Help understanding esim please

BFBW

heatherw_01 said:

I always say how good aloSIM is plus you can get big discounts with discount codes.
There are some that still work such as CHRONICTRAVEL for 15% off or MYTRAVEL for $3 off (converted into £)

I use them every single trip and they are brilliant.
You can top them up with as many days and gig as you want, as often or as little as you want.
Also if you ever have questions their chat is really good.

This is not a good suggestion, They are very poor value in this case. Discounts from a ridiculously high price still leaves a ridiculously high price. Added to this Cambodia is not covered.

DullGreyGuy

heatherw_01 said:

I always say how good aloSIM is plus you can get big discounts with discount codes.
There are some that still work such as CHRONICTRAVEL for 15% off or MYTRAVEL for $3 off (converted into £)

I use them every single trip and they are brilliant.
You can top them up with as many days and gig as you want, as often or as little as you want.
Also if you ever have questions their chat is really good.

They are expensive @heatherw_01 in most countries in comparison to getting a local sim. 

They are however convenient and if you are on a short break potentially the convenience is worth the additional cost but on a longer stay it certainly adds up. For example AIS sell a 30 day unlimited data SIM for £27 (current exchange rates) whereas alosim charge £26 for 15 days so almost double the cost. Even with your 15% discount is still a large premium you are paying especially if there are a few people in your travelling party. Wife and I will be there for 3 months shortly, your suggestion would cost us an extra £150

heatherw_01

DullGreyGuy said:

They are expensive @heatherw_01 in most countries in comparison to getting a local sim. 

They are however convenient and if you are on a short break potentially the convenience is worth the additional cost but on a longer stay it certainly adds up. For example AIS sell a 30 day unlimited data SIM for £27 (current exchange rates) whereas alosim charge £26 for 15 days so almost double the cost. Even with your 15% discount is still a large premium you are paying especially if there are a few people in your travelling party. Wife and I will be there for 3 months shortly, your suggestion would cost us an extra £150

I was comparing against airlo rather than a local sim as the post was about a eSIM rather than a physical sim and the OP mentioned airlo.
So I was going by the OP first post.

Edited this sentence as I wrongly assumed that local sims were physical which is my mistake. You can get local esims too. I only have experience with esims from online (used so many) so not had experience with local sims, but from the comments that might be your best bet.


EDIT: I don't have experience with local sims and I wrongly assumed they were all physical. That is my mistake. Apparently you can get local esims too, so please ignore my comment about physical sims. I haven't used local sims, only esims from online, so I wrongly assumed local sims were physical. My mistake.
Edited my post to remove this mistake about physical sims.

saajan_12

Search through a few websites for what's cheapest for the particular countries, duration and GB needed. Some suggestions in this thread but for a long period, it can make a big difference. 

As for how it works, 
* you can usually turn each sim on/off for internet and calls/texts separately. 
* data: turn esim on only, and turn off any smart switching
* calls: can leave the home sim on for this, but note answering or making calls is often charged per minute and can be expensive
* texts: can leave the home sim on for this. usually receiving texts is free but sending SMS messages is charged. iMessage may differ. 
* can buy another sim for the remaining 10 days - suggest doing that just before the 30day one expires or where she has wifi connection. 
* payments are via NFC so don't use any of the above. Though depending on what authorisation is needed, it may also need data. This can be on the esim
* Whatspp doesnt' need a new number, the old one will still work as long as she doesn't transfer it. The data can come from the esim, but on the existing whatsapp account. 

BFBW

DullGreyGuy said:

heatherw_01 said:

I always say how good aloSIM is plus you can get big discounts with discount codes.
There are some that still work such as CHRONICTRAVEL for 15% off or MYTRAVEL for $3 off (converted into £)

I use them every single trip and they are brilliant.
You can top them up with as many days and gig as you want, as often or as little as you want.
Also if you ever have questions their chat is really good.

They are expensive @heatherw_01 in most countries in comparison to getting a local sim. 

