ATT International Day Pass billing dispute- lost 100 minutes AND my sanity!!! + 60 min more!!!

Do you now think it is worth it to get a SIM card?

Just a thought - did your billing cycle end and begin again during your trip? Because that would mean they'd start the clock over on the $150 max charge during your trip, resulting in more than $150, even though your trip was only 2 weeks.

We've used ATT international plans with no problems.

But-
You will be charged $10/day for the amount of time you specified. Even if you are home before. Not sure what an attached line is.

Airplane mode has nothing to do with WiFi. If there was a WiFi signal, the phone should have been able to pick up the signal with Airplane Mode on.

We only used cellular data on the rare occasions when we had to make a call.

I did turn the cellular on my Apple Watch off. It was a bear to get it turned back on, but that's another story. Yes, our trip thankfully was only in one billing cycle.
An Attached Line is when my husband and I are both on one account, which we are.
This ATT plan only charges you if you use it. If you don't use it that 24 Hrs., you aren't supposed to be charged. The old ATT plan was for a specified number of days.
I am totally ignorant regarding SIM cards costs etc.-obviously, I was assuming they are more expensive than the service.
We are surprised to see that wi- fi works in Airplane Mode. ( My husband is a retired electrical engineer!) We are doing that as we speak. Color me enlightened! He is amazed.
Thx for all your info- I'm calming down now, getting out of my "titling with windmills" mode.
Thanks all for your time!

My phone doesn't even have a SIM card so I'm going to be stuck with this lovely AT&T plan too.

As to Sims
A typical UK gives 10GB data, unlimited UK calls and txt for £10 in a non recurring package lasting 30 days.
It's often easy to add a little credit in top of the package giving call rates of 3p a minute for calls to home and cell phones in the US.
My cousin had ATnT ,he always spoke warmly of them too when he told me of thier great deal on the International Package

Regarding the watch, I called and ATT turned off the cellular service before the trip.My memory fails me on Airplane Mode after I got off the plane.
The dates ATT gave me for cell usage was attached to our two cell phone numbers.
Thx for your interest .

Roubrat, make sure your trip is inside one billing cycle! 😉

Ha! Or change the billing cycle 🤔

When I'm using cell service, I set my timer to go off in 23 hours to remind me to turn it off. My husband and I made a point of not having both phones' cell service on at the same time, unless we were in a hotel with poor wi-fi. We frequently used cell service to buy DB train tickets, as our credit cards weren't accepted at the ticket machines, not having pin #'s.
Periscope, you are a wealth of helpful info!
Thx to all,

If you don't like AT&T, switch to something a lot cheaper so you can save a few hundred bucks a year (at least) and then just buy a SIM card for your next trip. If you bought your phones from AT&T and are still paying them off, of course you'll have to wait until that is done. Otherwise, consider switching to Tello or Mint Mobile - both use the T-Mobile network. I typically pay about $15/month with Tello for unlimited talk and text and 2GB of data (which is usually plenty with me). Tello has no contract - you can quit after one month or change your plan every month if you want. Mint Mobile is cheaper for more data but you have to prepay for month in advance to get the cheaper price.

And I have an old Dutch Vodafone SIM I keep alive from 2017 that I can add about 15 euros to each time I got to Europe for a few weeks. Depending on which country I visit, I'd just buy a different SIM if going somewhere else.

If I had AT&T, I'd be paying $65/month instead of $15 (I don't need unlimited data), so I'm saving $50/month or $600/year. And instead of paying $10/day for international roaming, I pay about $20 for one SIM and plenty of data for a two week trip.

Having a European pay as you go SIM would definitely be worth it bases on your figures. Remember it is illegal to charge roaming fees on EU SIM cards.

Someone, maybe Pam, in a previous post noted that Verizon’s 24 hour cut off time is based on New York time. With the Europe time difference, perhaps you were charged for two days instead of one.

Periscope:

If everything is unlimited then I don't understand the "typically" part.

I didn't say everything was unlimited. I said $15/month for unlimited talk and text plus 2GB of data. Believe it or not, I don't need 2GB of data every month. I don't need unlimited calling, either. I can save a few bucks more some months by rolling over the previous month's balance and getting only 1GB or something. Last month I paid $12.38 after tax. To be honest, I've never paid quite $15 for my Tello bill.

But for most people, it would be easier to stick with the same plan and just keep the same settings every month - typically about $15/month.

