Unlimited Ultimate Plan (New From Verizon)

What does this new plan from Verizon offer in terms of data (for maps, email, website logon for venue and travel tickets when you are away from a wifi hotspot? I have found the data plan from Verizon to be fairly expensive if you use it as much as we do in the states.

For comparison, Google Fi is $160 for 4 lines with unlimited domestic talk, text and data and international text and data. Calls while traveling internationally incur a small charge, often $0.01 or $0.02 per minute, depending on country.

Step off the plane and it's worked for me in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, N Macedonia.

So... I got kind of forced into this plan a couple of weeks ago. I've maintained a European SIM on my dual-SIM phone for a couple of years, recharging it for 15 euro before every trip. In late September I upgraded to the new iPhone, with only allows two e-SIMs. Unlike Apple, Verizon had it in stock, so I bought it outright, pain in full, so that it would be unlocked for foreign SIMs. Prior to the trip I'm just home from, I'd asked the Verizon Chat if my phone was unlocked, and the AI response was crystal clear, my specific phone, on my account, was unlocked. I knew I'd have to go into a store in Spain to get my old SIM carried over to an eSIM, and did exactly that two weeks ago.

But the phone was locked.

Turns out that Verizon locks all phones they sell for the first two months, and apparently there's no way around it. (Well, the way around it would have been to wait an extra week to get my phone from Apple.) I wasn't going to be able to use the Spanish eSIM until the day before I left, and 13 days of "Travel Pass" would have cost me $130. Changing to this new Verizon plan felt like a bit of a bait-and-switch, but it was going to cost me about $15/month, so I changed, figuring I could weigh options after the trip and the phone is unlocked. I walked in the door 10 hours ago, and will put 'reanalize phone plans' on my to-do list.

That's maybe more of a niche rant than you were seeking. I will say that the roaming worked flawlessly while I was traveling and it was nice to not have to fiddle with settings to limit use of one SIM over another.

it would be less as soon as we give them a call to switch it back to our regular plan once we get back.

Just to comment on this thought... If your specific, current plan is no longer offered, you may not be able to switch back to it. You might be limited to switching to a cheaper plan, without roaming, that is currently offered.

I have Verizon and have a love hate relationship with them. Maybe better "like" hate. For now, we are using the $10/per 24 hour period. (its important to know that if you turn off airplane mode and use it at, say at 2pm, its good until 2pm the next day)

Wifi is everywhere. If we are a little strategic, using wifi in hotels, museums, cafes, restaurants, bars, etc. in a 4 week trip we end up using data about 4 times, at most. We download the maps for google and maps.me so they can by used offline for navigation. So for now its not worth the hassle for us of buying and swapping out a SIM. I would guess some day we will have to conform, but for now, we're good.

As mentioned above, I would not change my plan with the intention to change it back. Plans can change, and also, any plan change, adding a phone, anything, can turn into a big production with Verizon, especially in our experience.

We have a basic Google Fi plan that is $25 a month including taxes. We can make calls and texts in the US for free and, I believe, Canada and Mexico but haven’t tested that out. International calls while overseas are 20 cents a minute. I have used limited data overseas as well but cannot say what the cost was. I even had cell reception in Antarctica using the ship’s internet. I love this service. Edited - We can make unlimited (not limited) calls and texts in the US.

which is a lot cheaper than $10 per day ( $10 x 17 days x 4 phones)

For trips longer than 10 days, with Verizon, you would want to use their month-long international plan, not the $10 a day plan.

https://www.verizon.com/plans/international/international-travel/monthly-plan/

But, sounds like you found a better option by switching your plan.

It sounds as if I have the same Google Fi plan as Mary. I pay $10 per GB of data in Europe. Because I use Google's MyMaps rather than plain Google Maps, I need a data connection off and on during the day; it's very annoying, and I bet Google is doing it on purpose. I try to be careful about data usage (choosing hotels whose reviews indicate solid Wi-Fi) and sometimes can keep my data usage just under 4 GB per month. At Fi's prices, buying an eSIM for data is a lot cheaper, so I may be doing that in the future from the beginning of my trips rather than only when Google cuts off my data on Day 85 or whatever. (It doesn't cut off my texting or phoning capability)

I'd love to have Google Fi. But, like anything based on the T-Mobile network, it isn't a viable option for many Americans living in more rural areas.

FWIW, I just used Verizon in Austria and Germany and it worked well. Just be aware that sometimes you have to put a 1 or an area code in front of another American cellphone number, and sometimes not. It seemed to vary depending on the local carrier, and I noticed that that would change back and forth every so often.

There's always Whatsapp which was my fallback.