They are however convenient and if you are on a short break potentially the convenience is worth the additional cost but on a longer stay it certainly adds up. For example AIS sell a 30 day unlimited data SIM for £27 (current exchange rates) whereas alosim charge £26 for 15 days so almost double the cost. Even with your 15% discount is still a large premium you are paying especially if there are a few people in your travelling party. Wife and I will be there for 3 months shortly, your suggestion would cost us an extra £150

You must be referring to an AIS Tourist SIM/eSIM @ 1199 baht. Better value is the AIS 30 day Unlimited 10 Mbps pack for £11.
If you are going there for three months, the AIS Net Marathon Max pack offers 50 GB per month for three months for a total price of 590 baht/£13.50.
Alternatively, there is the Altogether 300 pack(300 baht/£7 per month) which offers(in total):
40GB of full speed data
60 GB of 15 Mbps data
Unlimited free calls to any domestic network(15 minutes per call)
Unlimited use of AIS Hotspots
AIS Play Family subscription https://www.ais.th/consumers/entertainment/ais-play/play-family


Camodia Roaming option with AIS can be accessed here: https://m.ais.co.th/wxHJEyBh1 Same 2GB then 128kbps over 7 days for 106 baht. You click through when on an AIS package in Thailand, there will be an icon in the top right hand corner to change from Thai language to English.
Of course this information is for the OP and anyone else who can use it, in case they choose to go with AIS over TRUE/DTAC.

BFBW

heatherw_01 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

They are expensive @heatherw_01 in most countries in comparison to getting a local sim. 

They are however convenient and if you are on a short break potentially the convenience is worth the additional cost but on a longer stay it certainly adds up. For example AIS sell a 30 day unlimited data SIM for £27 (current exchange rates) whereas alosim charge £26 for 15 days so almost double the cost. Even with your 15% discount is still a large premium you are paying especially if there are a few people in your travelling party. Wife and I will be there for 3 months shortly, your suggestion would cost us an extra £150

I was comparing against airlo rather than a local sim as the post was about a eSIM rather than a physical sim and the OP mentioned airlo wheras aloSIM are cheaper with the code and have good service.
So I was going by the OP first post.

Also a physical sim needs a spare slot whereas many phones have a physical and esim slot so you can use your main sim and a esim together and then use the data from the esim for things such as imessage on your main sim if you have a iphone for example. I always go for esim over physical for that reason especially.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that anyone was discussing physical SIM. All offers are available via eSIM.
Again. alosim doesn't cover Cambodia. In addition to that, you don't get to choose which network you are on. They offer TRUE/DTAC in Thailand.
One can buy a 8 day AIS eSIM via https://thailandesim.com/esim/ais/ (£7.30) and then within seven days, top up and add a longer promo pack, such as one of those mentioned in the post above. Far more data than alosim can offer and for a lower price.

BFBW

saajan_12 said:

Search through a few websites for what's cheapest for the particular countries, duration and GB needed. Some suggestions in this thread but for a long period, it can make a big difference. 

As for how it works, 
* you can usually turn each sim on/off for internet and calls/texts separately. 
* data: turn esim on only, and turn off any smart switching
* calls: can leave the home sim on for this, but note answering or making calls is often charged per minute and can be expensive
* texts: can leave the home sim on for this. usually receiving texts is free but sending SMS messages is charged. iMessage may differ. 
* can buy another sim for the remaining 10 days - suggest doing that just before the 30day one expires or where she has wifi connection. 
* payments are via NFC so don't use any of the above. Though depending on what authorisation is needed, it may also need data. This can be on the esim
* Whatspp doesnt' need a new number, the old one will still work as long as she doesn't transfer it. The data can come from the esim, but on the existing whatsapp account. 

You've neglected to mention VoWiFi. 
No need to buy a new SIM for the remaining ten days SIM acquisition depends on the route taken.

DullGreyGuy

heatherw_01 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

They are expensive @heatherw_01 in most countries in comparison to getting a local sim. 

They are however convenient and if you are on a short break potentially the convenience is worth the additional cost but on a longer stay it certainly adds up. For example AIS sell a 30 day unlimited data SIM for £27 (current exchange rates) whereas alosim charge £26 for 15 days so almost double the cost. Even with your 15% discount is still a large premium you are paying especially if there are a few people in your travelling party. Wife and I will be there for 3 months shortly, your suggestion would cost us an extra £150

I was comparing against airlo rather than a local sim as the post was about a eSIM rather than a physical sim and the OP mentioned airlo wheras aloSIM are cheaper with the code and have good service.
So I was going by the OP first post.