This is kind of funny, although I know it is not a laughing matter dealing with AT&T, but we just got back from switching our carrier from AT&T to t—Mobile.
We went to Germany in the month of May and decided to go with the International Day-Pass (IDP) after we changed our billing cycle to match our 30 day trip. In general, everything went well and, for the most part, we were charged the $10+$5 each day for our two lines. I could find no way to check our charges until we received our actual statement. I decided not to phone them as the statement became available a few days after we returned home. Again, it worked well for us, but the extra charge was just too much compared to what we are going to receive from t-Mobile. Our regular monthly charges will be about $50 less as well for our two lines plus iPad.
There is one catch in the details for the IDP. Each line will receive up to 10 charges per billing cycle. We tried to use both of our phones each day, but there were two days when the secondary line (mine) was used and Mona’s was not, resulting in a $10 charge, while I normally was just charged $5 when we both used our phones. In other words, we paid for 12 days of primary day usage ($10/day) which totaled $160 for the month of usage.
From their website: “Charge cap: You’ll be charged a maximum of 10 daily fees per line, per monthly bill cycle. After 10 daily fees on a line, that line may continue to use IDP through the end of the bill cycle at no additional charge.” It is the ‘per line’ statement that got us here. In fact a two phone family could end up paying $200 per month if they used only one of their two phones per day and switched phones regularly.
I think it still is not that bad of a deal for a month as it comes out to $5 a day for our two phones. Plus you get to use your own phone number, and the data speed is reasonable in Germany. My experience with European sim cards is that they are very country specific where I had to buy a new plan in each country where we traveled.
Even though the AT&T IDP is not that bad, the t-Mobile plan is so much better and they just announced that we will have access to higher speed data in most countries in Europe without additional charge. That, plus the $50 savings per month for our regular service, made us change before our next trip to Europe in a few weeks.

Periscope, you have my husband intrigued with this airplane mode and using wi-fi. What he has discovered is that it only works between I-phones. Is that consistent with your understanding?

Periscope, my husband meant it doesn't work between an Android and iphone. What's your take?

Android phones operate using Wi-Fi while in airplane mode.

The recent surprise for us while in Spain and France - all connections off on an iPhone and an android system phone, both only on Wi-Fi for 7+ weeks. We both had several incoming texts from the US. How the heck do texts come in while on airplane mode/ only on Wi-Fi???

Pat, I’m glad they finally at least capped it at the $150 limit, plus providing a conciliatory, token bonus. But it took a lot of your time and anguish. You shouldn’t have to put so much effort getting them to give you what they said they were going to give you in the first place!

goanywhere, you can text over WiFi if you turn on the WiFi Calling feature on your phone.

I'm not a tech guy. Android, sim cards, etc... they're all just phones to me.

I just called Verizon and told them we were going to Europe and that was it. 1-minute call. $10 day.

Note that turning on the phone's WiFi transceiver (in Settings, on an Iphone) is not the same as, separately, turning on "WiFi Calling", in the Phone settings. That is because some phone plans charge minutes for WiFi voice calls (.. which is unreasonable).

Yet another reason to not use the phone in Europe.

What is the value of a phone in Europe? Not much, really. ANYTHING that can be done with a phone is better with email. Check on hotels? Email. Communication with the USA? Email.

I'll stick with my "no reason to use the phone" approach. When we get on the plane in the USA on route, we put it in airplane mode, and never turn off airplane mode while in Europe. In 6 trips from 2011 to 2019, we never once needed a phone in the talking or texting mode. We used email exclusively. We did not want to end up like OP with huge bills from some faceless corporation like ATT.

In the 1960s, Lily Tomlin was on the Smothers Brothers playing Geraldine an ATT rep whose main function in life was misunderstanding customers and overcharging them. ATT has not changed. The mistake is believing that these large corporations are "helping" the customer. They "help" themselves to our money, and that is that they do.

sorry you had to suffer this. International day pass on my ATT phone is always on - i have used it 5 times over the past year without any billing problems. the networks in various countries has been excellent. however i do plan to try out the Orange E-sim europe plan next time..

No cell phone anywhere is a pain. Anyone wants to be a Luddite it is at their peril. Not even for phone, but for data. You need all the apps associated with your travel. Ignorance could be bliss, until you are sitting at the gate and your flight is cancelled and you do not know it because you have no airline app. Might be bliss to not know the train schedules or times, until you go to the station and find you just missed a train going your way, or the one you got has two connections you did not know about. Or the ticket price is twice what it was. Oh, wait you didn’t know the price to begin with. you had no phone, no app. Might be bliss, until that accommodation you have requires a phone call to get the key.
Might be bliss, until you wander the streets for an hour looking for that restaurant and find it is only around the corner from your start point. Map apps. Might be bliss, until you spend your whole morning looking for a bookstore/tourist info to obtain a city map.
I thought that way once. Then I had to get a smart phone. For travel. I do not need one at home. But, travel, indispensable.

