Spent $400 on a fancy 'global' phone plan before leaving for Mexico City

The plan was supposed to work in 50 countries, but the data speeds were so slow in my first week there that I couldn't even load a basic map. I ended up having to buy a local SIM card anyway, which cost me another $20 and made that first big payment a total waste. Has anyone else gotten burned by these big international phone deals that don't actually work well on the ground?

3 comments

3 Comments

palmer.ryan14d ago

Nah, I gotta disagree here. Those big international plans are ALMOST always a scam in my experience, the local SIM is actually the smarter play from the start.

anthony8831mo ago

Man, I've had the total opposite experience. I used one of those plans in Lisbon last year and it was fine for maps and messaging. Maybe it depends on the carrier you're using it with over there? I've heard some local networks just don't play nice with the roaming agreements. That sucks it didn't work for you, but I wouldn't write them all off. Sometimes you just hit a bad city or a crowded network.

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derek_burns1mo ago

Honestly, the carrier thing is a good point, but I'm pretty sure the plan itself was the real problem. Tbh, my friend had the same plan from a different company and it worked fine right next to me. The speeds were just unusable, like waiting minutes for a simple webpage. It felt like they sold way more data passes than the network could handle. I get that some cities are worse than others, but this was a basic need that just wasn't met.