Using Same US Phone Number While in Europe

The only way to do this is to port the number to a new carrier if you don't like what your existing carrier will charge or if (like Cricket) it isn't even possible to use your US number abroad. Google Fi is inexpensive and it's who we use for our cell service after leaving Cricket.

I have Verizon and they have a international plan. Just call your carrier and see what your options are.

Charles,
Will the Verizon service work in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and France?

T-Mobile includes international calling in their normal rate and it works in all of Europe.

Verizon works in Europe. You can either pay $10/day for the international pass, or $100/month. With the monthly plan, you choose the day it begins. We’re doing this for a three week trip.

You might consider only using one of your phones for your communication with people at home. Or have them use WhatsApp so you can use WiFi.

Use this site to make sure your phone is compatible:

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

If you and your US parties have (or could have) Whatsapp, you can call them for free over wifi.

Which cellular network are you with at the present time? If you subscribe to an international roaming plan with your home network, your number will remain the same. Anyone trying to reach you will only need to dial your regular number, and the network will find you wherever you are. International roaming plans are a bit expensive, but very convenient. I've been using the Roam Like Home plan with my network for years as I have to be accessible via my home number, and it's always worked well.

There's one slight disadvantage with using your home number. People calling from your home area may not consider the time difference. I can tell you from experience that being awakened at 03:00 by someone who knew I was travelling but didn't bother to check the time, was somewhat annoying. I'm typically not in the mood to chat about trivial things at that time of the morning!

Living in the US, I used Google Fi for years due to a lot of international travel. The phone worked everywhere we docked and several continents due to excellent overseas roaming. People would call and have no idea I was in Turkey or Armenia.
You have to turn your phone off at night unless you enjoy getting a call from a Texas car salesman at 1 am. 😂

Most phones have a "do not disturb" function where you won't get any calls. You set the times and any contacts that can get through.

As an example, I have DND set for 11 pm to 7 am. (Local to where I am.) I have also exempt key family members in case of emergency.

All other calls go to voicemail.

Synapse--who is your current carrier?

With T-Mobile as my carrier, and Do Not Disturb set, I can travel just about anywhere with no concern that people can't reach me, and that only people I choose can reach me at any hour.

Since I'm generally traveling by myself (though on a tour), it gives my worry wart sister peace of mind.

We use AT&T's International Plan and have no issues around the world except for Dubai where they wanted us to go through their cell service.

synapse

Will the Verizon service work in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and France?

Yes. I've used Verizon's Travel Pass in France, UK, Netherlands and Iceland. Just follow Verizon's instructions to turn on things like data roaming access, so that you'll connect to the local networks in Europe that are providing service.

I highly recommend Google Fi service, coupled with Google Voice.

Google Voice is a FREE service, except for porting your number in:
https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065667

Google Fi is a local/international roaming service that covers a ton of countries, including all that you are traveling to:
https://fi.google.com/about/international-rates?pli=1

I have my Google Voice number and use Google Fi whenever I travel abroad. Google Fi only charges according to the amount of data you actually use, not pre-determined data blocks.

Thank you for the replies.

We spoke with verizon and they stated that we can buy a plan to call out of country, but people will not be able to call us unless they have international calling.

Is it the same with GoogleFi?

Synapse:

We spoke with verizon and they stated that we can buy a plan to call out of country, but people will not be able to call us unless they have international calling.

Maybe the Verizon rep didn't understand what you were asking for (you don't want to call other countries from the US - you want to receive and make calls with your Verizon phone while in Europe)...but if you have Verizon service in the US and pay for international roaming e.g. daily travel pass, your phone will work the same out of the country as at home for people calling your US number. They do not need any special calling plan to call you from the US while you're in Europe - you're the one who needs to pay for the roaming to use your phone there. The person calling you who dials your US number won't know where in the world you are - across the street from them or nine time zones away, they won't know unless you tell them

Is it the same with GoogleFi?

It works the same with Google Fi - no one needs any special calling plan to call a Google Fi user who is in Europe. But Google Fi customers don't have to pay extra to roam in Europe like Verizon customers do.