The OP is tuned in partially. Her extra work for her ATT is keeping logs of calls, two phones, what’s the plan, Wi-Fi, cell use or data, how much per day, what’s the timeframe of billing, is the daily rate based on the local time or home time? Whew!
Solve it all with a local SIM card. Make your life, you vacation easier.

Pat--We had a similar issue last summer. We got home and had a horrendously high bill and I first went online and found the statement and printed out the details, every call and every usage. I had it down to the penny of what they had overcharged. The lady I got was wonderful and saw exactly what I was talking about and reversed the charges immediately. When we were away again in February, we had no issues at all. It shouldn't happen in the first place, but we did get it sorted out immediately. We had my line plus two others, so I went through each of these with a fine tooth comb.

As Dave describes above, we tried various things to keep stress and costs low for our resumed European travel. It just wasn’t worth it on our 30 day trip last month to call ATT and get our billing cycle changed to match our 30 days, which they did, when we have another 30 day trip coming up next month that spans 2 billing cycles. Yesterday we switched our carrier from ATT to T-Mobile. We carefully compared both plans and decided for unlimited texting and good data speed in Europe at no additional charge and a $50 savings per month, we needed to change. Their 55+ plan is a good fit for our situation since we are traveling again.

EDIT: and Pat, between the phone call to T-MOBILE and time spent in the store getting everything setup and transferred, we spent way more than 100 minutes. Yesterday I had to go move our car to a different parking spot after it reached its 120min limit…

Paul:

What is the value of a phone in Europe? Not much, really. ANYTHING that can be done with a phone is better with email. Check on hotels? Email. Communication with the USA? Email.

My smart phone has become indispensable when traveling in Europe. The maps and walking directions have saved me an enormous amount of time and stress. I managed without a smart phone for years of trips, but why would I want to if I already have a smart phone??? $20-$30 for a SIM card for a few weeks' trip is a huge bargain.

I rarely make calls at all when I travel, though with Google Voice calls and texting home are free and easy.

Email works fine for many things, but occasionally I find a B&B owner who wants to text me. Email messages can wind up in spam folders; text messages are less likely to.

@Mona, I think you'll find t-Mobile is easy now that you've made the switch. We've had t-Mobile for years and all four of us on our plan have unlimited international data included. I don't even have to think about it when I'm leaving the country. I land, power on my phone, and get a text "Welcome to _____!" and reminder abou data speeds (which are being increased, as someone up thread said) and the cost per call (I almost never make or receive calls when abroad; I WhatsApp with my family for free).
As far as traveling without a phone, that's not going to happen and it seems like travel is rapidly going more digital than ever. There are many, many ways that mobile data makes traveling much easier. Google maps for walking/driving/transit directions, transit apps, ticket purchasing apps, texting with Air BnB hosts, and more.
There's no way I would want to keep up with billing cycles and how many hours my phone had been on while traveling, much less have to haggle with my provider when I got home.

Since this thread started I've started looking into switching to T-Mobile from AT&T.

Just to clarify airplane mode and wifi. [EDIT: Ignore the rest of this paragraph. Move to the next paragraph. I would delete this, but it makes later messages more confusing.] It sounds like an iPhone does not let you turn off wifi if you put your phone in airplane mode, although that strikes me as strange (and possibly not correct -- airplane mode would not necessarily turn off the radio on the phone while flying, for example).

With an Android phone, if you put the phone in airplane mode it turns off all the radios: cell phone, wifi, and Bluetooth. You may selectively turn some of them back on, such as wifi or Bluetooth.

To avoid getting charged by AT&T, you have to turn on airplane mode. Even if you yourself don't make a call or send a text, if airplane mode is not on, your phone may use the cell phone connection through one of your apps using data or by receiving a text or some other notification. Once it is airplane mode, however, you may turn on wifi without incurring the AT&T charges.

We had T-Mobil for years because of its ease of use in Europe but we felt like we needed better domestic coverage when we were flying back to the rural Midwest to help with aging parents and discovered major dead spots in our phone coverage. Since T-Mobil merged with Sprint a few years ago we think the US coverage has improved. We’re visiting family in our former problematic area in September so we’ll find out if the switch back to T-Mobil will be a good fit for all areas going forward.

