T-Mobile in Germany

I have never been to Austria, but my week in Germany in 2016 and week in Budapest last year, T Mobile worked fine. I took advantage of free texting and data and was never hit with any expensive roaming fees. I used calling sporadically, but when I did call (either back to the US or local numbers), I was appropriately charged 20 cents/minute. I do have my phone set for WiFi calling but I do recall I was charged 20 cents/minute for a couple calls. Not sure if that was a billing error, WiFi error or both. I purposely switched to T Mobile for their free international data/text plans. I find it does okay in Europe overall, although sometimes voicemails/texts come in late and data can be spotty. You should not be charged higher than 20 cents/minute. I recommend you download your Google Maps so you could use them off-line before your trip though.

Last year, I went to Europe and signed up for the T Mobile 20 cent international call program. The local retail store personnel failed to process the request properly--ignorance. I called home from Portugal and the service cut off in the middle of my second call. Customer No Service was of no help--in the Phillipines. I cancelled my phone service on the spot.

I previously had the T Mobile international call program and had no problem. T Mobile is the cell company for Germany and a number of European countries. Our 3 year old granddaughter called us every night--at 3:30 a.m. Budapest time. It worked seamlessly like phone in the U.S.

I am now retired and seldom even talk on the telephone. I no longer even carry a cellphone, however my wife has pay as you go service. When traveling, I communicate with my tablet on WIFI.

Don't pull your SIM out. That's overkill. Do this instead if you're worried: Put your phone in airplane mode and then turn wifi alone back on.

Yes, if you call a foreign country (or the one you're in) on WiFi, you may be charged international rates, which are pricey. Using one of Google's calling services (Hangouts or Google Voice) or Skype is much less expensive.

I have used U.S. T-Mobile in Germany with no trouble. At twenty cents a minute, it is hard to run up huge bills. When the company was charging almost $2 a minute, it was another matter. But the really big bills that killed people were for data roaming, not making phone calls. With T-Mobile, data roaming is free now, so don't worry. The days of worrying about killer bills are over (we hope they stay that way if the Sprint merger takes place).

but this rep said there is always a chance, even on wifi, that you are
picking up roaming signals so could get big charges.

Rep doesn't know what they are talking about. As long as you have one of the post-paid plans (T-Mobile ONE, Simple Choice, New Classic and Select Choice) there are only two pricings when making voice calls:
free when using Wifi, and .20 cents per minute when connected to a tower (doesn't matter which provider your phone is connected to).

Rep doesn't know what they are talking about. As long as you have one of the post-paid plans (T-Mobile ONE, Simple Choice, New Classic and Select Choice) there are only two pricings when making voice calls:
free when using Wifi, and .20 cents per minute when connected to a tower (doesn't matter which provider your phone is connected to).

This.

It's exactly what I experienced in Germany last fall, Poland, Czechia, snd Lithuania the summer before, and Hungary and Italy the summer before that. Not to mention trips to Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Canada.

Exactly what Michael Schneider said and how it worked for my son in Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Portugal, France, England, Scotland, Germany, Ukraine, Hungary, Czechia, Iceland and Colombia.
And why I just switched to TMobile for my Paris trip in 2 wks.
Had Verizon which is terrible for International travel.

When I used WiFi calling back when I had T-Mobile, my phone was very explicit about when I was using WiFi calling and when it wasn't. I take it the rep was just giving you a COA disclaimer in case you didn't understand how to use WiFi calling or something.

In any event...install Google Hangouts (plus Hangouts Dialer if you have an Android phone) and use that to make free calls home to the US (even to landlines) whether you are on WiFi or not. (Works with T-Mobile 2G free roaming data, too.) Make calls from WITHIN the Hangouts or Hangouts Dialer app, not using your regular dialer. Then there is no worry at all about using WiFi calling to MAKE a call. If you receive a call, you can always tell the person "I'll call you right back from Hangouts - my number will show as unavailable" to avoid any possible charges.

Thanks to everyone for putting my mind at ease. I did not expect a problem with T-Mobile but worried after talking to the rep. To cover all the bases (or get even more confused!) my husband called today and was told to enable international data roaming with a #766# from the cell phone. I have not done this previously but did.

ctcwash, My son doesn’t have to do that and I wasn’t told to do that when I switched over 4 days ago.

On my first trip many years ago, I called 611 to make sure that international roaming was activated. I did not know that I could do that with a short code myself. I have not had to do anything since. But I advise making note of T-Mobile's international help number in case you need to call customer support while on your trip.

By-the-way, here is a link to short codes that work on T-Mobile: Short Codes