US mobile phones in Europe

Thank you for the great recommendations!

2) our kids want to text their US friends a lot while we are in Europe for 2 weeks? Get them a summer job each - it will add up.

Where in Europe will you be? Which countries?

Italy and France

For communicating between yourselves, I would suggest downloading Skype apps to the phones and using that via wifi. No cost at all to do that. As for texting, I would personally be tempted to tell them it wasn't financially possible to text, unless you download a texting app like HeyWire, which is free (and which may or may not work, depending on where you are, though it is working for me in Spain right now). Again, you could only use it in a wifi area. Two weeks might seem like an eternity to a kid, but it isn't. Because of the time difference, there will be limited times that they could text and receive an answer immediately, anyway.

If you have AT&T service you can add 50 texts (outgoing) international for $10. Incoming texts are free. Just need to turn off the Data Roaming.

Kathy, As you're using Smartphones, you will need to be EXTREMELY careful with the data roaming issue, in order to avoid HUGE bills. One example is a traveller last year that returned from a trip abroad to find a bill for $37,000 waiting in the mailbox! The charges were mostly for data roaming. I'd suggest switching OFF the cellular data roaming and ONLY using this in Wi-Fi areas. Which cellular network are you phones with? You'll first have to determine if the phones will even work in Europe. Be sure to check the Chargers for EACH of your phones, to ensure that they're designed for operation from 100-240 VAC. You will of course need appropriate Plug Adapters. Happy travels!

There are a number of Internet-based services that permit texting. Some are even free (google voice, for example). Using one of these will require your kids to (a) give their friends a different number to send texts to, and (b) only connect over wifi and not a telephone network. This is the only good way to keep your kids from running up big bills. On our last trip, we used our cells to text each other and keep in touch. Incoming texts were included in our plan and we didn't send that many texts. Nevertheless, even with our limited use, we had a bill that was $20 or $30 bucks for a two-week trip. I wouldn't like to contemplate the cost of sending hundreds of texts a day on any phone plan, U.S. or foreign. (If you equipped all your phones with foreign SIMs, by-the-way, your kids' friends would incur international texting rates. Incoming texts to you them would probably be free.)

Kathy, go to your providers website and read! all that they have about taking your phone to the EU. They will also offer discount??? calling plans, discount data plans, and discount texting plans. Make the kids do the same, and tell them that they have to explain the options to you! Put the monkey on their back. When my cousin went with us to Spain last May she took along her free Verizon loaner (most Verizon phones will not work in the EU), and I took my AT&T phone. We both signed up for one of the reduced? rates plans from our respective provider. We shut off all data!!!!(Make sure you know to shut off data, unless you buy an EU data plan and monitor how much each phone uses.) Then we texted each other...super cheap...but you need to make sure that you DO NOT exceed the limit. For calls to the States, etc. we used wi-fi and Skype. .........but the kids texting their friends; on AT&T 500 texts cost $50 plus 10 cents a text; $100, and I bet one kid could do that in a couple of days! Teach them how to use Skype when they are at a wi-fi hot spot. Or buy some cheap unlocked EBay phones here, (old Razors are a dime a dozen), take them to Europe, and buy some pre-paid SIMS there. Then tell the kids when they run out of minutes, they are on their own.