We spoke with verizon and they stated that we can buy a plan to call out of country, but people will not be able to call us unless they have international calling

That is either incorrect, or a quirk with verizon. I have had ATT, and now Google Fi. For both, a person making a call to my US number while I am in Europe just dials as usual, I get the call, we talk, they see no charge, or no different than when they call me when I am home, and I see no charge. If I call someone back in the US, from Europe, I do incur international calling charges. This is why when we are traveling, we text or use a wi-fi app to call, but usually have times agreed when others can call us.

There are alternatives to Whatsapp if you want to avoid the Facebook connection. Google Meet is one, although it is open to debate whether Google is better or worse than Facebook. Line, a messaging app widely used in Asia, is another. All require a data connection, i.e., a connection to the Internet. WiFi works best.

To call someone's phone number, however, requires a different approach. Google Voice gives you a different phone number to use and let's you make actual phone calls over a data connection at rates much lower than those charged using different services.

Google Voice gives you a different phone number to use and let's you make actual phone calls over a data connection at rates much lower than those charged using different services.

Yes, and to call US numbers with Google Voice is FREE. Only calling non-US numbers costs money. You have to buy credit in $10 blocks (like Skype) but calls are a few cents per minute.

I wonder if the our current phone numbers can be directed to the new google voice number so that when someone calls them, they can get through. We have several people in the US that will be calling each day

Google Voice is kind of a forwarding service for an existing phone number. It's supposed to forward the other way: from your Google number to your Verizon and other numbers. Originally, Google Voice came out a long time ago, when people still used landlines, Google Voice was touted as a "one number forwarding solution" for multiple phones; you forwarded your Google number to your landline, your cell phone, your other cell phone, whatever. People could just call one number and it could ring all of them, and you could answer whichever phone was most convenient.

I don't think many people use it that way much anymore, but the forwarding aspect is still in place. When you sign up for Google Voice, you need to use your existing phone number to forward to. You can turn off the forwarding so calls to your Google number go only to the Google Voice app, after you've signed up. And then in theory you COULD forward Verizon calls the other way, from your Verizon number to your Google number.

I'm sure this probably sounds confusing. I'm not sure how to explain it more clearly. It might make more sense once you've signed up for Google Voice for each Verizon number, then start playing with it.

But if you just use Verizon international roaming while in Europe, you have no need for Google Voice at all. The only reason to use Google Voice is to save money. I use a cheap prepaid phone service in the US (no European roaming) and when in Europe use a European SIM but still get calls on my Google number there. I'm only doing it to save money. If you don't use Verizon, you'll still need some other mobile service in Europe e.g. a European SIM so you'll have service in Europe, unless you rely strictly on WiFi.

Andrew, Thank you for your reply.
We were told by Verizon reps that unless people in the US have international calling, they will not be able to call us regardless whether or not we have international calling on our phones.

We were told by Verizon reps that unless people in the US have international calling, they will not be able to call us regardless whether or not we have international calling on our phones.

Yes, and as several of us have tried to tell you, the Verizon rep were wrong. Numerous people have traveled to Europe with their Verizon phones and using them for making and receiving calls. You could search the forum for "verizon" and read all of these past anecdotes. You could call Verizon again and ask a second time. I don't know what else to do to persuade you that the rep was wrong.

We were told by Verizon reps that unless people in the US have international calling, they will not be able to call us regardless whether or not we have international calling on our phones.

I'm sure your reps were mistaken because my partner and I have used Verizon's $10 per day international plan since 2016 and all of our contacts in the US have been able to call us without having international plans themselves. Many people choose Verizon's plan to make it easy for the people at home who may need to reach them.

(first, this is TravelerGirl's husband posting)...
Good info in this thread, thank you all. I'd like to add that AT&T also has International Roaming. A few months ago, we flew into Zurich and expected to receive a text from AT&T giving us the option of buying that add-on. We did each get the text, but it was approx. an hour after exiting the plane. We are prepaid customers, so we had already made sure we had sufficient funds in our accounts to pay for it.
Here is what the AT&T website says:

"While traveling outside the U.S., you get Unlimited talk and text plus 5GB of data in select countries. The data in your Add-On will rollover, if another Add-On is purchased before the current one expires. Add-On is good for 7 days. We recommend you purchase at your destination by replying to the text message you'll receive from AT&T upon your arrival or using Wi-Fi to buy from att.com/myprepaid."

