International phone plans

If you have Verizon, they have a plan called Unlimited Ultimate, which is $25 dollars more per month than their Unlimited Welcome Plan, so $80 per month verses $55 dollars per month.
I had to do a lot of wrangling on the phone to get this figured out and to not get over charged.
They also have a one month International Plan, which is $100.
It seems I have had to spend a fair amount of time on the phone with them figuring this out.
Anyway, these might be options for you.

A little more info please. Who is your carrier? Do you need to use your US phone number? How do you plan to use your phones — data? texts? Calling? How much research have you done between your carrier’s plans? Have you researched eSIMs?

I have Verizon. Because I need to use my US phone number, I use their monthly plan at $100 per month. Mistimetotravel is correct. Verizon is not the easiest to set up. Their website wants to default to $12/day. I had to call to set up monthly and even then you can’t see your “pending” order to verify.

Well, you could switch to T-Mobile, which has a free international phone plan. I've been using it since 2023 and love the plan.

Like Mardee, we now have T-Mobile. Actually switched from Verizon several years ago, and while traveling, whether in the British Isles, Continental Europe, Africa, or Asia, it’s practically just like being home, as far as the phone’s concerned.

Well, OK, so there’s a slight difference. Traveling, we can receive unlimited phone calls, no extra cost. Making a call, though, costs 25 cents a minute, but to reach $10 in charges, you need to make 40 minutes worth of calls per day. We make very few “phone” calls when traveling, and instead make “calls” on the WhatsAp app, which cost nothing extra.

How switching to T-Mobile would affect you and your locked phones, you’d need to find out. But when switching we got new phones, free, from T-Mobile. Maybe they have similar offers now. The cell service wasn’t quite as good as edison 5 years ago, but it’s as good or better now.

Cyn, if you make those calls with TMobile wifi calling, they are free.

Tough one for the OP. These days, I have so many accounts that rely on a text message code, especially in critical situations like lost passwords and banking and credit card issues that I can not imagine not having my home number with me.

I am with Spectrum Mobile and while I have had some issues with Spectrum, the international plan is incredible.

I do not have to report travel before I go. There is nothing to do. I get to my foreign country and get a welcome message telling me that text messages are free, both in and out,. I am told how much I have to pay per minute for phone calls which is about 5 cents or sometimes 7 cent a minute depending on the country.

That was in Europe but I called Spectrum and they tell me it will be similar when I am in Japan. Phone calls might be higher. I can not recall but still reasonable.

Thank you all. We have Verizon and were told they had no monthly international plan. We will call them back and be polite but persistent based on the information provided here. Many thanks and kind regards!

If a gold-plated Verizon plan is $25 more per month, that's $300/year. $300 would buy three individual months of international roaming. With no more extra cost per month.

FWIW, my older Tmobile plan is $35/month, including the free international roaming. However, in many countries, my wife pays $50 for a month of high-speed data, rather than very slow data. Years ago, I made a big spreadsheet of the different plans, and roaming extra plan costs. Tmobile was a lot cheaper per year than AT&T. I didn't even bother calculating Verison, it was so much more expensive.

And the above is not even including the secret kick-backs that Mardee, Mr. E, and myself are getting from Tmobile.

We have Verizon and were told they had no monthly international plan.

casbask, you might to refresh their memory by providing them with a link to their website that shows an international monthly plan. https://www.verizon.com/plans/international/international-travel/monthly-plan/ And quite frankly, if it were me, I might be inclined to actually visit a Verizon store and ask one of the reps there. You'll get better service and you can pull up the website on your phone if they say they don't have it.

I am with Spectrum Mobile and while I have had some issues with Spectrum, the international plan is incredible. I do not have to report travel before I go. There is nothing to do. I get to my foreign country and get a welcome message telling me that text messages are free, both in and out...

That's exactly what happens with T-Mobile.

And the above is not even including the secret kick-backs that Mardee, Mr. E, and myself are getting from Tmobile.

Ha ha ha!! And shhhhh.... you're not supposed to tell!