Block International Roaming

[AmericanAbroad]

I travel frequently between the U.S. and Europe. I am not interested in paying $100/month for an  international service plan or $10/day for a TravelPass.

I want to be able to either:

(a) block international roaming on my Verizon line while in Europe, or
(b) force my Verizon line to choose VZW Wi-Fi as the default network.

I have invested time and energy researching both approaches on Reddit, Verizon community forums and expat forums. All tell stories of it being against Verizon policy and not to waste my time.

But as a glutton for punishment and as a 20+ year Verizon customer, I tried calling customer service anyway in hope of a different answer.

The representative (Carlos) was polite and looked into it, but told me it was not possible.

I don’t know much about T-Mobile service, but I do know that they will allow me to block international roaming right in the app (https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/international-roaming-services).

I also know other expats who have solved my same issue by using T-Mobile as their U.S. carrier and a local European carrier for the second line.

When they are in Europe, they use the local carrier (e.g., Proximus) for cellular data and T-Mobile (with international data roaming blocked) defaults to Wi-Fi calling. When they are in the U.S., they do the same in reverse. This solution has worked for years.

I personally don’t want to go through the hassle of changing carriers for me and my family. Hoping this post will uncover something I missed as a last ditch effort. Otherwise, I have at least one viable alternative solution. 

[SynthpopAddict]

You can't turn off data roaming in your phone settings?  As for having a foreign SIM or eSIM on your phone, so long as your phone supports dual SIM and is unlocked, you can install a different SIM/eSIM to it and then you assign the primary SIM/eSIM accordingly to avoid international charges.