Summer is almost here and if you’ve been paying attention to the travel forums lately, the conversation has shifted. People are less worried about finding a good hotel and more worried about their phone bill. Getting hit with a $200 roaming charge after a week abroad has a way of souring a trip and enough people have been through it that eSIMs have gone from a niche tech topic to something you now hear about in airport queues. The pitch is simple: instead of swapping physical SIM cards or paying your home carrier’s extortionate international rates, you buy a local data plan digitally before you even leave, install it in a few taps, and you’re done.
Saily has been one of the more popular options for this. It’s developed by Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN which gives it a security angle that most eSIM providers don’t bother with. Plans start around $3 to $4 for a few days of data, unlimited options are available in most major destinations for under $18, and the same eSIM profile works across 200+ countries so you’re not buying a new one every time you cross a border. The Saily coupon code GIZMODO takes 15% off any plan at checkout, which is the best Saily discount available right now, and the same code gets you 35% off the North America plan specifically if you’re heading to the USA, Canada, or Mexico for the World Cup.
Saily just added something most eSIM providers don’t offer
The interesting development this June is that Saily has started offering something that goes beyond just data: You can now add a real US phone number to your account directly through the Saily app, at $0.84 a month, purchased separately from your eSIM plan. It’s a proper +1 number with no contract and it works for calls, texts, and two-factor authentication from anywhere in the world.
The practical case for this is stronger than it might first appear. A lot of American services simply won’t work without a US number. Venmo requires one. Ticketmaster uses it for verification. Banking apps send 2FA codes to it. If you’re visiting the US from abroad, or if you travel there regularly, running into these walls is a genuine annoyance. A dedicated +1 number that sits in the same app as your data plan sorts most of those problems in one go. It also works as a privacy buffer: hand out the Saily number to apps and services instead of your primary number, and you keep the spam away from your real line.
The number is persistent, which is the part that makes it actually useful rather than just a novelty. Your data plan might change depending on where you are, but the phone number stays the same. You set it up once in the app, complete a quick identity verification as required, and it follows you regardless of which eSIM plan you’re running underneath it.
The timing of this launch is well chosen as millions of people are about to spend the summer in a country that isn’t their own, many of them for the first time. The World Cup alone is bringing fans from dozens of countries into US cities through July. For that crowd, a $0.84 monthly add-on that gives them a US number alongside their data plan is an easy decision.