AT & T cell serv states automatic in Italy and UK - your input valued TIA -

I have ATT and I have used it in the UK, and also in Norway, Belgium, and Germany. I have never purchased any special package. When I use it for calls in all of these countries, I have been charged roaming fees based on the call length (I have free nationwide roaming, but that ends when I leave the country.) No charge for the minutes because they are already included in the regular plan. You can send text messages with no extra charges other than what you normally pay for a text message if you don't have a texting plan.

Kalee, I'm not sure how you weren't charged as Joanne stated above, but that's not what AT&T states on their website. Joanne's prices above are what AT&T say and it says that you pay $.50/text message. This is going off of Ireland, but I believe UK and Italy are exactly the same. Here's the page that I found: AT&T. I'm still undecided whether we'll add the $6 package before we go. I don't foresee us using the phones that much. I just want to communicate with each other in case we're separate and to call B&B's or local sights. I would hope that I'd get charged just like Kalee did, but I won't count on it! Maybe someone on this site also has experience actually using AT&T while in Europe?

I have AT&T and traveled to Italy 2 years ago. I didn't purchase the extra monthly because I only planned to use for emergencies only. Here's what I did to minimize costs (and which I believe other posters on this board have done as well).

If someone needed to get in touch with me, they sent a text message (I don't have a text plan; if I remember correctly, it was 25 cents to receive, 50 cents to send, or perhaps vice versa). I then used my 3 euro calling card (with about 200 minutes loaded on it) and called the person back from a "landline" phone (the B&B's I stayed at were great in letting me use their phone since I had the calling card).

This option worked well for me. Just my two cents...

Oh, and please make sure that you verify with AT&T their policy about calls left on VM while you're in Europe.

My understanding is, if someone called and left a VM while I was in Europe, and even if I didn't check messages nor called them back, I would still be charged the Europe rate $1.29/minute for the duration of the VM because their satellite needed to "ping" the phone to Europe (my phone's physical location).

So, I made darn sure that everybody knew to send text messages and to NOT call and leave a VM while I was in Europe.

I called ATT before I left, in May 2009, and they told me I would be charged for roaming only, and the international texting rate. I checked the online the bill from that trip this week, and I was only charged roaming, but maybe the roaming was charged at $1.29 a minute. Texts I sent to international numbers were 0.50, and all other texts were 0.20. This trip did not include the UK, that was 2 years ago, but the charges were the same when I was in the UK at that time.

I use my AT&T phone when in Europe & it's great. I did buy the package the first time, but no longer do as I generally don't spend that much time on the phone. My husband has also used it in Africa. The only problem I have is hearing the ring on noisy city streets.

We too have ATT and use it overseas for limited calls only. What has been mentioned above and what you stated in the question is all correct. You are charged International Roaming (the $1.29) and as Kaylee was alluding to, since you are not in your plan area, the minutes do not come off your plan. I think you can avoid the charge for voice mails by leaving your phone off...but then you incur a charge to check them. One drawback is that if you use your phone to call a hotel down the street in Rome, you incur roaming charges, plus long distance charges as if you were calling from the US. So for limited communication with people back in the US, it is a great thing. We too buy phone cards there, then use those for "local" calls and longer calls home. Normally we would avoid bringing a phone all together, but since my wife and I like to go our own way on occasion, it makes it handy to locate her by calling her phone.

the price difference is about 30 cents/min, so if you make even 20 minutes of calls you break even. Your decision.

Be sure to call ATT and activate international roaming; that is free, and is different from the extra $6/mos charge for the discounted rate. Without roaming activated, your phone will not work.

Also, be sure to write down the number +1-916-843-4685 That's ATT customer service that you can call from abroad in case the rep messes up and does not activate roaming (happened to me once).

This has been very helpful. I always buy a phone card and use it and leave my cell at home. I've been an ATT customer for over 12 years. I had no idea it was this easy. I usually just make one call home per day. Thanks!

I guess I will add that if you are a new ATT customer, International roaming will not be activated for 3 Months...it is a credit/security thing. We have been ATT customers for years, but made a major change to plans that added phones and changed numbers, even that was enough to deactivate the international roaming. It took about a half hour on the phone from Mexico to get it straightened out when we found out.

One tip to the person who posted that he advised others to send him a text message so he could call them back using a calling card. I have T-Mobile and it permits me to unconditionally forward all calls to voicemail. When I did that on my last trip, I wouldn't get the incoming call, of course, but I would get a notification if the caller left me a message. The nice thing was I wasn't charged anything for getting the notification. I could then find a landline, use my calling card to call the voicemail number, retrieve the message, and then call the person back if it was necessary.

This is a bit of a cumbersome process, but it saved money and it worked for me because I generally do not get a lot of calls on my cell. I would imagine AT&T will let you forward all calls to voicemail so this technique might work for you, too. I would hope that, at worst, you'd be billed for a text message for the voicemail notification.