Roubrat, I've been with T-Mobile for a very long time. Are you a patient person? Being with T-Mobile for so long has required a good deal of patience because the signal in many places was often missing. This was mostly a hassle traveling. There was one state I drove through years ago that didn't seem to have any reception for miles and miles. I put up with it

To me, other things made up for this deficiency. Chief among them was the great international coverage. It is a liberating feeling not to have to worry anymore about using my same phone and phone number just about anywhere in the world. Get off the plane, turn the phone back on, you are good to go.

Years ago I did the foreign SIM card switch along with forwarding all my calls to my regular number to voicemail and then calling voicemail from a payphone using a prepaid calling card. My first posts to this forum over 10 years ago went into great detail how to stay in touch for the least amount of cost. It was very complicated. I do not miss it. But I can be patient. And, more importantly, T-Mobile's coverage has gotten so much better.

Yes, what periscope said. Our last two trips, I had my iPhone on airplane mode the whole trip, and turned wifi on and off as needed. I think I only incurred 2-3 days where I turned on cellular data, and was charged accordingly by ATT. Used wifi at hotels to communicate.

Periscope, sorry, I misread your statement, "On an iPhone, WiFi "always" works when Airplane Mode is toggled ON." I read it to say that wifi was always on regardless. I see now that I did not read it correctly. In this regard, an iPhone works just like an Android phone: airplane mode turns wifi off, but it can be switched back on.

Paul, generally no, I'm not a patient person lol But my needs are basic when it comes to mobile phones. I work from home so use WIFI all day and I'm not usually using my phone much when I'm out. I won't even need to call/text anyone in the US, I'd mainly be using the data to look things up, Google Maps, etc. The thought of getting off the plane and the phone is good to go is my only reason for wanting to switch. I don't want to have to mess with SIM cards or daily international plans, etc.

For those in need of clarity: A phone has 3 classes of function, as commonly defined in phone plans. Voice, text, data.

The three are different.

The point I was making is about the phone part, where you talk. We've been to Europe 6 times since 2011, and have yet to need the phone-that-you-talk-into part. We use email. Sometimes we text. But talk - this is completely useless. It's actually an imposition on your European hosts - you call them, and usually want to speak English, which most do with less facility. Getting maps up, checking on tickets, making reservations - all with the phone in the data conveyance, or with my laptop, which I also carry but leave in the hotel.

As to data, we use the data part a lot. But usually within the protected confines of an external WIFI. In more than 150 days of travel in Europe, we have paid $0 for phone service, extra data, or texting.

Having used computers since 1968, most today do not realize that the IBM mainframes of the 1960-1970s were scarcely more powerful than an ordinary normal smartphone of today. With an ancillary chip, you can store entire libraries of music or Rick Steves guided tours on your mobile device, and I am never without mine. Is my phone smarter than am I? A question I will ask Alexa.

Paul-of-the-Frozen-North:

I agree that using data has become more important than calling for many or most of us, but I still do not want to be cut off from the ability to communicate by voice. I've had a few work calls over the years and at least two calls from people taking care of our pets. The latter contacts might have worked over text, but not really. The former, not at all. The same is true for communicating by email. I talk over the phone very little these days, but a voice call is still sometimes what is required.

As for using a laptop to communicate, I took a netbook to Europe once and used it for work, but nevermore. Too heavy.

My first computer program in college was written on punch cards and run in batch mode on a mainframe. When I think about it, I marvel at what our phones can do. But, like everyone else, I mostly take it for granted.

Pat, you have my sympathies. We purchased a sim card at the airport in Cairo for Egypt which worked great for my husband. I only used WiFi and to this day, I am getting all this junk mail that begins with newsletter@..... and I block each and every one and still get more. I have vowed never to use unsecured Wifi again! I'm convinced, although I have no proof, that someone got my email off the unsecured Wifi and that is why when I returned from the trip, I am inundated with all this junk mail.
For our trip to France, per information I got on this forum, we used eSim and absolutely loved it! I would probably still be lost somewhere in Paris without data to find my way around.

This happened to me too. My boss traveled to Jordan and the day he got there I and others on his contacts list started getting junk phone calls from Jordanian numbers.

