Best Ways to Keep In Touch as an Expat
Are you moving overseas soon and not sure how you are going to communicate with family and friends back home? Are you concerned about your communication options while living abroad?
Communicating with friends and family back home while you’re living abroad doesn’t have to be challenging when you have the right communication tools.
In this blog post I will share how I communicated with family back home in the USA for 7 years while living abroad in Angola and Argentina.
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Here are my Favorite Ways to Communicate While Living Overseas as an Expat:
WhatsApp is a hidden gem for Americans. We don’t really use the app in the USA. But for any other cultures out there reading this, you’re probably super familiar with WhatsApp already. Personally, I had never heard of WhatsApp until I moved abroad in 2014. I also introduced my family and some friends to it.
For anyone not familiar with WhatsApp, it’s a free chat/messenger app that you can use globally. Since it works on WiFi, it works everywhere. Their chats are also encrypted which is a nice security feature. WhatsApp has been my primary form of communication throughout my 7 years as an expat living in Angola and Argentina and it was completely free. I also used it to communicate while traveling through 35 countries over the years.
Another great feature of WhatsApp is the ability to do calls or video calls. I mostly used the call feature to talk to family back home. It was amazing - free calls and text messages to anyone globally. If you’re not already using WhatsApp, download it now.
Google Fi
Google Fi is Google’s phone service and its been great for us while going back and forth from Argentina and the USA after we purchased a home in Texas. We wanted a US phone number after we purchased the house and Google Fi was the only carrier where we could have a US number and also use the phone while outside of the US.
For my husband and I, Google Fi worked great while living in Argentina. I would call US numbers all the time without issues. The international calls did cost us per minute but it was much more cost effective than “roaming” with any of the other US cell companies.
Another awesome benefit of Google Fi is that there’s no contract. It’s a monthly subscription and you can cancel at any time. So no more going to a cell carrier and signing a two-year contract. I also like that I can purchase any unlocked phone I want and insert my Google Fi sim card without any issues. Google Fi doesn’t make me feel tied down, although I don’t plan on going anywhere.
Finally, an equally cool feature is that you only pay for the data you use. There are many months where I mostly use my phone on my home’s wifi network and those months, my cell phone bill is lower! Our plan maxes out at 10GB - so no matter how much data we use over that, our cost will be the same. Be sure to check out their website to see all their pricing, plans, coverage and all-new 5G coverage information!
Are you interested in Google Fi yet?? I hope so! If you’re going on international business trips often, spending time living abroad, considering taking a gap year or travelling overseas long term, or not planning to go international as an expat anytime soon, Google Fi is a great option. Here’s a link where you can sign up today! And be sure to check out their promo plan for 50% off your first 3 months!
Local SIM Card
Before we moved to Angola, we purchased unlocked cell phones in Texas and took them with us. When we arrived, we purchased a local SIM card (Unitel & Movicel are the options there) and popped them into our unlocked phones. This worked great for us the entire time we were living in Angola.
I’m not sure if it’s the same in other countries so you’ll want to do your research. But in Angola, we had to “recharge” our SIM card when we ran out of credits (or data). The credits would typically last about 4-8 weeks, depending on how active we were on our phones.
I really liked their system because you only paid for what you needed and used. You didn’t have to buy more credits until you finished using the ones you purchased. And they sold the credits (cards that had scratch off numbers you’d text into your phone) everywhere - in many stores and on the street (street vendors).
Whatever country you’re planning to move to should have a great local cell provider you can use. But be sure to take an unlocked cell phone with you because purchasing electronics overseas can be expensive!
Don’t Forget!
Time Zones
Don’t forget about time zones! This may seem obvious, but it can be easy to forget if you’re new to being an expat living abroad. You’ll want to double check the time back home before you make a call to ensure you don’t wake up your friends! If I needed to tell my family something, I would have to wait until after 1pm in the afternoon to call them when I lived in Angola because we were 6 hours ahead. Don’t worry, once you’ve lived abroad for a bit of time, this will become second nature to you too.
Daylight Savings
Another factor of time zones you’ll need to stay aware of is the daylight savings bi-annual changes, if your expat country participates. I never knew this until I moved abroad, but many (most) countries don’t participate in daylight savings.
Neither Angola nor Argentina participated in daylight savings and it was so nice! But, I still had to keep track of the time change dates in my planner. When I needed to communicate with folks back home in the USA, I needed to know whether they were 6 or 5 hours behind in Angola. And in Buenos Aires, it was either 3 or 2 hours behind me.
So don’t forget that even if you live in a country that doesn’t participate in daylight savings, you’ll still want to be aware of the date changes!
I understand figuring out how to keep in touch with family and friends can be overwhelming when planning to live abroad as an expat however these 3 communication avenues should work great for you!
With ever improving technology and new communication options each year, the ability to communicate with friends and family back home should not stand in the way of your dream of becoming an expat living overseas.
Ready to move overseas? Be sure to download my packing checklist! It has everything you need to make your new country feel like home!
