Re: TravelPass
krgoodwinjr
Enthusiast - Level 2

My experience with getting billed by Travelpass without any known usage: Both my wife and I have the same exact cell - Pixel 3 XL.  Her cell was getting billed everyday without any conscience usage with data roming tuned off.  My phone wasn't a problem.  So I came to the conclusion that she had an application that was attempting to communicate with the outside world (FitBit was my first guess which wasn't on my phone as well as her gluscose montoring app).  We had WiFi coverage at the time so getting a $10 per day charge was even harder to bear.  Verizon Wireless had no problem removing the charges but the only way I could assure not getting billed was to remove her phone from the TravelPass plan.  I will admit that I didn't try the Airplane mode but wouldn't want to try that as a solution since we had free secure WiFi available.  I was assuming that if I didn't use International voice/data, I wouldn't get billed - bad assumption.  When you have 100 apps on your phone where you can't fine an app setting in them to shut them up except to uninstall the app - also not a viable solution.  If we were using the phone for conscious international usage, no problem paying the $10 per day otherwise paying $10 per day when from my standpoint we were not using it - not viable. 

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Re: TravelPass
krgoodwinjr
Enthusiast - Level 2

I went an read the link to the plan details and I'll admit one option I didn't attempt was to turn Mobile data Off (Access data using mobile network) although I did turn Roaming (connect to data servces when roaming) Off.  If mobile data means data over the cellular network but not over WiFi, I may have missed an easy way to disallow Travelpass charges initiated by one of my apps. I still don't trust it but again no problem calling Verizon and having them remove the unexpected charge since I always got a notice (SMS) saying I had just been changed the daily $10 fee.

 

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Re: TravelPass
krgoodwinjr
Enthusiast - Level 2

Being the thing engineer, I dug further into keeping Travelpass from charging me without my knowledge and the answer I get from the Verizon support is to turn the Airplane Mode On.  This makes sense since airplane mode would disable the cellular frequency transmitter(s) yet still allow WiFi. So maybe the conlcusion is just to turn the Airplane mode On and not worry about any other phone settings although I would stll want to turn Roaming Off since that was my going in assumption, I just missed the boat by not turning the Airplane Mode On.  What now confuses me is that WiFi has to have a transmitter associated with the WiFi service but I guess these frequencies 2.4 GHz (ISM)/5 GHz won't bring an airplane down whereas the celluar frequncies generally around 920 MHz which can interfere with an airplane.  I also wonder if the cell frequency transmitter doesn't have a higher power transmitter.  I remember from the 1G (analog) cell days, the transmitter had an output power of 5 watts.  Today's gains in cellular communications have come from getting smaller counter to my Tim Allen philosophy that bigger is better -  more horsepower, more power, more noise, etc.

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Re: TravelPass
FrenchRiver35
Enthusiast - Level 2

I have had the same problem during our past two trips to Europe. I generally sign up for Verizon's International Monthly Plan when we go to Europe, which in the fall of 2021 included 250 minutes of calls, 1000 sent SMS messages, and 5GB of cellular data for $100 per line for 30 days. It's not cheap, but it's convenient, and it worked really well on our two phones. The problem came when the 30-day period was up, and we still had eight days to go before we returned to the U.S. I didn't want to pay another $100 per phone for just eight more days, so I switched to TravelPass, and turned cellular data completely off on both our iPhones (this also turns off data roaming). However, even on days that we didn't make or receive phone calls or send any SMS texts, one or both of our phones were hit with $10 TravelPlan charges. I kept on top of it, and every time we got an unwarranted charge, I instigated a text chat with a Verizon representative and asked that the charge be removed. This usually was successful, but I spent hours of my vacation time working to get the charges removed during those eight days. Something is triggering the charges, despite the fact that we did nothing to trigger them. A couple of Verizon reps suggested we put our phones in Airplane Mode, but we wanted the option of taking an incoming phone call if we chose to. Airplane Mode would have prevented incoming calls. We were willing to pay the $10 charge if we actually needed the service. In summary, it was extremely frustrating to get hit repeatedly with TravelPass charge errors while on vacation, and to have to do battle to get them removed from my bill. When we were last in Europe in 2019, the same thing happened. But I just paid those charges, thinking WE must have been doing something wrong. This year, I was excruciatingly careful to understand how TravelPass worked before we left the U.S., and to ensure we didn't do anything overseas that would trigger a charge unexpectedly. But the same thing happened. At least I was on top of it this time. We won't be using TravelPass again—we'll figure out some other way to stay in communication. Verizon needs to fix this.

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Re: TravelPass
ahmedrahim00
Newbie

I’m leaving in a few weeks. I disabled travel pass on my account, and added a secondary google fi account with unlimited data. I’ll forward all my VZW calls. Since In iPhone, all iMessages will come through data plan.

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Re: TravelPass
FrenchRiver35
Enthusiast - Level 2

Interesting plan. I'd love to know how it works once you return. Have a good journey. 

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Re: TravelPass
JimmyMcGi11
Newbie

My wife is in Greece currently, and the travel pass has been activated twice in her second week despite the fact that the iPhone cellular service has been turned off since she has landed.  The WIFI has been great and iMessage works fine over WIFI, so she had no reason to turn cellular service on.  

After second charge I removed the travel pass plan from her phone and if emergency arises, she will do it without any other plan. On our previous trips to Europe when we travel together, I get a local sim card. 

 

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Re: TravelPass
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Hi JimmyMcGi11, 

 

I know how important it is for your wife to have great service while traveling! I'm concerned to hear that she has not been getting cellular service, and I'd like to help. If you would like assistance with your account, please reply to our Private Note, and we would be happy to assist. 

 

-Michelle

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Re: TravelPass
Jocasta
Newbie

 I turned off roaming and mobile data. Verizon charges me anyway. 

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Re: TravelPass
KH-OrnEsh
Moderator Emeritus

Due to the age of this thread, it will be locked in order to keep discussions current. If you have the same or a similar question/issue we invite you to start a new thread on the topic.

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