Which is better for self-driving in the United States, international roaming or buying an Internet card?

Misunderstanding 1: Why not just post on Weibo, check out Renren, and browse the space? It doesn’t require much traffic

With the popularity of smartphones today, mobile Internet access has become a part of people's lives. When traveling overseas, seeing delicious and fun things, taking pictures and posting them on Weibo to share them with others is a real pleasure. As everyone knows, after you post these few Weibo posts, it’s very likely that a phone bill worth several thousand dollars will be sent to your home.

But, isn’t it just a matter of posting a few Weibo posts? It doesn’t use much traffic!

However, if you knew how much each M of traffic costs abroad, you probably wouldn’t think so. According to the latest international roaming tariff discounts provided by China Mobile on August 1, 2011, the lowest international roaming GPRS traffic tariff is 10.24 yuan/M, and the highest is 51.2 yuan/M. If this is not amazing enough, the 200 yuan/M charged by China Unicom in Brunei, Mongolia and other countries is really sky-high!

Myth 2: Receiving text messages is free?

It is true that there is no money to receive ordinary text messages, but receiving MMS messages and all kinds of messy mobile phone messages and service MMS messages all require data traffic. Before you know it, your mobile phone bill will start to be "heavy in debt." Got it!

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Call bill thief

Myth 3: Can call forwarding save money?

Many mobile phone users mistakenly believe that they can save money on phone bills by not answering calls or turning off their phones overseas. Their approach is usually to set up call forwarding on their mobile phones, and if it is a call that needs to be answered, use a local phone number to call back. However, they do not know that this charges higher fees. Because when a domestic user calls your mobile phone, the call must first go to the overseas operator's network, and then the call is transferred to the country, and finally sent to you as a text message, which is equivalent to charging two international long-distance charges. Taking Beijing Global Communications customers as an example, when the customer roams to the UK, the UK is the roaming location. If the customer's call is forwarded to a Shanghai number, Shanghai becomes the transfer location. If the customer has set up "conditional call forwarding", the call forwarding service fee used during roaming is: 0.11 yuan/minute + long distance fee from Beijing to the UK + long distance fee from the UK to Shanghai.

Therefore, it is recommended that you do not apply for call transfer. If you really need to do it, you must consult the relevant operator in detail to understand the tariff details and be aware of it.

Overseas mobile phone roaming charges are so high and there are many traps. Do we really have no choice but to turn off our mobile phones or accept the sky-high phone bills? Of course not, let’s take a look at the following money-saving tips so that you can have fun while traveling abroad while keeping your wallet tight!

How to save money?

Save money when roaming overseas

★Use local communication facilities

Chinese people often say that when you are in a country, do as the Romans do. When you go to someone else’s territory, of course you must make good use of the local facilities. services. Let's take Europe as an example to introduce some local communication facilities that you may use. Of course, conditions vary from place to place, so it’s best to do your research before setting off!

1. Buy a phone card

One is the traditional phone card, which is the same as in China. You can usually buy it at newsstands and souvenir shops, but the disadvantage is that you are likely to You will suffer the embarrassment of automatically hanging up when you have no money in the middle of the speech;

There is also an AT&T phone prepaid card. You can purchase a prepaid card in China in advance with different call units. Generally, ten call units can be used. Two minutes. After buying it, just follow the step-by-step instructions above. The advantage of this kind of card is that it is relatively cheap, and you can also stay in the hotel and use the room phone to make calls, which is relatively convenient; but the disadvantage is that it is very troublesome to use, and not all telephones can be used. This card cannot be used on ancient public telephones in some places that cannot enter voice options.

2. Credit card: European airports and a few hotels are equipped with public telephones and faxes dedicated to credit cards. You can read the instructions on the phone carefully before using them. It is very convenient, but expensive.

3. Coin-operated telephones: Please note when using them. International long-distance calls have basic call charges. If you only invest the minimum call amount in the country, you will not be able to get through.

4. Hotels: Please note that in most European hotels, even if no one answers the call, billing will start after four or five rings. Therefore, it is recommended to ring four times. If no one answers, you should hang up and redial. In addition, sometimes the room phone cannot make external calls at all, let alone international calls. In this case, you have to call the counter or switchboard to open the phone line before you can dial. Some hotels require guests to pay a deposit of the amount specified by the hotel. Can be opened.

5. Local telephone offices: It is easy to find telecommunications offices in many large stations and tourist areas in Europe. Most of them have telephone rooms. You can go in directly to make a call and then pay at the counter.

