I prefer to set something up online, vs. going into a local store. I’m ill at ease with people knowing I will be out of town.
We have a family plan, 4 phones. We will be gone for 10 days. What does it cost to have unlimited calls and texts from Italy?
When we did this 7 years ago, it was $30 a month per phone, and they reimbursed whet we didn’t use for the whole month. What a great deal. I’m sure it’s changed.
Why not check with Verizon?
As per the Verizon website, yes it has changed to $100 a month or $10 a day.
The Verizon international plan is $100 for a month. You can set it up online. They also have a Travel Pass which is $10 a day. Details on both can be found here:
https://www.verizon.com/plans/international/international-travel/
I wonder if they still prorate the monthly feel. I see it’s not unlimited, either.
No, you pay for the whole month whether you use it or not. I used it for a 3-week trip to Switzerland and for me it was money well spent.
Carrie, did you overuse the minutes or texts, or stay within?
Lulu348,I was well within. I just made a call to my parents every few days to check in and texted a bunch of pictures to multiple people. The hotels and some trains had free wifi, so I mostly used that. The person I talk to most on the phone is my sister and she was with me on the trip. So, no need to call her. 😊
I did the Verizon Travel Pass last Sept/Oct in France. I was doing a combo of independent travel and tour travel and knew I would not need the phone on my tour time. In Paris I was with a friend who was having some mobility issues so I thought we might need to have the availability to use the G7 app to arrange a taxi pick up when we were out and about. We did and we did, lol.
I wound up just paying for 5 days of international coverage out of 30 so the Travel Pass worked for me. In my "normal" life I don't talk to anyone on the phone, lol. It's usually a spam call. I could keep up with contacting family using hotel WIFI so that worked fine for me.
BTW, I tried to go into a Verizon store to set this up (I live with my brother and SIL and they were not traveling with me) and was told it could only be done online or on the phone. The person I talked to on the phone was actually very helpful as she was familiar with the plan and advised me to just keep my phone in Airplane Mode until I needed to use the calling plan, then switch. That worked perfectly as you can access WIFI in airplane mode.
BTW, my friend and I downloaded What'sApp which works on WIFI so we could text back and forth on meet up times, etc.
Get the Travel Pass. Turn it on when you sign into your online account.
Pay $10 for 24 hours. Once you use your phone for calling, texting, navigation using cellular network (not wifi) you are charged $10. You can continue using cellular data for the next 24 hours at no extra cost. You use your phone just as you would at home, same minutes as your home plan.
As Pam mentioned keep your phone in airplane mode if you don't want to accidentally trigger a charge (incoming text, phone call or app using data in the background).
I forgot one thing. The toughest aspect to the Travel Pass was that the 24 hours is based on NY time not the time where you are located. I could never keep track of what day I was on, lol and was kind of worried that I would wind up with 2 days of charges when I was really only using it one day. I need to sit down before I go this time and figure out timing, lol. Maybe I'll figure out a cheat sheet.
It might be better if I my home was in the Eastern time zone and I was kind of keeping track of that but I got really tangled up thinking about what time it was at "home" - Pacific time and then trying to add in Eastern time was just not working, lol.
Oh wow! Thank you all, your posts were very informative and helpful. I doubt my husband and I will need to call anyone, as our son’s will already be with us. We will probably be texting each other. My son’s are paying their own, and will want to probably talk and text to their GF’s and friends!
That’s good to know about NY time! Thank you all.
My experience has always been that the 24 hours starts when you first use data, it's not based on any time zone. No matter where you are, the period runs for 24 hours. You even get a text from Verizon when it starts each 24 hour cycle.
Three years ago in Italy I used the $10/day plan. Kept my phone in airplane mode most of the time. When we were at the hotel I used their wifi to check email, download maps and call my hubby every night using Google Voice. I think I got charged for 12 days, 1/2 of which because I forgot the NY time thing and got charged for 2 days instead of 1 and the rest because I needed real time maps.
I’ll use that plan again. To me it was money well spent.
I like the idea of using “what’s app” to just text among each other while we’re there and using WiFi to search, and then just using the $10 day plan only when absolutely needed.
Celeste, I was getting a text from Verizon that would say something like this:
"Your 24 hr travel pass will end 10/23/21 at 06:45:52 EDT. Another daily session will be triggered by Int'd talk/text/Data."
So...knowing that the time frame ended at 06:45 in New York didn't help my brain for the Paris time. I was too flustered to see when I first switched out of airplane mode into the International Plan but maybe there is a way to see that on my phone.
And yes, Lulu, have the boys and the GFs add What'sApp and use that instead of data.
