Going on holiday to USA is supposed to be fun, but not for those that have been hit hard when using their smartphones. Using a mobile phone is USA to call, send text messages; access social networks etc can cost a fortune, in some cases spending way over the £200 and much more.

There are many options available to customers wishing to use smartphones in USA, before setting off on your holiday or business trip, call your network provider and find out what tariff you are on, ask them how much it will cost you to make and receive calls whilst abroad.

You can look for company bundles that are available; if you are outside the EU you will get charged to send text messages and calls, as well as getting charged to receive them.

A few tips to save you money whilst abroad, includes 1) Turning off you Voicemail, 2) Disable your data. Did you know that using 1MB of data abroad could potentially cost you a staggering £8, if you wish to search Google Maps or access Facebook you will eat into this data in no time at all.

Once you arrive in USA you could end up paying around 50p per text message, this is where smartphone applications come into play so that you can call and send text messages, as well as video calls.

Look around for good messenger apps, if you find a free WiFi hotspot area you could send texts for free. DO NOT use 3G networks to send text messages (Hopefully you would have turned this off before leaving for the USA). Messenger apps such as WhatsApp and PingChat are really good indeed, just make sure your friends and family have these installed and you can send text messages and photos for free.

If you are into social networking like Facebook and Twitter, we recommend you visiting their official pages and setting up using these via your mobile phone, just follow Twitter’s and Facebook’s instructions page.

There is another option, which means you paying a one of upfront free, this is called “Global SIM Cards”, once you have bought this type of SIM you will only get charged 10p per minute for a landline call and 10 per text message sent.

To make free video calls you could use Skype, but that is boring. We recommend Fring; this allows you to have a four-way conversation on your smartphone. This is a free service for Android/Nokia/iPhone devices, yet again (make sure your family and friends have Fring installed on there devices.

Network companies are putting caps on the amount you spend whilst abroad, this means that once you reach that limit you will not be able to make calls or send text messages after the cap has been reached.

Last but not least, please let us talk a little bit about the “Rebel App” this application is very good indeed. This is an app for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices, you can make calls from this app at low cost if you wish to call USA from the UK, basically you put the credit you want and it will show up in the app, it is much cheaper to call USA from the UK than any network provider.