Why would travelpass enable itself when I haven't left the country?

[Tbweeks95]

I have not travelled internationally in years. Today I received a text from Verizon that read "your  TravelPass service is now enabled. Call --- if you need help while traveling.." At first I thought it was  a spam text but it came from 899000 like other verizon messages. Then I logged into my account and confirmed that Travelpass was indeed turned ON. I turned it off, but why would it have done that? Could someone be trying to use my phone number or account in a different country? I don't see any indication that it tried to charge me for anything yet. I am just concerned about why and how that service turned itself on for no apparent reason.

[pebble42day]

Had the same problem just this morning and have been trying to find an answer. Your question is the most recent I can find about the problem.

[vzw_customer_support]

Thank you for reaching out to us on this platform. To better assist, please tell us a little more. Are you the account owner? Do you know if an account manager/authorized user requested a change to the plan or features? 

~Maria

[Goodsev]

   This happened to me this morning as well, travelling in the domestic US and they turned it on. I tried to turn it off and it's not working.  

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello. Goodsev. Help is here as you definitely deserve some answers. Please tell us more. Where did you travel to? 

-Natasha

[SynthpopAddict]

If you're a prepaid customer, Verizon has been slowly enabling Travel Pass for prepaid customers.  They've been doing it since June and are supposed to finish by late September.  I still have the Verizon text from early June giving me the heads-up and it also says you get a text confirmation when your line gets the perk, but you don't pay the $10/day unless you're abroad.

If you're a postpaid customer, Travel Pass is always on (?) but you also don't pay the $10/day for it unless you're outside the US.

[dw000000]

I got the same text this morning.  To answer the questions Verizon reps have asked of others:  I am a prepaid plan user, I am the account owner; there are no other people on the account who could have turned TravelPass on. 

In short, no, I didn't turn this on for my account; Verizon did. 

Why?  Is this legal?  I have traveled internationally, but kept my phone on airplane mode the entire time.  If I had slipped up and turned airplane mode off, I would have expected it to simply not connect, resulting in no charges.  But it sounds like if TravelPass were on, and some background app I wasn't using decided to use some data, I would have been charged.  Is this correct? 

I have now turned it off in MyVerizon, and I notice that if I want to turn it back on again, I have to check a box agreeing to the Terms and Conditions.  I wonder whether if I had been charged before turning it off, if there would be a legal argument to dispute those charges, since I did not agree to TravelPass in the first place....

[SynthpopAddict]

This is a new perk added to prepaid lines.  Before, if you had accidentally shut off airplane mode while abroad and your apps had used some data, or if you enabled Wi-Fi on your phone while overseas, you would have been charged the Pay As You Go rates for international roaming, which are more expensive than Travel Pass.  Now, if you are outside the US and you use your phone (assuming you don't have a local SIM/eSIM and are routing all apps through the foreign SIM/eSIM), you will presumably be asked if you want to pay the $10/day Travel Pass charge, just like postpaid customers get prompted.

This is the text I received back in June regarding the addition of Travel Pass to prepaid lines:

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi! It's a pleasure to meet you! We understand how important it is to know what's going on with your account at all times. We're delighted to get to the bottom of things for you! Please send us a PM, so we can further assist you today! *EW

[Aburl]

This happens to me all the time. I live in Southern California and travel to Arizona every month. I'm not leaving the country, nor texting or calling outside the country and Verizon still charges me! I'm literally on a US freeway and I get the "Welcome to Mexico" text. I have had to contact support over and over to get the charges reversed. I'm tired of having to do this. And, each time, after explaining the situation again, they apologize and reverse the charge. It's happening to my friends and I'm sure it's happening to a lot of people. Verizon knows it's a problem, but they don't fix it.

[SynthpopAddict]

---

@Aburl wrote:

This happens to me all the time. I live in Southern California and travel to Arizona every month. I'm not leaving the country, nor texting or calling outside the country and Verizon still charges me! I'm literally on a US freeway and I get the "Welcome to Mexico" text. I have had to contact support over and over to get the charges reversed. I'm tired of having to do this. And, each time, after explaining the situation again, they apologize and reverse the charge. It's happening to my friends and I'm sure it's happening to a lot of people. Verizon knows it's a problem, but they don't fix it.

---

I'm wondering if you are on a legacy plan which doesn't have Mexico and Canada included.  All the current postpaid plans available include talk, text, and at least some data usage in Mexico and Canada, so customers on the current plans don't get a Travel Pass charge.

If you are close enough to the border while traveling and there's no Verizon service or else it's spotty, your phone could then be picking up a stronger signal from a Mexican tower somewhere, hence triggering an "international usage".  I'd disable roaming on your phone to prevent it from using signal from elsewhere, if you don't want to change your service plan.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello Aburl, we don't want you having international charge concerns all the time. It sounds like your phone is connecting to Mexican towers as you travel. There are a few ways to address this. The first is to simply turn off your phone's roaming setting. 

Our current unlimited plans include Canada and Mexico as well as many other exciting benefits. We'd be happy to help you move to one of them in a private message. We can also add features to your line to prevent usages on non-US towers. Please reach out if you'd like to get anything set up.  -James