So many times in my travels I meet people who are entirely wifi dependent. While I'm not one to support shoving your face in a phone 24/7, there are many reasons I find it worth it to always have cell service when traveling.
Uses:
1. Day Game
As per Vinny's recent day game thread - thread-62302.html - a trending alternate to phone # closing is Instagram closing. While you can screenshot and add later, it's much easier when the profile actually pops up. Even if you go the WhatsApp route, you can get a message in while you are still fresh on her mind, not 8 hours later when she might be confused as to who you are.
2. Nighttime Adventures
When you are home, think of the times a girl has hit you up on tinder/facebook/whatsapp for a late night booty call or wanting to meet up. If you are without service, the chances of this happening is Zero point Zero. On the flip side, you also can not send those late night inquiries without walking around, trying to find internet, and hoping the wifi is actually working, then waiting where you have the wifi connection for said girl to reply. If you are anything like me, I'll go out and give it til 1 or 2, then hit up a sure thing if I don't have anything going at that point. You'd be surprised how many times I've had friends or other people staying at hostels who get home to their wifi and see that they missed out on a girl because they didn't have internet.
3. General Time Saving
When you first arrive in a city, the last thing you want to do is be wandering around like an idiot wasting time looking for your hotel/hostel. Also, for your friends who do have cell service, you will be the annoying person who they can't connect with to find out where you are or how long it will be before you meet up with the group. If you are taking public transportation in a foreign city, you'll be able to look up the buses/subways you need to take and not try to figure out the map.
Options:
There are two options for plans, we'll call them the Budget Option and the Convenience Option. This is kind of meant for USA/ Canadian citizens, as I don't know the situation with other cell providers. Before I started doing sim cards, I would rack up ridiculous bills of $150-200 roaming charges for stupid shit like maps and basically no data ($7/mb).
1. Convenience
Depending on the length of your travel, many cell plans offer a $10/day plan. Assuming you are only going for a week or two, this isn't a bad option. But $300/month is not realistic long term. The best plan I've seen in either the USA or Canada is T-Mobile: unlimited international data + texting in 140 countries for $95/month. If you decide to get a plan for a long term trip, you can also pause your plan at home until you return so you aren't paying for 2 plans.
2. Budget
This option is for those of you traveling on a strict budget. Depending on where you go, you will be able to buy sim cards for a pretty reasonable price. For 2GB of data + calling and texts in Eastern Europe, it may be as little as $4-$6. Western Europe, 1GB will be around $15. South America averaged about $14-18 for 2GB. If you turn off the non-essential apps and leave on the important ones (whatsapp, email, facebook, Viber, Tinder, etc), this should last you the month or worst case you re-up if you run out.
Let's make it essentially free:
This will set you back around $200-300 for a year of travelling. For some people, that will seem cheap, but for the people who think it's expensive, I'll give you the motivation. Establish an Uber account at home and make note of your referral code. The reason I say at home, is the referral amount will be higher. My account (canada) allows for a $20CAD free ride for the referrer and referee. Every time you get a new number, you can re-register to uber. So if you travel a year, visit 20 countries, 20 sim cards, that's 40 free rides of up to $20 each (assuming there is Uber in the country). You also get to use Uber whenever you want, saving you from getting ripped off my scummy cab drivers... or, in my case in Colombia, saving you a GoPro that you forgot in the Uber, because you know sure as hell the regular cabs would have pawned that off in a minute.
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So, if you enjoy fucking women, saving money, and saving time, get a SIM card.
One last note regarding WhatsApp:
As long as you register your phone to WhatsApp before you leave, you can keep your regular number for WhatsApp even while switching SIMs. It will ask you if you want to keep the number the same, just click yes. This is important because girls can continue to text you even when your number is constantly changing.
Uses:
1. Day Game
As per Vinny's recent day game thread - thread-62302.html - a trending alternate to phone # closing is Instagram closing. While you can screenshot and add later, it's much easier when the profile actually pops up. Even if you go the WhatsApp route, you can get a message in while you are still fresh on her mind, not 8 hours later when she might be confused as to who you are.
2. Nighttime Adventures
When you are home, think of the times a girl has hit you up on tinder/facebook/whatsapp for a late night booty call or wanting to meet up. If you are without service, the chances of this happening is Zero point Zero. On the flip side, you also can not send those late night inquiries without walking around, trying to find internet, and hoping the wifi is actually working, then waiting where you have the wifi connection for said girl to reply. If you are anything like me, I'll go out and give it til 1 or 2, then hit up a sure thing if I don't have anything going at that point. You'd be surprised how many times I've had friends or other people staying at hostels who get home to their wifi and see that they missed out on a girl because they didn't have internet.
3. General Time Saving
When you first arrive in a city, the last thing you want to do is be wandering around like an idiot wasting time looking for your hotel/hostel. Also, for your friends who do have cell service, you will be the annoying person who they can't connect with to find out where you are or how long it will be before you meet up with the group. If you are taking public transportation in a foreign city, you'll be able to look up the buses/subways you need to take and not try to figure out the map.
Options:
There are two options for plans, we'll call them the Budget Option and the Convenience Option. This is kind of meant for USA/ Canadian citizens, as I don't know the situation with other cell providers. Before I started doing sim cards, I would rack up ridiculous bills of $150-200 roaming charges for stupid shit like maps and basically no data ($7/mb).
1. Convenience
Depending on the length of your travel, many cell plans offer a $10/day plan. Assuming you are only going for a week or two, this isn't a bad option. But $300/month is not realistic long term. The best plan I've seen in either the USA or Canada is T-Mobile: unlimited international data + texting in 140 countries for $95/month. If you decide to get a plan for a long term trip, you can also pause your plan at home until you return so you aren't paying for 2 plans.
2. Budget
This option is for those of you traveling on a strict budget. Depending on where you go, you will be able to buy sim cards for a pretty reasonable price. For 2GB of data + calling and texts in Eastern Europe, it may be as little as $4-$6. Western Europe, 1GB will be around $15. South America averaged about $14-18 for 2GB. If you turn off the non-essential apps and leave on the important ones (whatsapp, email, facebook, Viber, Tinder, etc), this should last you the month or worst case you re-up if you run out.
Let's make it essentially free:
This will set you back around $200-300 for a year of travelling. For some people, that will seem cheap, but for the people who think it's expensive, I'll give you the motivation. Establish an Uber account at home and make note of your referral code. The reason I say at home, is the referral amount will be higher. My account (canada) allows for a $20CAD free ride for the referrer and referee. Every time you get a new number, you can re-register to uber. So if you travel a year, visit 20 countries, 20 sim cards, that's 40 free rides of up to $20 each (assuming there is Uber in the country). You also get to use Uber whenever you want, saving you from getting ripped off my scummy cab drivers... or, in my case in Colombia, saving you a GoPro that you forgot in the Uber, because you know sure as hell the regular cabs would have pawned that off in a minute.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So, if you enjoy fucking women, saving money, and saving time, get a SIM card.
One last note regarding WhatsApp:
As long as you register your phone to WhatsApp before you leave, you can keep your regular number for WhatsApp even while switching SIMs. It will ask you if you want to keep the number the same, just click yes. This is important because girls can continue to text you even when your number is constantly changing.