Using your cell phone in Europe

To use sim cards from other carriers you will need an unlocked phone. Verison has a fairly decent plan for $40 that will get you some basic service and 100 minutes of talk time, except in Croatia where their services is sort of expensive. Remember that many hotels have free WIFI and a lot of cafes and coffee houses as well. The ultimate option is TMobile's international plan.

Carol,

If you're using global roaming with Verizon, you don't need to buy different SIM cards to use your phone in Europe. Check with Verizon to find out the terms and costs for using your phone in Europe.

As the previous reply indicated, your phone would have to be unlocked to use different SIM cards. That may already be the case, but you'll have to check with Verizon on that too. One point to keep in mind is that if using different SIM cards, your number and the terms of service change each time you use a different SIM card. Anyone calling you would have to dial a long distance international number. If you need to be "reachable" while in Europe, the easiest solution is just to use your regular number. If anyone at home calls you, the network will find you wherever you are.

A great start for getting a handle on this issue is to read all of the links on this page of Rick's: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/phones-tech

Yes, if you use Verizon, you don't change SIM cards and you keep your US phone number, so it's easy. The only catch is that, depending on what you're doing with your phone, it can be very expensive.

If you buy a local SIM card in Europe, it's usually free or cheap; for instance, you may spend €10 for a SIM with €5 or €10 of credit. Local calls are cheap, and calls within the EU are capped so they are also cheap. Calls back to the US vary - you have to check the terms of the particular plan you buy. But when you buy a local SIM, you get a local number. So for instance, if you buy a SIM in Nice, people in the US have to know how to call or text a number in France - and they have to pay for it (depending on their plan, this can be cheap or expensive).

Exactly what do you want to do with your phone? Calls to the US or calls within Europe? A lot of calls or just a few? Will you need to be reachable from the US? Can texts be used instead of calls (texts are almost always cheaper)? Will you need or want mobile data? Or can you make do with Wi-Fi? The answers to these questions will determine the best solution for your needs, as there is no one-size-fits-all answer.

Be cautious with "Free WiFi" - especially in cafes, restaurants, etc.
These locations are not secure and are often hacked. Don't open any links that you don't recognize, and don't click on any ads.

European SIM cards and service are really cheap over there, but Verizon phones in this country use CDMA networks, which are not the same as the GSM networks used by AT&T and T-Mobile over here and cell phones in Europe. Depending on your phone, it probably won't work on a gsm European network, so you might need to use Verizon's European Network at their charge.

EU roaming regulations for cellphones are supposed to kick in as of mid June 2017. If your trip starts after they have been instituted then you may be able to purchase a SIM card in Nice and be able to use it throughout the EU within minimal or no roaming charges. This assumes you have a unlocked phone that has the necessary cell frequencies to be used there.

I understand that I can just buy a cheap phone if all I want to do is make calls and text.

Please don't take offense to this as I am speaking generally and not about any one person.....
This is the second or third post in as many days about phones in the "General " forum instead of the "Tech" section. It makes me wonder if folks who don't have the "tech savy" to figure out the difference of the forums would be good candidates for swapping a sim (which requires more than just physically placing the card in the phone). Responses that are well intentioned but require some knowledge of cell phone tech, may be a waste of bandwidth. Simple solutions like using the person's existing carrier's International plan or switching to T-Mobile might be better suggestions.

Just to clarify one point.....

" Depending on your phone, it probably won't work on a gsm European network, so you might need to use Verizon's European Network at their charge."

Many (if not all) of the phones now offered by Verizon will work in Europe as they're equipped with 4G LTE technology, as that somewhat bridges the gap between the two cellular formats. Many phones these days are also designed to use Voice Over LTE which allows voice calls to be routed via the data network. These are the phones listed as "World Devices" on the Verizon website - https://www.verizonwireless.com/devices/world-device/

Also, Verizon does not have a "European network". They're now a full member of the GSM Association and have negotiated roaming agreements for Verizon customers (which all other cell networks, including those in Canada that previously used CDMA have also done for their customers).

I've found there's one significant advantage to using international roaming with my home cell network. The phone tends to select the strongest network in any given area, rather than being limited to only one European network which would be the case if I bought a local SIM card. Using Italy as an example, I could be roaming on Vodaphone in the morning and TIM in the afternoon if I've changed locations.

In another example (also Italy), I was inside a mostly concrete building on one occasion on my last trip, and not getting any coverage with Vodaphone. There were several locals right beside me chatting away on their phones, and they told me, "you will only get coverage with TIM here". I'm not sure what the algorithms are for automatically switching networks, but I could have manually switched to a different network; I couldn't be bothered at the time. Of course, there is a cost associated with that convenience but I haven't found that to be a problem in the overall costs of a European holiday.

Verizon customers can check this website for further details - https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/international-travel-faqs/