If there’s anything that ruins a good trip, it’s coming back and dreading the roaming charges on the next mobile phone bill. Since I live in a country the size of a postage stamp (the Netherlands), any trip I make will line the pockets of Orange Netherlands (now a T-Mobile subsidiary), for every phone call and every megabyte I download or upload.

Ever since I started traveling a lot to the US, I decided to get a T-Mobile prepaid there. T-Mobile has the best prepaid rates. When I arrive, I remove the Orange SIM card from my Nokia N80i (a Wi-Fi enabled mobile phone) and pop in the T-Mobile card. Voila! No more roaming charges when I call US numbers (or when my US contacts call me).

Use Skype or Gizmo Project to check email, make Wi-Fi calls

Everyday, I check my Orange voicemail via Skype or Gizmo Project either on my Mac Book Pro or on my Nokia N80i (using the phone’s Wi-Fi capability), again saving on voice minutes. If one of my European contacts left a voice mail, I call them back via Skype or Gizmo.

You can also use Truphone, which you download onto your mobile phone, to call your contacts via Wi-Fi.

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