Mikliz97,
Do you mean I can log onto my ATT bill and see dates and time of use? My hard copy bill does not show that, and I just assumed the content was the same as online. Of course, after 100+ minutes on the phone with ATT, I would assume that a rep would have informed me that I could do so.....

Had no idea what I started here, but I find it all very interesting and enlightening. Thx to all for the time and energy of responding.

Pat, login to you account and under "Devices" click "See Usage Details" and it'll take you to a page where you can see an itemized list of usage.

Changed from ATT to T-Mobile in March before trip to Italy in March/April. Easy Peasy. No surprises.

Thx, roubrat,
You'd think after a 100+ minutes with ATT that info could have been communicated in a simple manner, ( if the reps weren't so tied into scripted responses.) I still find it mind-blowing that the rep on the first 40 minute call couldn't find that very info.

periscope, last trip one week, $80. Must have overlapped a day. If that's the recipe to pay more, than I'd like to hear from people paying less.

Anyway, one quick call, done. Easy.

Pat--Yes. I don't get hard copy statements anymore, so this is how I look at them. I am sorry that you had an unhelpful person, that truly does suck. I have had that before (usually cable, and I got so fed up we ditched it lol) and it really is off putting.

Mikliz and Roubrat,
Make that three unhelpful reps and one partially-helpful rep. All for a question that you all answered plainly here on the Forum in under 25 words, I think!

Oh Pat, that is awful! I would call back and ask for a supervisor immediately. Another option is to also contact the FCC and file a complaint through them.

Well, good to know if I ever get sick of my current job I have a career as an AT&T rep to look forward to... ;-0

Well, already depressed over the daily news, I tried logging into MyATT app in order to view my wireless cellular bill.
I can see the ATT U-verse bill, but NOT the wireless cellular bill.
So- I , a glutton for punishment, called again.

After 60 minutes on the phone, I STILL CANNOT view my wireless bill. The only consolation is that I wasn't missing something easy.

In fact, the reps had difficulty viewing the wireless bill.
They are blaming the problem on the fact that I have a "combined bill" which includes both landline (because of the house alarm) and the cell phones. This was set up by ATT a few years ago.

The rep tried to blame the problem on my cable provider - who Is - ATT!!!

So I supposedly will be called back once the solution to the problem is found- do you all think I'll live that long??

Probably useless, but I have copious notes, and will send a letter off to a few government consumer affairs agencies.

Sounds like it's time to fire AT&T as soon as practical!!

Thanks, Andrew. However, one of our phones does not have Wi-Fi calling so those incoming texts were puzzling.

Pat--Yes, do contact the FCC etc. Or I will trade you, I will call ATT for you if you call Air France for me. I am in the same runaround and being on hold for hours with them;)

Wow. I cannot believe it was so difficult dealing with AT&T. They almost sound like an airline at this point.

I have tried in-country SIM cards three times now with limited success. The first (UK based) took almost two days to activate. Big problem when our car broke down on the A1 outside of Orvieto and I could not make any calls.

The second (Orange Holiday) worked immediately but I could not top off the card, or get any customer support, and ran out of data. Most recently, we bought a Vodafone SIM in the Lisbon airport. It activated immediately and my card worked fine whereas my wife could not send or receive any texts.

For our upcoming Tahiti trip, we are simply trying the Verizon one month plan for $100 each line. I always thought it was too expensive, but I am fed up with the headaches.

Jason, your SIM card experiences are different than mine. But, SIM card use varies by country and by the company - each company has different rules for top-off. I specific chose my Dutch Vodafone SIM (not really an option right now to buy online) because it could easily be topped up online and I have done that several times over the years. Some SIM cards cannot - I read things like that about the Orange so I avoided it. My Dutch Vodafone SIM worked immediately when I turned it on upon landing in Italy in 2017. If I had to get a SIM card today in a new country, I would make sure it is activated before leaving the store or have a plan to swing back in a hour or something if not.

But it's true that foreign SIM cards intimidate some people, and it's just easier for them to pay for roaming for their regular wireless plan. Nothing wrong with that, but SIM cards work great for some of us.

Jason, that’s what I decided as well. Used the Verizon one-month plan recently in Portugal with no problems at all. Still used WIFI in hotels and where available to reduce my data usage.

I just can't figure out why these calls take so long. I do have a theory-
I think these reps are emailing a Super Center for answers to the questions I'm asking. They keep say "no worries, I'm working on it", and I think the reps themselves are waiting for email answers, and that these first
-line reps have absolutely no idea what to do.
Ps
I'm still waiting for my return call from a " supervisor".