Another question about ESims vs International Travel Plans from Verizon

Personally, in your case, I'd probably go with the Verizon international roaming. Is it really worth saving $200 (vs. option 3) to have to hassle with telling everyone a new US phone number plus who knows what other hassles?

In my case, I use a cheap prepaid service in the US that costs me only about $10/month - and when I go overseas, I use my Dutch Vodafone SIM (in Europe anyway) - cost me 14 euros for 4GB of data for my last trip, which was much more than I needed. And I already use my Google Voice number at home for almost all calls and texts, so when I go to Europe, I can make and receive calls with the Google Voice app like I do at home, so I don't have to give anyone a new number.

If I had service with Verizon, it would cost me hundreds of dollars a year more even if I never traveled to Europe. But if I were spending the extra money for Verizon already, a few hundred more for international roaming is not much more in the scheme of things. I consider the cost of my mobile phone including home use and travel use together.

Hi- I think I have a 4th option for you. I do a lot of traveling as a freelance consultant based in the US and I came across an eSIM hack that works for me that combines the best of both worlds and gives you an Option #4 - whereby you use an eSIM provider for your data connection and keep your Verizon number active the entire time without paying Verizon roaming fees. In the US I am an AT&T subscriber and have done this dozens of times on my trips to Europe. Here's how you do it:

1) Purchase a data plan from an eSIM data provider - I prefer to use GigSky (www.gigsky.com)- they are a US company, are the only ones I know of that have live customer support and operate a global cellular network (vs. just an eSIM reseller like Airalo) so they have good packages if you are visiting a number of countries during your trip. Make sure your eSIM from your preferred provider is installed and the plan activated before you take off from home (this is my night before my flight routine).

2) Make sure that you have Wifi calling set up on your Verizon account (this is important for when you arrive in country)

3) Before you leave, tell Verizon customer service that you want international roaming turned off. For this, you have to contact customer service and tell them that you do NOT want to get an offer for their roaming service while you are overseas, that you want a zero% chance that you will get charged for roaming. If you do this, your Verizon SIM will not attach to a network when you land in Europe (and that's a good thing).

4) As you're taxing to the gate in your destination country - turn on your eSIM in cellular settings and set "Cellular Data" to GigSky (or whichever provider you chose) and set the "Default Voice Line" to Verizon. (These are the instructions for iOS - I'm sure they're similar for Android but I haven't tested on an Android device tbh).

5) Because you are overseas AND your Verizon SIM is 1) Configured for WiFi calling &2) has no connection outside of the US, iOS will try to fall back on the WiFi calling feature. It turns out that a cellular connection over the eSIM works exactly the same way!

So you'll see in the status screen (what you see when you swipe up on an iPhone) Top SIM: GigSky LTE & Bottom SIM: Verizon using cellular data. For all intents and purposes you can continue to use your phone as if you were in the USA... Verizon treats it as WiFi calling from a billing standpoint; you can send SMS, make voice calls, get your voicemail etc. at no additional cost because Verizon thinks you're at home using WiFi calling even though you're in Europe!

Calls to European numbers are still long distance for Verizon so you might want to get a Google Voice number to make calls within Europe but that is a fairly small incremental cost. GigSky's network for voice calls in Europe is excellent; I don't know about other providers although I've heard some horror stories about Airalo because they just resell other operators SIMs and therefore they can't do anything if there is a problem.

Hopefully this 4th option helps - I hope you have a good trip and find a way to save on those international data roaming costs!

Sam, are you saying that if your phone had WiFi calling enabled and there is no WiFi connection but there is data via the eSIM that it will use data from the eSIM for the WiFi call? If so, that would be a great hack.

I agree - it definitely would be!

Checked out gigsky, 90 days $175. Does the hack that you mentioned also work for text messages?

Sam, are you saying that if your phone had WiFi calling enabled and there is no WiFi connection but there is data via the eSIM that it will use data from the eSIM for the WiFi call? If so, that would be a great hack.

Yes - that is correct. I have been doing it since 2019. Works like a charm. Will also work for SMS (which you still receive when you are at home on your Wifi connection. Remember - Wifi calling (and SMSing) was created to help people who had poor cellular coverage at home but had Wifi. I lived in the Bay Area CA for a while at that was certainly the case with AT&T.

This funny wrinkle in iOS makes this possible. I used it at the end of June while in Eastern Europe and it worked fine.

sam, FYI, if you want to quote a post upthread, just click on the quote marks in the icons above and copy and paste what you want to quote in there.

This funny wrinkle in iOS makes this possible

If it's a wrinkle in IOS, does that mean Android users can't use it? I have an iPhone, but I know others might want to know that.

Thanks Mardee! I hope you're enjoying the lovely summer up there in Duluth!

sam, it's been wonderful here. Today is the first day we've had to turn on the A/C and the only reason we did that is because of my grandson, who has special needs that come with some respiratory issues. I do feel bad for other parts of the country, though.

I chose your option 2 in April for a trip to Italy, topped it up in late June for a trip to Scandinavia and will do that again for two weeks in Ireland coming up. The selling points for me were the French phone number (useful for restaurant reservations and taxi apps), tethering so I can use my iPad mini, and loads of data to use for Google maps, etc., while wandering. I have Verizon plan and have used its $10/day foreign roaming in the past. I like this much better.

I just made another independent post on this topic as I didn't see yours but I would suggest getting a free google number (internet-based) and have your Verizon number forwarded to that while you are abroad. I would use e-sims.

Verizon was not a great option for my family and I in Europe in June. It was expensive and unreliable. Just make sure you have the travel pass off and roaming turned off so they don't charge you anyway.

You can forward your Verizon calls to your Google number, but keep in mind that when you sign up for Google Voice, they will USE your Verizon number (if that's your service) as the forwarding/verification number! Google Voice gives you a new number only if you already have phone service. Many people will choose to forward their Google incoming calls to their regular phone number e.g. Verizoneven if they don't quite understand what that means.

So if you then choose to forward your Verizon calls to the Google number, you have to make sure you don't have that Google forwarding set to forward the other way! Otherwise, you would get into a loop. It's easy to turn off the Google-to-your-regular-phone forwarding, though, just a setting in the app, but you have to be aware of it.

I can get incoming Google calls in Europe with my Dutch Vodafone SIM, but I'm not sure incoming calls will work with an eSIM with no voice service?

@sam, this "hack" sounds really intriguing. I have an Android phone and would love to know if anyone has tried anything like this with their Android phone. Also, with gigsky being a US company, can one test it out in the US before departing? That would be a big bonus for us.

@Sam: This post is so helpful. Thank you! My daughter is off to college in a few weeks and studying abroad her first semester. She has an iPhone XR which can take an eSIM. If I'm understanding this right, we can keep her US number with Verizon and also add an eSIM for her study abroad destination with a local number? I could even add the verizon international plan to cover any areas that her local eSIM may not if she travels to other european destinations on her free time.