Planning to travel to some European countries - France, Spain, England and Italy. Wonder if I’d receive SMS overseas (bank OTP) without a roaming plan? I have Coles Mobile so if anyone with Coles has been to Europe and could provide their feedback that would be great. Not opposed to changing to something else like Boost, Amaysim or the likes.
Thanks scrimshaw. It mentions Japan and NZ but not Europe :-/
Incoming SMS is free on roaming, but better to be on Telstra MVNO and use VoWifi so no roaming needed. Make and receive calls & text as normal, via local 2nd SIM or wifi.
Thanks bargaino. I’m targeting either Telstra or Optus mvno. Anything wrong with Optus?
Telstra has better connectivity in regional Australia but it makes no difference when you're overseas.
When you're connected to WiFi, and you're using a SIM Plan that has VoWIFI features, your phone will use Internet protocol to send / receive messages, as well as make calls (Voice Over WiFi) so the cell connection is irrelevant.
No. Unless something changed recently, Optus and Voda VoWifi is geofenced to Australia only.
@bargaino: That somewhat contradicts the comments from those who travelled to outside of Au and confirmed they got sms with their Coles mobile plans. Coles is Optus MVNO.
I was in Washington DC in Feb and my Kogan also received OTP sms from Shopback Au without a roaming pack.
@scrimshaw: That is by free roaming, not VoWifi. The latter lets you send SMS and receive calls free.
Boost VoWiFi works well overseas for calls and sms, haven't been to Europe though.
just another data point but my wife was in the UK recently, optus, and was not recieving SMS texts, everything else was fine though
If it's prepaid, you shouldn't have to worry.
I've received SMS with my woolies sim in Europe, Africa and Asia. My dad took his coles mobile sim on a trip to China a month ago and didn't turn off the data and fairly sure he could received SMS.
Have a look at this page… says it's free to receive SMS and breaks it down per country.
https://colesmobile.com.au/pages/roaming-rates
I recommend getting an e-sim so you can quickly switch when you need to use 2FA
Woolies is Telstra, so will let you make and receive calls too over wifi or 2nd SIM.
Ahh, you've unlocked a memory for me. I had to log in to my ebay account when I was travelling but had to use my phone number. Took the missus's phone and turned on the hotspot and turned on the wifi calling on my phone and managed to verify the account.
Used my Coles mobile across Germany and Sweden with no issues. Received 2FA SMS within a minute or two of making the request.
Thanks!
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/14267061/redir