell phones. We had no intention of paying for an already expensive monthly Verizon plan that would require very expensive add-ons to use abroad. But, at the same time, we didn’t want to lose the cell phone numbers we’d each had for ten years or so, and, ideally, we were hoping to be able to still receive texts to those numbers in case anyone tried to contact us (and, as it turns out, this is necessary for text verifications for signing into bank accounts or resetting passwords, etc.). After lots of online researching (we didn’t find a one-stop explanation about this…), we ended up with a solution that allows us to keep our cell phone numbers and receive any texts or voicemails into our email inbox for just $3 per month—exactly what we wanted! Here is how we did it in four steps:

1. “Unlock” your phone:

You’re going to want to be able to use SIM cards abroad (more on SIM cards below). The only way you can use a SIM card is if your phone is “unlocked.” In the United States, when you get your cell phone at a reduced price from your carrier, sometimes the carrier will provide you a “locked” phone, which means that the phone can be used only with that carrier. This is not always the case—for example, Verizon generally does not sell locked phones anymore (although that may be changing). But it will depend on your carrier, plan, and type of phone. You will need to search by your phone/plan/carrier online to see if your phone is locked and how to unlock it (if it is locked, the process will generally involve contacting your carrier to get your phone unlocked).

2. Figure out where to “park” your phone number:

Under FCC regulations, you have the right to keep your cell phone number (it doesn’t belong to your carrier). So a carrier is required to relinquish your cell phone number to you if you so request. This is pretty simple if you’re just switching from Verizon to AT&T to Credo or whatnot. But what do you do if you aren’t switching to any carrier? If you just cancel your contract, you’ll lose your phone number. So, instead, you need to “port” your cell phone number (i.e., move it) and “park” it somewhere, which means you put it somewhere online to keep ownership of it.

There are different ways to do this, and your choice will depend on what you want to accomplish. For example, if you want your old phone number to ring on a new phone number (i.e., international call forwarding), you’ll need a VoIP like Google Voice. But we just wanted to be able to receive notification of any text messages or voicemails while keeping our phone numbers.

We found the perfect solution in Tossable Digits (FYI we’re not getting a commission or anything from them). For $3 per month per number, they will “port” your cell phone number and then “park” it online. They deliver instantaneous email notifications of any texts or voicemails. You can even sign in and respond to the text through their platform (you only get so many of those for free per month). This has worked flawlessly for us, especially for key situations like getting a verification code via text message to reset a password or access a bank account (which will happen when you are travelling abroad because the bank won’t recognize the IP address from which you are accessing its site). And, in the future, we can move our number back to a carrier for no cost, if we so desire.

3. Calculate the timing of your “port” very carefully!

“Porting” your cell phone is the term for moving it from one place to another. Once you “port” your cell phone number, your carrier will basically cancel your contract right away and you’ll accordingly lose your minutes, texts, and data plan. So this is not something you want to do one month before you take off, if you plan on using your cell phone during that month (and you obviously will, because pre-long-term-trip logistics are complicated and exhausting and you’ll need your phone!). You’ll also want to keep in mind whether you’ll have any early termination fees with your carrier. The process takes from the same day to 3 business days (here is Tossable Digits’s info on the porting process).

 We ended up porting our cell phone numbers the day before we flew out. Verizon cancelled our plan within a few hours and it took us and Tossable Digits a day or two to get things up and running. There were no costs associated with porting, just a few technical steps (and some helpful customer service from Tossable Digits).

4. Use a SIM card abroad:

I might write a whole post about this later, since I had no idea what a “SIM card” was or how to use one when we took off on our trip—and now I’ve gone through the process in three continents and lots of different countries. At a high level, though, here’s the process:

a. Find a SIM card vendor in the country when you land.

Airports are an excellent place to start—just look for a cell phone company kiosk, often by the baggage carousels before you exit customs. Depending on the country, SIM card vendors can be cell phone carrier storefronts, little newspaper kiosks, or even gas stations.

b. Register your SIM card.

This process also depends on where you are. Always bring your passport when buying a SIM card because the registration process usually requires a passport. It’s best if the vendor of the SIM card can register you and activate your SIM card—it’s a really tricky thing to do in a foreign language. (And, most of the time, they will be required to register you as part of the process of selling the SIM card.)

c. “Top up” your SIM card.

Once you have a registered SIM card in your phone, you have a local phone number. Now you need to get data, texts, or minutes for that number. So you need to “top up” your card, which basically means getting money onto your card and then buying a plan. You can usually do this at the same time you get your SIM card, but not always. Sometimes you go to a kiosk and buy a top-up and sometimes you can do it online. (We’ve had a lot of different challenges with this step, which has been very different based on different carriers and countries—in a later post about using a SIM card, I’ll cover this in more detail.)

Now enjoy your working cell phone!

FYI we tend to use a lot of data (for on-the-go travel research, and especially when the wifi in our places doesn’t work very well) and we have averaged about USD$30 per month during our travels (plus the $6 per month for parking our two phone numbers with Tossable Digits). The prices vary wildly across countries—in Malaysia we got 10 GB of data for about USD$3; Dubai was 1 GB for like USD$25; Ukraine was 6GB for about USD$2; a lot of Europe was 10 GB for 30 Euros; and Morocco was 10 GB for USD$10.

As you can see, these prices are way way way better than paying for a monthly contract with Verizon, let alone adding international packages to that contract!

Hopefully this is helpful and feel free to let us know if you have any questions about any of the above!

For more useful travel tips, go here!