There are many options available in the market when buying an international SIM card. There are numerous service providers present in the market, and each service provider also has many different international calling cards that it offers, with varied services and features. Therefore, the first thing that a buyer needs to do is carefully understand the services that it needs from its international card and accordingly choose a card which offers those services at the most reasonable price.
Once you have reduced the list of calling cards that provide you all the services that you require, the next step in the selection process are to compare the cost of these cards. There are many different costs that one needs to consider in this regard. Some of the important costs that should be taken into account are as follows:
Calling Costs
This is the most basic and the first thing that you need to compare between the various cards. Check the calling, messaging, and data rates for the countries to which you would be making your international calls to and from. Different service providers charge different calling rates for different countries and therefore, you need to find the service providers who offer the lowest calling rates for the countries to which you would be travelling and from where you would be making your international calls.
Base Charges
These charges include the cost of buying the SIM. This is a onetime charge which is not refundable. The base charges also include a certain amount of rental charges or fixed charges that you would have to pay to the service provider, against which no calling, data or messaging facility would be available to you.
Data Charges
It is impossible to survive without the internet these days and hence, you will have to buy a data pack with your international calling card. The cost of this data pack again varies from company to company and when calculating the total cost of using a particular international calling card, you need to add the cost of this data package as well.
In additional to the above, also confirm whether there are any other miscellaneous charges that you would have to pay for using your international calling card.