What a data-only eSIM changes
Our eSIMs carry mobile data only, with no phone number. Texts and calls, including your bank's one-time codes and app sign-in codes, still go to your home number. So the home line has to stay on during the trip: the eSIM sits next to it, it does not replace it.
Before you fly: two lines on one phone
- iPhone: keep your home line on and install the travel eSIM next to it. Both numbers on a dual-SIM iPhone can receive calls and send and receive SMS, MMS and iMessage.
- Pick the travel eSIM for data: Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data. One line at a time carries data; with both lines on, Apple's travel steps use the travel eSIM for data.
- Choose which number iMessage and FaceTime use (either or both). They keep working on your home number even while the travel eSIM carries the data.
- Your home line can still be charged roaming fees. Check with your home carrier what receiving a text abroad costs, and keep its data roaming off.
- Android (Pixel): add the eSIM under Settings > Network & internet > SIMs and choose it as the data SIM; Samsung and others use similar wording.
Getting a code while abroad
- Before you leave, ask your bank or app whether it can confirm sign-ins inside its own app instead of by SMS. In-app approvals run over the eSIM's data.
- SMS and call codes arrive on your home line only while it is switched on and allowed to roam; WhatsApp's own help page says the same for its registration codes.
- Wi-Fi Calling, where your phone and carrier offer it, lets the home line make calls and send texts over Wi-Fi.
- If a text code does not come, most services offer a voice call instead (WhatsApp's "Call me" is one).
WhatsApp keeps your number
- WhatsApp keeps working with your home number while another SIM or eSIM carries the data.
- Do not re-verify WhatsApp during the trip: verifying needs the SIM with your number in the phone, with SMS or calls working.
Do you need a travel eSIM at all?
If your phone plan is from an EU country, roaming inside the EU (and Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) is charged like at home, within your plan's fair-use limits. Visitors with plans from elsewhere pay their own carrier's roaming rates, which is where a travel eSIM saves money.
Not sure your phone takes an eSIM? Check in a minute. Install steps for every phone are on the install page.
Sources
- Apple: use eSIM while travelling (read 26 October 2026)
- Apple: using Dual SIM with an eSIM (read 26 October 2026)
- Google Pixel: use an eSIM (read 6 October 2026)
- WhatsApp: about data roaming charges (read 26 October 2026)
- WhatsApp: can't complete registration (read 26 October 2026)
- Your Europe: mobile roaming costs (read 26 October 2026)
Prices on Inbox eSIM are live. Other figures are as published by the sources on the dates shown.