Pay Less to Phone Home

Q. I’m taking a two-week trip to Norway. How do I inexpensively call family back home? Don’t purchase a pricey international plan from your wireless carrier. For example, AT&T’s least|expensive rate costs an extra $30 per month and charges $1 a minute for your calls in Scandinavia. Instead, when you get to your destination, buy a SIM card or a phone that offers cheap data and make all of your calls on Skype, Google, or Viber (which won’t cost extra). SIM cards essentially make your phone go native in the country you are in. Telenor, the Norwegian national carrier, offers these cards for about $10 a month for data-only service. It’s superior to a phone call because you can actually show your loved ones back home the hand-carved troll you picked up at the Etnemarknaden.


Q. I fly two to three times a year. At what point does it make sense for me to sign up for

TSA PreCheck programs? The

Transportation Security Administration hopes the answer is: right now. The agency’s apparent goal is for every air traveler to plunk down $85 for a five-year PreCheck membership, which is the agency’s “trusted traveler” program. The benefit? You get screened as if it’s 1999. Your shoes stay on, your liquids remain in the carry-on bag—and best of all, you don’t have to deal with the prospect of walking through a full-body scanner 01* getting an “enhanced” pat-down. If your time is valuable to you, and you travel more than twice every year, it’s probably worth the money. But here’s something else to consider: You might get sent to the fast lane anyway.

TSA’s stated goal is to increase the “trusted traveler" lanes and focus on high-risk passengers.

It’s begun waving regular folks without PreCheck privileges into the quicker line, including, ahem, yours truly. So, for now, I intend to hold on to my money.