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Has anyone traveled to England from US with iPhone 7Plus?

I'm curious to know if anyone has had experience buying a sim-card in England for an iPhone 7 plus and if so, how did it work out?
My current carrier is Verizon and I purchased the phone through them about 1 month ago. I've looked into their international plan and it seems expensive when I may only need to access data once or twice a day due to wifi availability and I don't plan to make many calls or texts. I do want to have the convenience of having data when I need it for maps and staying connected.
I've been reading that I can purchase a sim card just about anywhere in England and I've also learned how to change out the sim card on my phone. However, I'm concerned that my phone is set up for US networks only. Hoping someone has had some experience. Thanks in advance.

Posted by
3391 posts

I have Verizon and always use their $40 per month plan for international travel. Your data/talk/text are somewhat limited but I find with wifi I never even come close to using up my allowance. They have the $10 per day deal but I think that would be quite expensive in the long run!

Posted by
6 posts

Thanks for the reply Anita. I thought the $10/day option was my only option. I'll check it out. I'll update with what I find out.

Posted by
3122 posts

You need to check with your US cellphone service provider about enabling your phone for overseas use.

You probably already know that if you get a foreign SIM card you'll have a local (in-country) phone number, therefore you will not know your phone number ahead of time to give to people who might need to reach you. You will also not receive calls or messages left for your normal USA phone number. When you get home from your trip and switch back to US SIM, then you'll get those messages.

Posted by
3993 posts

I thought the $10/day option was my only option. I'll check it out.
I'll update with what I find out.

The $10/24 hour is the Verizon Travel Pass which is NOT an international plan. It's an add-on feature to your account to be used on the rare occasion you need to make/receive a phone call or use cellular data in case you cannot access wifi. It is good for 24 hours after you make/receive a call or use cellular data. Even if you change time zones, Verizon tracks it and gives that full 24 hours including notifying you just before the time period ends.

This is not to be confused with a travel plan you can use daily as it is not priced as an international travel plan.

Posted by
87 posts

I'm going to do the $10 a day. I think for the convenience more than worth it. You don't get much for the $40 a month, I did that for my trip to Germany.

Posted by
1321 posts

data when I need it for maps

if you use Google map you can download a map and use it without data access. Works fine for car routing (but not for walk routing).

Posted by
3993 posts

I'm going to do the $10 a day. I think for the convenience more than
worth it. You don't get much for the $40 a month, I did that for my
trip to Germany.

Keep in mind, it's not per day. Rather, it's per 24 hours from the moment you access the data/phone.

Posted by
251 posts

I recently used the $10/24 hours plan and it worked out great. I only ended up using it once and relied solely on WiFi connections the rest of my trip. When getting around I had a paper map provided by my hotel but also had a couple apps on my phone that didn't need use data (CityMaps2Go was one).

Posted by
6017 posts

We've alway used the Verizon $40 plan and been happy with that. Once we get home we cancel/change back to our usual plan and they will pro-rate the Global plan so it's not always a $40 charge.

While traveling we use WhatsApp for messages and CityMaps2Go as needed.

Posted by
1802 posts

I bought a SIM from a Vodafone shop in London for £17. It included calling minutes, SMS texts, and 1GB of data (for use in UK) as well as .5GB of data for roaming within EU. Good for 30 days. It's nice to not have to search for a wifi network when needed and I could tether a tablet to it.