International Travel - cell phone advice?

[Steve-arino]

I'm going on a 3 week countrywide trip to England and Wales in a few weeks from the NYC area. I've have pretty much everything I need (I pack light) but am confused about what to do about a cell phone for calls back to the USA. I have a 1 line Verizon pre paid plan with a Google Pixel 7pro. I have WhatsApp on my phone as well.

Do I need to do anything special so I don't get pounded on rates per call or text- or pictures for friends? I haven't traveled international in years.

Any advice would be appreciated. My thought is that if I connect to wifi networks I should be ok. What about when I'm not near a network?

The time is close. This is a postponed trip from 2022.

Thanks folks for any wisdom you can impart.
steve_arineeeeoooo

[TheGITM]

Verizon offers a Travel Pass for $10/day that allows unlimited use, and you only get charged on days when you call or text. You can add that to your plan to cover you while you're out of the country.

That way, if you need it you have it, but if you do find WiFi you can use that instead on days when it's available.

[Acousticado]

Recently, my wife and I were in Barbados for a month. We decided to just use my wife’s phone while travelling. On the advice of our son, she removed the home carrier SIM card and when we arrived in Barbados, and I may not explain this right, but she downloaded and subscribed to a very inexpensive “virtual” SIM app. I think it cost about $50 for the month. Both or our sons and families visited us while their and they did the same thing with their phones. I can find out the name of the app if you’d like.

[rllink]

Originally Posted by TheGITM

Verizon offers a Travel Pass for $10/day that allows unlimited use, and you only get charged on days when you call or text. You can add that to your plan to cover you while you're out of the country.

That way, if you need it you have it, but if you do find WiFi you can use that instead on days when it's available.

This.. We did this in May when we travelled to France and England. You only pay if you use it. Worked great and very simple.

https://www.verizon.com/plans/intern...l/travel-pass/

[Colin_Mac]

Do you think you will need phone service right from the moment you arrive In the country?

If you can wait until you get through the airport and find your bearings, the simplest option is probably to go to a large supermarket and get a pay-as-you-go SIM card there, then buy some data and call capacity for it. Some supermarkets (e.g. Tesco and Asda) have their own mobile networks, but many will also sell a SIM for a variety of networks at the checkout for £1.

Once to have your SIM, put it in your phone then use the in-store WiFi to create an account and prepay some credit onto the SIM. Picking one example at random, a Tesco mobile SIM is 99p and for £10 credit you get 10gb of data and 5000 call minutes and SMS. This should easily be enough for three weeks.

When you go home either dispose of the SIM or pass it on to a friend who might use the credit you left on it.

[imwjl]

From experience, the Verizon Travel Pass has been absolutely easy and reliable over changing SIM or switch between eSIM but several days of it will add up. A mix of using that and WiFi calling with a little credit in my Skype account has always worked well.

Important: Make sure a Verizon pre-paid includes Travel Pass.

Recently two of our kids were traveling in several European countries with their relatives and on their own with a mix of a cheap SIM and using WiFi calling. Once in a while the WiFi calling was more troublesome in crowded public places. After that trip my wife and kids were overseas and one got quite sick. One activated the Travel Pass when the cheap methods didn't work as well but a lot of that was for seamless calls to insurer back in the US.

The other thing we/they uses is the FaceTime and Google chat plus voice the phones have. If this is just casual communication with associates that works well.

Before I travel I make sure my Skype account has some $ and test before I leave. Whether Skype or Teams direct routing w/PSTN, Microsoft's telephony products have been very reliable. They are different products but the huge infrastructure they have seems to aid reliability.

Someone with a Pixel phone might want to look at a Google Voice plan for an integrated and seamless way.

[Tunesalot]

I use Verizon Travel pass, it works well. My issue is one of no cell service or wifi usually in deep boonies. Somehow verizon still manages to text me and so I’ve gotten charged for using the phone on days when their message was the only thing getting through. Gonna have to figure that one out for my excursion abroad next month. Unless someone here knows the answer….

