How to keep your phone number as you travel for $5
The answer is simple…
ALDI Mobile’s Pay As You Go
When we decided to travel long term, a process of cancelling all our services and subscriptions began. When we came to our mobile phones, which were both out of contracts, we decided to see if we could keep our numbers for as cheap as possible.
The best way we could find was to move to ALDI Mobile on their Pay As You Go plan. For $5 AUD, we received a SIM card in the mail, which came with $5 of credit. The great thing about this credit is that it lasts for 365 days!
Before the credit runs out you will need to top up the account, which is important so leave a calendar reminder.
Do you even need to keep your phone number?
We had no intention of using the ALDI Mobile SIM overseas, as we planned to get local SIM cards in each country (highly recommended to save some cash), but we were surprised that we did use it.
What if, you are planning your great escape around the world, and are thinking, do I even need to keep my number? Maybe you are not attached to your number.
In our opinion, you should definitely keep your Australian number for the following reasons;
- Banking. This is something we took for granted in Australia, but online purchases are sometimes verified with an SMS. We have got to several “Pay Now” screens only to have our bank ask for the verification code. From booking hotels, buying airline tickets to reloading our local SIMs. Without our ALDI Mobile SIM, we would have been screwed.
- Taxes. If you have registered with MyGov and synced your ATO account, you may be sent an SMS verification when you try to log in. We both have the myGov Access App on our phones, but when we logged in I was sent an SMS, while my wife could use the App.
- Whatsapp/Viber. This is just a convenience, as you don’t need to keep updating the number every time you get a new local SIM.
Won’t it cost heaps to use ALDI Mobile SIM overseas?
OF COURSE.
It will cost an arm and a leg for everything except receiving SMS. Which is all we needed. Receiving SMS is freeeeeee.
Does it work overseas?
Yes.
Every time we wanted it to work, it has. It’s been tested in Asia, Middle East and South America. For a partial list of countries that ALDI Mobile operates in check the list and rates here. From our experience, some countries that do not appear on that list still receive messages (eg. Peru), but I can’t guarantee every country in the world.
Is this an Ad?
Nope! I don’t get any financial benefit from recommending ALDI Mobile. I just think it’s a great service for the situation we are in.
More Information
For more information, check out the details on the ALDI Mobile website to make sure it’s right for you, as your personal requirements may be different from ours. Also ALDI Mobile may change their plan at any time, so always check the official details before you sign up.
If you do decide to sign up, don’t forget to log in and activate roaming so your SIM will work overseas, because it’s turned off by default.
Pay As you Go – https://www.aldimobile.com.au/plans/payg/
Roaming – https://www.aldimobile.com.au/roaming/
Is this useful if I don’t live in Australia?
Probably not. Sorry