Watch Out for Roaming Charges

As we’re in the business of making it simpler for doing business when mobile, a lot of potential subscribers ask us about roaming. We have some great solutions when roaming in Canada and the U.S. that makes business travel easy and very affordable. But when you’re travelling abroad, it gets pretty pricey with roaming charges.

Travelling across Canada with hereiam™ and adding the Favorite Number feature of your carrier (Fab 5, Favorite 5) lets you call with your cell or smartphone and not be charged for air time. You simply call out using your hereiam™ number and clients call your hereiam™ with no charges. When travelling to the U.S., you will probably get dinged for roaming when you use your cell unless you get creative. For example, if you use a landline to call hereiam™ (at a client site, your hotel, etc.), you can do all your business without roaming or long distance charges. It’s as if you are sitting in your own calling area- all calls originate from hereiam™ (we have over 150 local numbers across the U.S.). You can also use your hereiam™ toll free number to call hereiam™ and avoid roaming charges.

It gets complicated outside North America so it’s a good idea before you travel to determine your absolute requirements and how much you’re willing to pay for mobility. It’s extremely wise, especially for using data, to call your carrier before your trip to ensure you are satisfied with the rates you will be charged. A suggestion- be painstakingly detailed when explaining to your local carrier what you want to do. One client had taken his family to Europe on holidays and instructed them only to use texting (no email). Even then, his bill was over a thousand dollars. And when he complained about his bill, he got zero response back. Ouch!

Here are some tips to think about when you travel abroad:

• Call your carrier in Canada beforehand and find out what you can and cannot do while abroad. This may seem obvious but ask if your phone will even work in the country you plan on visiting.
• When you step off the plane and power up your phone, the cellular phone agreement that you have is no longer in effect. If you want to save money, use it as sparingly as possible.
• When not in use, put your smartphone in flight mode to prevent it from receiving emails, calls or texts.
• Use Wi-Fi and Skype when available. If you travel abroad extensively and need to talk using your cell, you may want to use Skype Out and get a SIM card for this purpose.

hereiam™ has local ‘points of presence’ in over 300 locations around the world. It is extremely cost-effective to use local phones to call into hereiam™ as it is a local call. Before you go, call or email hereiam™ Customer Support and we will be happy to explain this further to you.