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We will be traveling in Europe for about 2 1/2 weeks. Spain, France, Italy, England, Malta, and Greece. I have a few questions, as I've never taken a cell phone out of the country yet...
1. Receiving Calls, texts. Do I get charged if someone calls me and I don't answer and they leave a message? Do I get charged if they text me?
2. If I send a text, do I get charged per text? (I saw a $10 a day data plan, but not sure not the specifics of this, I don't understand MMS, etc.)
3. If I only use wi-fi to post things/pictures on social media, is there any charge on my phone?
Basically, I want to know what I will get charged for if I turn my phone [iPhone 6s] on in another county. I don't want to answer or make any calls really to anyone while on vacation, but would like my kids to be able to get a hold of me in an emergency, but what will the charges be for a text back and forth? And, if I try to only use wi-fi to post on social media, will there be charges from Verizon? (I know that not all wi-fi is free, so I would get charged somehow if it's not...would this show up on a Verizon bill?)
Thanks for any help!
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I would strongly advise never leaving the country, turning your phone on without some type of International Plan. There are many stories of people getting multi-thousand dollar bills because they did not understand how much International Roaming can cost.
If you add nothing, calls will be $1.79 to $2.99 per minute, Texts are 50 cents for messages sent and 5 cents for messages received. MMS (multimedia texts) are 25 cents in or out. Data will cost $2,050 per GB!
You have 4 things you can do 1) Use TravelPass at $10 per day that you need to use your phone and lets you use your current plan in the countries you are visiting, 2) Get a 30 day International Preferred Plan for $40 which gives you 100 MB, 100 outgoing texts (all incoming free), and 100 min calls (in or out), 3) Put your phone in airplane mode the moment you get on the airplane and do not turn it off airplane mode until you set foot in the USA again, this is the only sure way to get no unintentional charges. 4) Get a local SIM, charges vary and your number changes to a number in the country of the SIM.
If you have a newer phone (you did not say which phone you have) you can also use WIFI calling. With this, when you are on free wifi, you can make and receive calls and texts to and from the USA for no charge.
To answer your specific questions:
1. Receiving Calls, texts. Do I get charged if someone calls me and I don't answer and they leave a message? Do I get charged if they text me? If someone calls you and it gets forwarded to voicemail you are not supposed to get charged. However, I have been charged with this very thing so I do not trust it. If you receive a text, you will get charged. It doesn't matter if you look at it or not.
2. If I send a text, do I get charged per text? (I saw a $10 a day data plan, but not sure not the specifics of this, I don't understand MMS, etc.) If you send a text, you do get charged per text if you have no plan - 50 cents per text. If you have the International Preferred 30 day plan, you get 100 texts to send included and additional texts are 10 cents. All incoming texts on that plan are included. With TravelPass, you are just using your current plan you have in the US in the foreign country and since most plans have unlimited calls and texting you get unlimited calls to the US and to the country you are in, unlimited incoming calls, and unlimited outgoing and incoming texts.
3. If I only use wi-fi to post things/pictures on social media, is there any charge on my phone? If you have your phone in airplane mode and only turn on wifi, there is no Verizon roaming charges that will come from that setting. Additionally if you have a newer phone that supports wifi calling, when you are on wifi you can send and receive calls from the USA for free and if you are on More Everything or Verizon Plan, you can send texts to anywhere and receive from anywhere for free.
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I would strongly advise never leaving the country, turning your phone on without some type of International Plan. There are many stories of people getting multi-thousand dollar bills because they did not understand how much International Roaming can cost.
If you add nothing, calls will be $1.79 to $2.99 per minute, Texts are 50 cents for messages sent and 5 cents for messages received. MMS (multimedia texts) are 25 cents in or out. Data will cost $2,050 per GB!
You have 4 things you can do 1) Use TravelPass at $10 per day that you need to use your phone and lets you use your current plan in the countries you are visiting, 2) Get a 30 day International Preferred Plan for $40 which gives you 100 MB, 100 outgoing texts (all incoming free), and 100 min calls (in or out), 3) Put your phone in airplane mode the moment you get on the airplane and do not turn it off airplane mode until you set foot in the USA again, this is the only sure way to get no unintentional charges. 4) Get a local SIM, charges vary and your number changes to a number in the country of the SIM.
If you have a newer phone (you did not say which phone you have) you can also use WIFI calling. With this, when you are on free wifi, you can make and receive calls and texts to and from the USA for no charge.
To answer your specific questions:
1. Receiving Calls, texts. Do I get charged if someone calls me and I don't answer and they leave a message? Do I get charged if they text me? If someone calls you and it gets forwarded to voicemail you are not supposed to get charged. However, I have been charged with this very thing so I do not trust it. If you receive a text, you will get charged. It doesn't matter if you look at it or not.
2. If I send a text, do I get charged per text? (I saw a $10 a day data plan, but not sure not the specifics of this, I don't understand MMS, etc.) If you send a text, you do get charged per text if you have no plan - 50 cents per text. If you have the International Preferred 30 day plan, you get 100 texts to send included and additional texts are 10 cents. All incoming texts on that plan are included. With TravelPass, you are just using your current plan you have in the US in the foreign country and since most plans have unlimited calls and texting you get unlimited calls to the US and to the country you are in, unlimited incoming calls, and unlimited outgoing and incoming texts.
3. If I only use wi-fi to post things/pictures on social media, is there any charge on my phone? If you have your phone in airplane mode and only turn on wifi, there is no Verizon roaming charges that will come from that setting. Additionally if you have a newer phone that supports wifi calling, when you are on wifi you can send and receive calls from the USA for free and if you are on More Everything or Verizon Plan, you can send texts to anywhere and receive from anywhere for free.