SIM cards

Lori, you're right - you'll get a new Italian phone number when you put an Italian SIM card into your phone. I'm not aware of any way to forward calls from a US carrier to an Italian number, though. Another way to do this is to buy a US phone number from Skype for a few months (not expensive), then forward calls from your US number to your Skype number...but calls FROM your your phone (from Skype) would show as coming from your Skype number, not your regular US number.

One thing to be aware of is that if your bank/credit card uses your phone number to do fraud alerts, you won’t get those. This could possibly lead to a card being frozen because you don’t confirm validity. Also, many online services use a verification method where they text you a code so you can access your account. Fine, unless you don’t have access your phone number.

I’m not tech savvy enough to know my way around this besides just keeping my number and paying the daily use rate. Which is expensive. But for me it’s not as much a matter of staying in contact with friends/family/work (but there is definitely that, I have had family and work situations that are emergencies) as that I actually need access to my US phone number to do things like bank and check email. When looking into ways to make an Italian SIM work, be sure to consider this type of situation

Lori, if you could forward calls from your home cell phone number to a foreign SIM, forwarding the call would be treated as an international call. Likely a very expensive international call.

There are possible workarounds, though. For example, get a Google Voice number that you then use to act as your voicemail. Google Voice will notify you of missed calls and will transcribe any voicemails left by a caller. These notices and transcriptions can be sent as text messages (but probably not to a foreign text number) or as email messages. Use the data that your foreign SIM will have to periodically check your email and then use Skype or something similar if you need to call back.

Paul:

There are possible workarounds, though. For example, get a Google Voice number that you then use to act as your voicemail. Google Voice will notify you of missed calls and will transcribe any voicemails left by a caller. These notices and transcriptions can be sent as text messages (but probably not to a foreign text number) or as email messages. Use the data that your foreign SIM will have to periodically check your email and then use Skype or something similar if you need to call back.

Paul, there is no need to "forward" Google Voice texts to the phone number of a European SIM. Google Voice has its own app which includes texting and voice messages, which appear in the app (and as notifications), and these work with either WiFi or mobile data and have nothing to do with what type of SIM card is in the phone (or if there even is one).

One can also make free calls to US numbers with the Google Voice app.

In the US (with a US SIM), one can receive voice calls in the Google Voice app as well. But, I'm pretty sure this does not work if you have a European SIM in the phone. (Didn't for me - I used to use Google Hangouts, which is now retired, to receive incoming calls, but it didn't work for me that way with Google Voice. Only for outgoing calls.)

The benefit of Skype is that you CAN forward calls from a US cell phone to it (once you buy a US Skype phone number). The only real downside is that Skype isn't free for this or or calling US numbers...but it doesn't cost that much..

Andrew, you are right. I wasn't thinking about the Google Voice app, but that solves the problem of seeing missed calls so long as one has some kind of data connection (which includes just wifi). I am "belt and suspenders" about some things and I get multiple notifications about Google Voice calls: the app, texts, and emails.

The trick is going to be forwarding all calls to a home number to GV, which may be difficult with some carriers. For some, it may require a call to customer service with all the hassle that sometimes results in. The main problem with this approach is one does not get text messages sent to the home number, assuming that number is kept in airplane mode or simply turned off.

As I said, this is just a work around and is not as seamless as using a phone over there the same way as at home. For that, you either need to pay what AT&T or Verizon charge or get T-Mobile or Google Fi.

Paul, I actually use Google Voice as my primary phone service - I mean, I get my SIM service through Tello (uses the T-Mobile network), but I only give out my Google Voice number. I've rarely ever given anyone my actual cell phone number - it's just a forwarding number for Google to forward voice calls to.

So when I got to Europe, I just keep using Google Voice with my Dutch Vodafone SIM. As I said, outgoing calls to US numbers are still free from Europe and texts work for me (in the Google Voice app) as always. The only problem is no incoming calls to Google Voice while in Europe. But it's not that important to me - if it was, I could get a Skype number. Voicemails or texts are good enough for me. If incoming calls were really so urgent for me, I'd probably switch to Google Fi which would cost me more annually.

When I made my various hotel reservations, they all required a phone number from me. I want to avoid the hotels from calling me. Is there a way to avoid that scenario? I do appreciate all your suggestions.

Lori

Lori, we may need more information to give you useful advice. Do you want to avoid all calls? Do you not want the hotels to be able to reach you if they feel there is a need? How does your home phone notify you about missed calls and voicemail? Does it require that your phone be on?

Get a Google Voice number and forward calls to it. Set it up to send you notices of messages you have missed so you may decide what ones you need to respond to. You can do as Andrew does and just give the hotels your Google Voice number as the one they should use.

I want to avoid the hotels from calling me.

Lori, hotels do not routinely call guests - they're too busy. I spent a month in Germany in May of this year and not a single hotel called me during my stay. In fact, I have been traveling to Europe for the last 25+ years and cannot remember a single time that a hotel or B&B called my number. They keep it for emergencies - and if it was an emergency, I'm sure you would want them to be able to reach you.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like this is overly complicated. I can't speak for other US cell phone carriers, but AT&T provides a $10/24hr rate that only kicks in when you use it. I did 2 weeks in Wales and turned off airport mode when we needed to connect without local wi-fi. The clock started and I got charged $10. If I didn't need cell service, or mobile data, I left it off. Do i need something else? I mean, I'll just leave the thing on the whole trip and pay an extra $150 (in the grand scheme, that's peanuts).

Mike Boris:

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like this is overly complicated. I can't speak for other US cell phone carriers, but AT&T provides a $10/24hr rate that only kicks in when you use it. I did 2 weeks in Wales and turned off airport mode when we needed to connect without local wi-fi. The clock started and I got charged $10. If I didn't need cell service, or mobile data, I left it off. Do i need something else? I mean, I'll just leave the thing on the whole trip and pay an extra $150 (in the grand scheme, that's peanuts).

Not everyone uses AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile. I don't - if I did, I would spend hundreds of dollars a year extra just for US cell service. I pay $10 to $15/month for my prepaid service (through Tello, which uses the T-Mobile network). I'm sure I save at least $50/month just on cell service at home - so about $600/year. That's not peanuts to me.

Tello doesn't offer international roaming, but I don't go out of the country very often. I have a Dutch Vodafone SIM I keep alive to use when I go to Europe. 20 Euros or less gets me more than enough data with my Vodafone SIM for a trip of several weeks.

If I traveled more often and widely, something like Google Fi would probably make more sense for me.