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TravelPass

Verizon travelpass is a ripoff. It activates even though no calls were answered or dialled no data was used (mobile data off) and no texts were sent. The phone appears to use a tiny bit of data even though mobile data is off (100 bytes - guess) every day or so. And Verizons response to this - thats your problem you have to pay anyway and you have to contact google to try to fix it - we only sell the phone.

Really Verizon - do you care so little about your customers.

Comments

APbham

I'm curious if you'd previously used TravelPass without a problem. I ask because my wife and I have used it for years without an issue and in April or May, we started getting charged for it when in Canada even when not using the phone. We even put the phone into airplane mode before going into Canada and then turned it back on after getting back into the U.S. and were STILL charged. I finally turned the feature off because there seems to be no other way to stop it from charging us.

raybtwo

My wife and I just got back from Europe and had the same experience. Data turned off, no phones made or answered and no text messages sent. It happened to me a couple of times and my wife 3 times. Verizon needs to fix this.

Verizon_Support

raybtwo, I hope you and your wife had a great time while traveling in Europe. TravelPass can be a great feature to have to ensure you can utilize your phone when traveling. The feature will only activate when the phone connects to an international tower. What make and model phone do you have? Did you receive the courtesy text message that the TravelPass session was activated?

TionnaB_VZW

APbham

TionnaB_VZW, you state "The feature will only activate when the phone connects to an international tower". Your statement appears to be true because some of us are getting charged JUST for CONNECTING to an international tower. Yet, on my phone, when I connect to a tower (Canada, in this case), the Verizon message sent out states "Pay only on the days you use your mobile service.".

In other words, I connected to a Canadian tower, my phone and Verizon are both aware of it, but I'm only charged if I actually USE the mobile service (and Verizon even sends me a text telling me this). On my wife's phone, it would just bill as soon as it connected to the tower (no calls, data, etc.). This has definitely changed in the last few months because my wife used the feature for years while travelling to Canada at least weekly where we ONLY charged if she actually used the phone. Obviously there are a lot of us that have experienced this behavior.

Verizon_Support

@APbham

I can definitely understand your concerns with you and your wife’s lines getting charged unintentionally for the 24-hour TravelPass session, even when the device connects to an international tower. Allow me to clear this up for you.

The explanation we previously provided was not intended to mean you are charged at the time the device connects to an international tower, but rather that you would never be billed unless your device connects to an international tower and uses minutes, texts or data. However, the charge is not started until either a call is made, received, a text is sent or if data is used. You don’t necessarily have to initiate the usage on your device, but background data can definitely initiate a 24-hour TravelPass session. Here’s a link that may provide a better explanation on how TravelPass works and is charged: http://spr.ly/6601EtJLx. Does this help explain how TravelPass works?

AnthonyTa_VZW

sumap

The TravelPass came in really handy last month while we were in Europe doing a Cruise. I had disabled the cellular roaming feature when I did not want to use it. When the ship was docked or we were doing excursions on shore, I was able to turn it on and only got charged $10 on a 24 hour basis. It worked great for us. I would use it again.

beemgee

The problems with Travel Pass will not always happen. It appears (at least in my case) to be dependent on the phone. My previous phones worked fine but apparently Pixel's do some backround data even when data is turned off and Verizon sees this as usage. The only way to avoid it is to have the phone in airplane mode which is not what I wanted to do or what Travel Pass is supposed to require.

krgoodwinjr

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.

krgoodwinjr

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.

FrenchRiver35

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.

ahmedrahim00

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.

FrenchRiver35

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

JimmyMcGi11

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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