Putting your cellphone on vacation hold

You're welcome! I believe your trip is in December...? Let us know how this arrangement works for you!

great info what is a eurobuzz phone, i am staying with a friend in orvieto and just need to tell her where i am by texts k.g.

I travel for three months at a time and have my Verizon (yuck) phone service suspended while I'm away. I use a tablet for wifi and have an Italian phone while I'm there. The day I return, at the airport in Europe, I reconnect phone service via my email account.

You can do the same with your Directv

@ Sparky43

Another poster "Eileen" sent me this answer on a PM.
" . . . This will be a lot of info that will probably be as clear as mud LOL! OK - first of all, I'll include the link to EuroBuzz (http://www.eurobuzz.com) in case you need it. Also, this (if the link worked!) might be useful, too - under the FAQ this is Q#4 concerning phone calls outside of Europe. If you use their SIM to make a call within the USA (but NOT using their Europe-only dual-band phones!) the rates are shown in the link above. You will receive a European phone number (from the UK) AND a USA phone number. Because this phone is meant primarily as a European phone, the rates are higher for calling outside of Europe...but unless you're calling just to talk, it's not crazy expensive. . . . It's the same flat rate of $0.79/minute for you to call (the USA). . . . If others in your traveling group also use EuroBuzz SIMs, outgoing texts are $0.79, and incoming texts are free. I highly recommend their phones, too - I would be anxious about being out and about with my $$$$ (edited)// + or - ;-) // iPhone with ALL of my contact info, photos, etc., on it. Their phones are lightweight, have good battery life, and I didn't have to worry about damaging my iPhone SIM while toting it around Europe.
My package arrived within a few days. You'll then have your European AND USA phone numbers to give to whomever you please. These numbers never change. If you also order their phone, you insert the battery and charge your phone at home (using the North American adapters included), but if you purchase their phone you can't actually use the phone until arriving in Europe (since they are dual-band phones that only work in Europe and other countries except the USA). This SIM will never need to be 'topped up', or otherwise attended to - you'll keep the same phone numbers, too! Just charge it when you leave on your next trip. Nothing else to do! If you never use the SIM, you never pay more than your original order amount. It's a pay-as-you-go, post-paid type arrangement. This is perfect for sporadic travelers. In fact, after having not used the phones for over two years, EuroBuzz sent me an email to let me know that the credit card on file was nearing its expiration date! All I had to do was send them the new exp. date. I'm all set for another 3 or so years. After our return home, we received the correct charges on out credit card. Everything worked as advertised. Yea!
Please let me know if you need clarification! Their current deal of two phones and SIMs for $39 is great; S&H is about $10, I believe. Or, you could choose a $29 phone and SIM, plus just a SIM if you wanted to."

(Colette here again) . . . My concern was being able to be reached from the States should there be an emergency w/an elderly family member. Eileen had explained EuroBuzz better than some of the other comments I saw .
I realize I can carry my IPhone with me & use a EB phone. I can forward my cell # in the States to the USA EB# I am given for that possible emergency call.
Hope this helps.
My 2-cents worth.

Collette, are you giving your US Eurobuzz number to family members for emergency calls? If you have your regular cellphone number forwarded to EB number, you might end up with big bills for advertising calls, wrong numbers, people who don't know you're out of the country...

For me, part of the beauty of an arrangement like EuroBuzz is NOT having everyone and their dog calling me - especially in the middle of the night! Of course I understand the necessity of certain people needing to be able to reach you in an emergency, but you can also just give them your temporary number for the 2 weeks (or whatever) you're away. AND you can always call them; if you were concerned that you were missing your emergency calls, a phone call every.single.day. to the USA would cost less than $1/day.

You can set up a voicemail box so you can screen your incoming calls, if you wanted to.

Laura,

Yes, I will give my son & my brother (the only 2 family members not going on the trip) my USA Euro Buzz cell phone #. Son lives w/DH and me in our house. I am the contact for my brother I.C.E., also.

Thanks for the reminder of all the phone calls that can come thru if I do not put the cellphone on vacation hold.

What kind of message does a caller get when your phone is on "vacation hold."

BTW, the AT&T rep admitted today that purchasing a SIM card from EuroBuzz ($9) to use in my IPhone when I go overseas is cheaper than any plan they or any other cell phone company can offer to his knowledge. ( I do need to unlock the phone by calling customer service ) He took great interest in the fact I would keep the USA phone number & the European phone number at no additional charge.

I use T Mobile's $50 plan that has $.20 per minute voice calls internationally and unlimited text and data overseas. Best thing is that there's no contract. I can use a T Mobile or unlocked AT&T GSM phone.

T Mobile is the cell phone company for many European countries, and the quality there was better than at home.

If you like T Mobile's service at home, you can cancel it after the one month without penalty.

We kept getting middle of the night phone calls in Budapest from our 2 1/2 year old granddaughter calling us on her mother's speed dial. It was a seamless and inexpensive service.