Lessons

So if you read the last post, in which I lightly covered some of the challenges we had to deal with during our last week, then you might wonder how some problems can be avoided, how you can solve issues quickly abroad, and what to do if you can't solve them.

Briefly - before you leave your home country, get the contact numbers of your bank/credit union and credit cards.  You'll have already done your homework to see how you'll access money abroad - that's another blog post in itself.  However, the contact numbers you want in this case are the Calls Outside the US numbers - usually these are collect numbers.

How do these work?  I don't know.  You'll get this information before you leave on your trip and you'll feel nice and warm inside - I did something, I'm prepared, if something happens, I'll just pick up the phone and call.

That is so nice.  However, here's the thing.  You'll later be trying to call this number from your abroad cell phone account.  

If you have kept your American phone account open by adding international roaming or a specific country roaming, then I am assuming that calling the collect number will work.  How much if any it will cost you, I don't know.  

However, if you've done like we did and gotten local SIM cards with local cell phone numbers for the country you're in, then calling this collect number won't work.

What to do?

Skype.

Now I know what you're thinking.  But Lindsay, haven't you been saying that you've been using WhatsApp?  And you've been texting and calling friends and family and that's been working out fine.

Yes, it has.  However, businesses aren't on WhatsApp.  So even if you're doing an online chat, if this is offered by the company you wish to contact at the time you need to contact them, they still want you to call.  Even though you patiently explain that you are out of the country and cannot call them fi though you want to, they STILL tell you that you can call a 1-800 number and all will be painlessly taken care of.  

So save yourself, and save the moron you're talking to - they don't know.  They're working minimum wage and have never been out of the country.  Use Skype.  While it is free to call Skype-to-Skype, the business you need to reach isn't on Skype either.  You'll need to purchase Skype credits to call landline numbers.

So be prepared for the just-in-case scenarios.  Download Skype, maybe get some credits - now you're prepared.  You can still get those Call from Outside the US numbers, just know that more than likely, in order to call them, you'll need Skype.