Oooohhhhh, I get it now! Thanks for the explanation. I guess since I live in the eastern time zone, I never even considered that. 😆
Also, I think I just reference the time the text hits, which is local, rather than doing math! Lol
Well, see, the text was hitting in the middle of the night, lol. Making it more corn-fusing. I don’t know why I let myself get stressed about it but I did. And my phone often doesn’t ding with a text but this one dinged every dang time!! 🤪
Ding dang dong. Dang ding dong. Ding dong dang. Damn dings.
I have a couple of questions about both the Travel Pass or the $100/month Verizon international plan. For the international plan, is it $100 per calendar month, or could you go from (for example) the 10th of one month until the 8th of the next (or whatever a 30 day window would be)? Is the cost per phone or for both phones on a plan?
I can't imagine we'll need to use our phones every day, so in a lot of respects the Travel Pass would be great. My concern is about being reachable. This is our first overseas trip without our son, and (in mom mode here) my concern would be that if someone other than him were trying to reach us in any kind of emergency, I'd like to have my regular number available to ensure I get that call. So as far as I can tell from what I'm reading here, the problem would be I probably wouldn't want to keep the phone on airplane mode because I'd want to be able to receive a call/text at any time if someone needed to reach me. There's no way to see incoming calls/texts on airplane mode until you switch airplane mode off, correct? Does the plan switch on if you receive a call or text but let it go to voicemail and/or don't open the text? (I'm guessing not?)
In the past, when our entire family traveled together, we just got an international sim card and a different phone number (which worked out great until the last day when the airline cancelled our flight home and texted our US number....my bad for not supplying them with the new number). But this time around, I really want to keep my primary phone number.
Is the Verizon intl plan $100 per month OR per billing cycle (ATT is per billing cycle.)
Laurie, it’s for 30 days and you pick the start date. I used the Verizon international plan for my Sept. trip. I just went back and checked my bill. The international plan was from Sept. 3 – Oct. 2. It showed up on my bill with the billing cycle of Sept. 29- Oct. 28th.
Good point. ATT is per billing cycle, please verify with Verizon hopefully it’s not as per above example. The Verizon international plan is $100 for a month.x get it on one phone and make that phone a hotspot for the others (if u already have hotspot capability)
I have Verizon and I absolutely refuse to pay them $10 a day or $100 a month for international calls and data, especially since I do not make calls while overseas (or if I do, I make them through Whatsapp).
That is why I am getting an eSIM data plan to use for my month long trip. It's easy - you just download a QR code, activate it and then turn it on. The one I am getting is called Airalo and offers a 30 day data plan with 10Gb of data for $37. It's easy to switch back and forth between your regular carrier and the SIM data plan. I can text family and friends from my regular phone while using Wifi in the hotel or train, and then use the Airalo plan while I'm out and about for things like Google maps, taking photos, google searches and so on. And the plan I am getting is for all of Europe, so I don't have to worry about going to another country and not having access.
eSim data plans are still relatively new but I've heard enough about it to make me think that this is the best way to go. I know it's not for everyone, but it is a good option, especially when your home carrier charges (imo) outrageous fees. 😊
Mardee, when texting back to the states won't you need an international plan or will you use Whats App?
My preference has always been Verizon's TravelPass. $10/day, if you use it, and it uses your current plan (so if you have unlimited talk/text, that's what you get; also uses whatever your data allowance is). Easy to set up online in your account, for as many lines as you want to add it to. We were just gone for 17 days in Portugal, I think I turned on cellular maybe 3 times. Hotels had free wifi, as do most museums, cafes etc, so it's easy to check in as needed. I just told everyone to text me rather than call, and that I may not be able to respond right away - I could then chose to turn on cellular if I needed to make a call. Now - my kids are adults, and I had no family situations that might require immediate response (as immediate as you can be, overseas, anyway), so that might change the equation for some. Key is keeping the phone in airplane mode, and/or making sure cellular is off, so you don't inadvertently use a cell connection.
Mardee --- I have used the $10 a day plan for three trips to Scotland before the pandemic. At home I have a plan with unlimited text, talk, data so it was easy for me to just leave my phone on and pay the $10. I needed to be available to those at home, too. Having said that I am a fan of What's App now and use it to text and talk to my friends around the world. You just need to make sure those you need to be in communication with have downloaded it. And, of course, you should all try it before you leave. I also talk regularly with a friend in New Zealand using the phone option on Facebook's Messenger. So in the future I'll probably do a combination. Having said that --- I'm lazy and would probably just pay the $10 a day for the Travel Pass.
It seems that everything is subject to change these days, so you might want to call Verizon directly. They have a dedicated number for assisstance with international plans, rates, and etc. They've always been helpful and always seem to know what they're talking about. The direct number is 1-800-711-8300.