Only when you have a good strategy can you be proud of the world! [Save to Album]

★Buy a local mobile phone

If you travel for more than a month, you'd better buy a local mobile phone. Such cheap phones often come with free airtime credit. Usually, the total phone bill is only equivalent to a quarter of the bill you need to pay to use your own mobile phone.

And as long as you stay within the country, no matter how you make or receive calls, the rates will be the most basic. For example, buying a cheap mobile phone with decent functions in any big city in India may only cost 40 or 50 US dollars, and it will come with 1,000 minutes of phone credit. However, it should be reminded that not all mobile phones include prepaid minutes for direct calls, so it is best to ask clearly before buying and don't buy a mobile phone with low cost performance.

★Change SIM card

If you don’t want to change your mobile phone, but you need to call your family frequently to report your itinerary or discuss business, you might as well keep the original one when traveling. phone, but be sure to load up on another SIM card to take advantage of better rates than what your carrier offers. You can buy a local SIM card abroad, or you can buy a travel SIM card from a relevant company. They can both provide you with a preferential phone price.

After arriving at the destination, you can consult the tour guide to buy a local phone card first, especially in countries with a large number of Chinese people. This kind of business is very common, and you often meet your compatriots, so you can directly ask them to help you. You just need to activate the service and then spend money on it. The general charge for this kind of phone card is only a few cents per minute, or a few yuan at most. It is much more cost-effective than China Mobile, which costs more than 10 yuan per minute, and the Internet is also very cheap.

★Send messages as much as possible

Try to use your mobile phone to send short messages instead of making phone calls, because the transmission fee of short messages is much cheaper (the price of a short message is generally 1~ 2 yuan). But you are likely to take the incoming and outgoing of short messages lightly, and send hundreds or even thousands of them in a few days, and then regret it when it comes time to pay the bill.

★Using VOIP

Voice communication technology based on IP address is to use a computer or other Internet connection tools to make calls. This is a very popular method for making international long distance calls. To a certain extent, it is precisely because it is difficult and expensive to make international calls using mobile phones that many people turn to VOIP services, namely Skype, which allows people to enjoy preferential rates while abroad. As long as you have a wireless connection, you can call a phone number directly from your laptop via Skype for just 2 cents a minute. Moreover, you can also download the Skype program and install it on your iPhone. As long as there is a wireless network nearby, such as a hotel room, Internet cafe, or airport lobby, you can make calls using VOIP.

★Carry non-smart phones

Although smart phones make surfing the Internet more enjoyable than ordinary mobile phones, they also consume much more data. Because there are data packages at home, it’s a lot more painful when you go abroad and every M is real money. What’s even more annoying is that smartphones are likely to have many automatic updates, which is even more “consumed and invisible”. . Therefore, before going abroad, you may wish to consider bringing a non-smartphone with you.

★Turn off data roaming before going abroad

Turn off data roaming when going abroad. If you want to use your mobile phone to surf the Internet, you should first use the local free Wi-Fi network. Mobile phones with Wi-Fi function are all You can search to see if there is free Wi-Fi in your area. If you really need data roaming to surf the Internet, turn it on when you need it, and turn it off immediately after you use it. Doing this can avoid data traffic caused by sending and receiving emails, receiving MMS messages, and software updates.

★Cancel some customized information services on mobile phones

Why do I turn off mobile phone roaming, do not use my mobile phone to surf the Internet, and rarely make phone calls, but the cost is still staggering? This is caused by some of the automatic update tasks of smartphones we mentioned earlier, or some domestic customized MMS messages, such as weather forecasts, MMS magazines, etc. These services often "swallow" your traffic without even realizing it. Therefore, before going abroad, be sure to call the relevant customer service and temporarily cancel these unnecessary services.

★Open relevant mobile phone roaming daily packages

If you don’t want to change your mobile phone or card, but still love surfing the Internet, you might as well consider the various services provided by various telecom operators. Daily roaming data plan. The three major telecom operators all provide related services. For specific tariff information, you can call the relevant customer service for information.

With this kind of data package, not only do you not have to worry about traffic problems when surfing the Internet, you can also give up phone calls and text messages, and choose to use WeChat, QQ and other methods that use data to communicate with relatives in China and report on your itinerary. I believe the phone bill saved is also considerable.

★For Weibo enthusiasts

Weibo enthusiasts should try their best to browse and post Weibo through the Weibo client, which takes up much less traffic than the web version.

★Block pictures

You can save traffic by setting up settings to block pictures when browsing the web.