Lowering the cost of a mobile abo while traveling for 3 months

Hello,

I am currently planning to travel abroad from the 10th of May to the 10th of August. I currently have a plan with Wingo (Wingo swiss at 19.95chf) but I won’t really need to use it during these 3 months, except for receiving SMS from time to time because of two factor authentication on different websites.

Consequently, I was thinking of getting rid of this plan, and go for a prepaid option with another phone carrier: for instance, Salt seems to offer an option which seems totally free (even 0chf activation fees!) and I could potentially save 60chf, there seems to be the dasabo option as well Salt. | Prepay Prepay | DAS ABO

I have two questions regarding this plan:

  1. Do you think it’s a good idea in general, do you see any downside?
  2. As I will travel in less than a month from now, I guess the termination deadline with wingo will be after the 10th of May, thus I would have to activate the new sim card while being abroad. Will this work or may have some trouble? (Also, will salt or dasabo send me the new sim card in time before I leave?)

Thank you for your help!
Antoine

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I personally wouldn’t cancel the subscription mainly because the cost saving is not really that significant and I don’t think that you will get a Swisscom/Wingo subscription for 19.95 unlimited in Switzerland again with recent price hikes everywhere.

Also porting your number to the prepaid option and then when you are in Switzerland again, porting the number again to a subscription would be too much of a hassle for me.

I would guess you need to be in Switzerland to get it activated for the first time but to be sure you better contact the provider and ask.

I normally got the new sim around 7-10 days before the number porting/activation date. You have to ask the provider if they can send you the sim in advance but this is coupled with your other question if you will be able to activate it while abroad.

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Wingo has a 2 months cancellation notice time. Too late to optimise.

I can’t find specific information for Wingo, but Swisscom has the option of putting your plan on hold for up to 12 months. You pay a 25-franc fee for the service. Of course, that won’t help if you need to be available at your Swiss number.

20 francs for unlimited data and calls in Switzerland is pretty average these days for plans. But you won’t (yet) get unlimited data on prepaid for that price. If you use your phone as your main Internet connection, you’re better off with a plan.

As far as transferring the number while you are away, I don’t see it being a problem. You normally get the new SIM just days after signing up, so that should be fine too.

Thanks a lot everyone! That is true, based on your answers, it seems too late for me now. Even if I manage to save 1 month, this will likely not cover the cost of reapplying for a new abo with potential activation fees when I come back.

That said, it seems likely that if I had taken care of it earlier, some money could have been saved…

The activiation fees are really the catch which makes it difficult to change plans. Alao (the online mobile plan dealer) is interesting in that regard, as it waives the activation fees.

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