International Calls between Europe and United States

[Traveler25]

We have 3 lines and 1 line will be traveling to Europe.  Do we need the $100 international plan ONLY on the traveling line?  

We want the 2 lines here in the U.S. to be able to initiate calls and texts to the line in Europe.  Does that mean those lines also need the international plan?  

I'd love to hear from anyone with experience on this.  I can't get a human on the phone at Verizon.  

[vzw_customer_support · Accepted solution]

Good Morning. We want to make sure that you're prepared and ready for the trip to Europe. As you mentioned, you'll only need the $100.00 international plan on the line you want to travel to Europe with. That line will be able to make and receive calls and text messages along with having a certain amount of data available to them.

For the lines staying in the USA, they will a domestic international plan if they want to call a phone that's in another country as well, however, they can text and receive calls from the phone that's in Europe without any addtional fees. Please use this link here to take a look at our trip planner where you can find available options for all of your lines: https://www.verizon.com/plans/international/international-travel/trip-planner-tool/

~Jesse

[SynthpopAddict]

I thought that even if a US phone number is temporarily outside of the US, someone within the US can still dial that phone number and it will go through as a regular (not international) call.  Because you're not dialing a foreign phone number; it's still a US number you're calling.  You might only get the other person's voicemail though, if they are outside of the US. 

Texting of any variety, I'm not sure about.  It may be going to some "holding" pattern if the line which is abroad does NOT have an international service plan of some sort; but if the line which is abroad does have a international service plan enabled, then I'd think someone in the US should be able to text the line which is away and the recipient will be able to view/respond to them.  Be careful of what format the texts are in though, because the newer RCS format is considered data usage, and not texting usage, because RCS is encrypting the texts.  With international plans having limited amounts of data, a lot of RCS texting could easily burn up the entire data allotment and leave the person abroad out of luck for internet usage.  Google Messages uses RCS by default, and any texting apps which encrypt texts such as WhatsApp or Signal (those are just examples, there must surely be others) are also using data, not the older SMS texting format which is plain old messaging that's unencrypted.

A prepaid customer recently posted that whenever they are abroad, people can't call their number since it won't go to voicemail and the other person gets a message about the call not being able to complete due to some calling restriction.  (Said user has Travel Pass enabled in their account, but doesn't help.)  Why, can't tell you.

[update] SMS texting, I want to say is allowed to numbers overseas, even if they are foreign phone numbers, and doesn't incur extra charges.  Check your plan details for what's allowed.  I mention this because I remember seeing that SMS texts were allowed on my plan to foreign phone numbers.  I have quite a few friends who live outside the US and once asked a good friend if he'd prefer I text him instead of sending emails (we work together sometimes; long story).