Also a physical sim needs a spare slot whereas many phones have a physical and esim slot so you can use your main sim and a esim together and then use the data from the esim for things such as imessage on your main sim if you have a iphone for example. I always go for esim over physical for that reason especially.

That is a local sim @heatherw_01, AIS is one of the largest providers in Thailand; they offer both physical and esims so your choice and still vastly cheaper than the solution you are pushing irrespective of the discount codes. As said, sometimes you may want to pay for convenience but this is after all a "money saving" website not a "most convenient" website. 

Your second comment may also be wrong, you are making the assumption that their normal/home sim is a physical sim whereas it's getting ever more common for people to have an esim. Some phones can support two esims as long as there is no physical sim but others can only support one esim.

Personally, if your phone supports two active esims I'd recommend having your home sim as an esim which leaves you free to add another esim or a physical sim depending on where you are going and how widely used esims are. 

heatherw_01

DullGreyGuy said:

That is a local sim @heatherw_01, AIS is one of the largest providers in Thailand; they offer both physical and esims so your choice and still vastly cheaper than the solution you are pushing irrespective of the discount codes. As said, sometimes you may want to pay for convenience but this is after all a "money saving" website not a "most convenient" website. 

Your second comment may also be wrong, you are making the assumption that their normal/home sim is a physical sim whereas it's getting ever more common for people to have an esim. Some phones can support two esims as long as there is no physical sim but others can only support one esim.

Personally, if your phone supports two active esims I'd recommend having your home sim as an esim which leaves you free to add another esim or a physical sim depending on where you are going and how widely used esims are. 

With all respect, I am not pushing anything, I am just sharing some of my personal experience of who I use whenever I travel and how I use it (2 sims, 1 physical 1 esim etc) as it might have been helpful.

I never said that I did a price comparison between different companies for the OP, I just suggested a site that I use that is always cheaper for me and how I use my 2 sims (1 physical 1 esim). That is all. Turns out it isn't good for where the OP is travelling to which is fine. I just gave a good reliable company that is cheap for me that I always use.
The op didn't mention local sims, they only mentioned esims and airlo, so I was replying about that. Thats all.
I never did a price comparison nor did I say I did. I just said which company is always cheaper for me.

I apologise that I misunderstood about the local sim being only physical. That is my bad completely.
As I said, I don't use local sims so I don't have experience with them, I was just sharing my experience with esims purchased online like airlo and alosim etc, rather than local sims.

I don't care what anyone chooses, whatever saves them money and works is best! I want people to save money. That is what matters and that's why we are on MSE as we love moneysaving.

I was just trying to reply to the OP initial post about that is all.
Sorry I misunderstood about local sims, as I said, I don't have experience with local sims and I wrongly assumed they were physical. I edited my post to clarify this too.

DullGreyGuy

heatherw_01 said:
I never said that I did a price comparison between different companies for the OP, I just suggested a site that I use that is always cheaper for me and how I use my 2 sims (1 physical 1 esim). That is all. Turns out it isn't good for where the OP is travelling to which is fine. I just gave a good reliable company that is cheap for me that I always use.

The op didn't mention local sims, they only mentioned esims and airlo, so I was replying about that. Thats all.
I never did a price comparison nor did I say I did. I just said which company is always cheaper for me.

How can it be "always cheaper for me" if you state you haven't even done price comparisons? It may be cheaper than using your UK sim but that is a big caveat that you are missing from the statement and it could easily be taken as meaning it's cheaper than any other option. 

"esims" are just a sim that has no physical existence (yet a couple of years ago at least O2 still had to "post" it to you). They can be a "travel" sim, a sim issued by an overseas operator or a sim issued by a UK operator... you can sign up to the likes of iD Mobile or EE and your esim is emailed to you within a couple of minutes. Just because they are electronic doesnt mean they are limited to companies selling things for travel.