Cost was $35 for 7 days. We did this for TravelerGirl's phone, worked fine, and she kept her normal U.S. phone number. We renewed it one time, using texting. For my phone, I bought a Sunrise SIM with unlimited talk, text and data for CHF 20 for 8 days. (Swisscom was the same price, but they couldn't get my passport to scan).

Another consideration is that if you had a phone locked to a certain carrier, you probably would be unable to use a European SIM, but buying the add-on from Verizon or AT&T should work.

Lastly, as a backup, I had set up two accounts with "TextNow", one on each phone, using the "TextNow" app. It allows free calling and texting by VOIP, but assigns each of us another phone number.

Thank you,
We will follow up with Verizon. My next question is do the people calling from the US have to enter additional international code numbers?

No, they don't have to know you are traveling. They'll call the same number - they won't know if you are across the street or in Italy.

Sometimes YOU must do something to call out from Europe, but I don't think you have to. At worst, to call a US number, you'd have to add a +1 in front of each number. (Hold down the 0 key on your keypad to get a +.) But most phones have "assisted dialing" which automatically adds that if needed. Here's a blurb about how to turn that on, from Verizon:

https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-211828/

We are going through the ever so common circle of hell with customer service reps.....

A Verizon rep in the store told us yes we can sign up with Verizon and get international calling.

A Verizon rep on the phone told us we have to have used Verizon for the past two months. He also told us that with international calling it will only work for two weeks out of the month (which seems odd and makes me skeptical of his other answers).

We are not currently Verizon customers so we will have to switch (which is not a problem), but the problem is getting an accurate answer. We do not want to arrive in Europe and find out it doesn't work....

A Verizon rep on the phone told us we have to have used Verizon for the past two months.

We've used Verizon plans in Europe for more than 2 weeks every trip we've made in the last 7 years. In fact we used it for 6 weeks in April and May this year.

Why do you want to switch to Verizon? I guess I don't understand. All this thread I assumed you already had Verizon.

Who are you with now?

If you want "seamless" roaming, the four obvious choices for a US customer are:

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Google Fi (uses T-Mobile - probably the cheapest of all of them)

T-Mobile doesn't charge extra for international roaming - Verizon and AT&T do.

We are currently with a company that does not have an international calling option. Based on the info from this thread, and what we have heard from the Verizon, T-Mobile, and Google Fi reps, the Verizon plan seems the best. However, we can't get consistent information from their reps.

Additionally, we were told by a Verizon rep that if the four of us want to be able to communicate with eachother while we are there then we will each have to pay the international calling fee ($100/month or $10/day of usage).

Our goals are:
1. Have at least one phone that can receive calls from the US without the caller having to dial anything other than our regular number and without the caller being charged.

1. Be able to communicate within our group of 4 while in Europe and without needing wifi.

I can also attest to the Verizon international plan. We have used it throughout Europe and the Caribbean and no one ever has an issue calling us. You also don't even have to talk to anyone. You can do it online through your account.

Have at least one phone that can receive calls from the US without the caller having to dial anything other than our regular number and without the caller being charged.

All of your phones will receive calls from the US. The only issue that I can think of is from a landline where they have to contact you via long distance. If they have to call you via long distance in the US, it will be the same in Europe. Will there be additional fees, unknown?

Be able to communicate within our group of 4 while in Europe and without needing wifi.

Everyone needs an international plan including a data plan.

Any of the four providers will work. You just need to select one and see how it works out.

Have you called Verizon's international desk? They have (or had) a dedicated number for assisstance with international plans, rates, and etc. They've always been helpful and always seemed to know what they were talking about. The direct number is (or was) 1-800-711-8300. Give them a call and see if they can clarify things for you.