Cellular & data service for Samsung Galaxy S20FE (not regular S20 models)

I am not familiar with your phone but to work on any network it must be unlocked. If you have questions about the sim, I’d suggest you contact Samsung customer service rather than your cell carrier.

You could ask a close friend to let you borrow, for a few minutes, the SIM card from their Non-Verizon carrier and see if it works in your phone.

At worst, you can spend a few bucks on a SIM for a prepaid SIM plan like Tello or Mint Mobile. (Mint has a trial SIM available on Amazon for 99 cents.) You don't even need a plan to try the SIM: the main thing is, you want to make sure the phone is unlocked, so when turn the phone on with some other SIM card inserted it will not ask you for an unlock code. Still, I doubt the phone is locked if you got it from Verizon unless it is a prepaid phone plan.

Thanks to all for the feedback. Had I realized Samsung had "curtailed" some of the features on the FE version of the S20, I never would have bought it. (I've run into other things as well.) C'est la vie. I'll have a chat with our Verizon dealer and see what my options are. Just wanted to get some unbiased input from y'all before I did so I'd have some talking points and options to discuss.

One more thing: the planner in me would like to get the sim and know it's working before leaving the US, but I know many folks buy their sim card once they're in Europe. Pros & cons of each?

Thanks again.

Whenever I go to Italy, I get the TIM Tourist plan. You have to get the sim at one of their stores in Italy. If you land at FCO, there’s one in Terminal 3 as you near baggage claim. TIM is the largest phone company in Italy and has great coverage. For €24.99 you get 200 minutes and 50 gigs of data.

Thanks for the TIM info, Philip. We are actually flying into Zurich and taking the trains to Milan our first day. In that case, I imagine we could use the Verizon day-by-day international plan for the first day and then purchase a TIM sim at the Milan train station. It would just be nice to be able to have the sim activated and know its number in advance so I can use that number for all of our reservations. Is there a way to get the number in advance of the activation? Also, do you find the 200 minutes/50G sufficient for a month's use of calls, map usage, train apps, etc?

Sorry for so many questions, but we had the luxury of my husband's work phone for all previous international trips!

You could try the Orange Holiday SIM 3GB (about $25 on Amazon) which you can buy ahead of time and activate before you land in Switzerland. It's French SIM I think and is good for two weeks without registration. (Don't try to use until you are ready or you will start the two week period!) It is supposed to work in Switzerland and Italy. You can supposedly extend it past two weeks online, but it might be cheaper to use it for two weeks, then buy another SIM card in Italy for a four week plan, since you will need five weeks anyway. It looks like the 3GB plan actually gives you 8GB of data now - that's more than enough for the average person for two weeks unless you are streaming videos which eats up data quickly.

Don't be afraid to use Vodafone instead of TIM if one is easier to find than the other in Italy - I've used both there. You will need a passport in Italy to register a SIM, FYI, so take it with you to the mobile store when buying your SIM.

If you need to call home to the US, sign up for Google Voice now before you leave - the Google Voice app lets you call US numbers for free (even landlines) though you need mobile data or WiFi to make that work. You can text with the Google Voice app too - Google gives you another US phone number to use for that. (I use Google Voice for my regular calling at home in the US and get incoming calls too even in Europe, but that may not work for you, expect to be able to call out only and text.) While you may not feel like you need to call anyone while in Europe, it's nice to know you can call your bank or airline and be in hold for half an hour without worrying about chewing up minutes in a SIM card. (But would use data if you aren't on WiFi) And you can give people your Google number as a contact number - they can leave you a voicemail or text you at least at no extra cost to them.

If you will ever need to contact anyone in Europe while there, sign up for WhatsApp which is very popular there and free to use - again using mobile data or WIFi.

Regarding the TIM card, I am a heavy user for maps, tourist info, dining, etc. I doubt that I ever used more than 50 minutes talk time and never came close to the 50 gig limit on 3 weeks +. I do not use the phone for streaming or downloading vids.
If you are taking the train from Zurich to Milan, there’s no need to activate the international plan from Verizon. I have always found it easiest to pay for the SIM upfront and then present the voucher at the TIM store. That way they know exactly what you need. They’ll install and you’ll be active before leaving the store. Here’s the location and hours.

Try T mobile .I have the same phone and I think they can assist you.

I have Google Fi so I pay for data by the gigabyte. That means I keep tabs on my usage. The maximum I use in Europe is just over 1 GB per week. I'm a heavy user of Google's MyMaps (which requires online access if you're moving around), and I surf the web a lot. I do not stream video. When I think of it (not always), I turn off data roaming when I'm in a Wi-Fi-equipped area for a considerable time--though I'm not sure you really need to do that.

You guys are the best! Thank you all for replying. You've give me a lot to look into.

Having things in place before we leave would be preferable, but I guess it's not a deal-breaker. I don't believe we'll have time in the Zurich airport to pick up a sim card as we'll be rushing to make our first train as soon as we're done with Immigration. That's the only reason I was thinking we could activate the Verizon plan for that first day until we get somewhere we can buy a sim card.

Using Google Voice might be a good solution to set up so we can give that number for all reservations we make and to our family members. But you say I might not be able to get incoming calls, @AndrewH? Is it because I'd be in Europe?

I did already sign up for WhatsApp, and it looks like both of our DILs are on it. Surprisingly, I haven't found any of our hotels on it, so I haven't been able to contact them that way. I have used Skype to call them directly, but they generally just ask me to send an email (with slow or no response). I know it's got to be hard to keep up with all the crazy tourists making inquiries, so I'm trying to keep perspective.

@Annie, so if I have a Verizon phone I can still use a T-Mobile sim in Europe? Huh.

Using Google Voice might be a good solution to set up so we can give that number for all reservations we make and to our family members. But you say I might not be able to get incoming calls, @AndrewH? Is it because I'd be in Europe?

I'm not sure. I get incoming calls at home in the US in the Google Voice app almost every day. The first time I used the Google Voice app (then pretty new) was 2019 in Europe when I was using my Dutch Vodafone SIM. I could make outgoing calls with it but could not get incoming calls. Then in 2022 I went to Croatia, using the same SIM, the first time I used it, I got a Google message to the effect that Google had now linked the SIM with my Google account...and suddenly I was able to get incoming Google calls there. Maybe something changed between 2019 and 2022 - I see Google may do that automatically now. It's very possible the same thing will happen when you first use a European SIM.

Regarding Google Voice in Europe: I just read this. Apparently Google needs to verify your phone number in your phone in order to allow incoming calls with Google Voice. It seems my phone was set as a device to auto-verify phone numbers. Go into your Google account settings, and under Personal, and under Phone it should list phone numbers that have already been verified...and then show all of your known devices and which ones auto-verify. My phone is selected to auto-verify, so make sure you do that. Then when you plug in your new SIM, it should verify your new phone number and allow incoming Google calls when that SIM is in your phone.

Great info and suggestions, @AndrewH! I appreciate your time. I'll look into this. No harm in trying it out.

I use T mobile as my carrier not Verizon. Unfortunately I don't know about the sim card on a Verizon phone.

What about trying Vodafone sim ? Just a thought...