[Steve-arino]

Thanks guys. Just what I'm looking for.

The virtual sim card sounds cool for $50. Acousticado if you can dig up the name of that service that would be great. Thank you.

If the Travel Pass works with my Verizon monthly prepaid account, that seems like my easiest option. I don't think it will, but I have time to check.

And I have to look into google fi. I was one of the first users of this service years ago, but I remember google did something that got me po'd. Ha. Might be a good time to take a another look. I forgot why I was upset.

I'd imagine the places I'm going will mostly have wifi. Most of my trip will be with a group (I'll be on a "ricksteves" tour, except for a few days prior and a few days after) but I'll have time alone do to walking in Liverpool, Bath, and a couple of other places on my own. I'd like to be able to access google maps for walking directions, restaurant reviews, stuff like that.

[TheGITM]

Originally Posted by Tunesalot

I use Verizon Travel pass, it works well. My issue is one of no cell service or wifi usually in deep boonies. Somehow verizon still manages to text me and so I’ve gotten charged for using the phone on days when their message was the only thing getting through. Gonna have to figure that one out for my excursion abroad next month. Unless someone here knows the answer….

You can turn off the cell service when you know you won't be using it. That way you won't pick up any unwanted text messages. Of course, that also means you won't pick up any messages you might actually want to pick up.

That's about all I got...

[Jim Owen]

I’m fixin to benefit from these answers as I’m planning an escape soon.

Steve—when in Bath, the Roman ruins are worth the fee. It’s a very walkable city. The 18th C architecture is beautiful. If you’ve read Austen, you’ve been there.

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by Steve-arino

The virtual sim card sounds cool for $50. Acousticado if you can dig up the name of that service that would be great. Thank you.

Steve, I’m not overly familiar with the e-sim approach, so I asked my son who is. For the UK (we’ll be travelling there this fall with him and d-i-l), he says “Eskimo” e-sim works well, where the data lasts for a year or two when activated, US$7 for 3gb. Another is “Red Bull” e-sim, 1gb free (likely a fee for more gb). He says there are often sales to watch for. This is what we’ll be doing when we travel there. I could be mistaken, but I think you have to remove the actual home carrier SIM card and place your phone in Airplane Mode for the duration. Good luck!

To be sure you’ll be covered, perhaps sign-up for the Verizon Travel Pass, then when you arrive, sign-up for and try-out the e-sim and if it works fine, perhaps you can cancel the Verizon?

[rllink]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

Steve, I’m not overly familiar with the e-sim approach, so I asked my son who is. For the UK (we’ll be travelling there this fall with him and d-i-l), he says “Eskimo” e-sim works well, where the data lasts for a year or two when activated, US$7 for 3gb. Another is “Red Bull” e-sim, 1gb free (likely a fee for more gb). He says there are often sales to watch for. This is what we’ll be doing when we travel there. I could be mistaken, but I think you have to remove the actual home carrier SIM card and place your phone in Airplane Mode for the duration. Good luck!

To be sure you’ll be covered, perhaps sign-up for the Verizon Travel Pass, then when you arrive, sign-up for and try-out the e-sim and if it works fine, perhaps you can cancel the Verizon?

Do you have to open up the phone to switch out the SIM card?

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by rllink

Do you have to open up the phone to switch out the SIM card?

I can only speak about an iPhone...the SIM card is located on the side of the phone. Place a small pointed implement in the tiny hole, and push. The SIM card tray will pop out. Of course, if using an e-SIM, there’s no actual card to insert while in travel status.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by rllink

Do you have to open up the phone to switch out the SIM card?

Not for most. There should be a covered slot.

For all, when you buy a discount temp or short-term service know it's likely a MVNO and you should consider the network coverage map. A bargain that might still mean you need WiFi calling is not such a bargain.

When using Verizon's Travel Pass for example I've noticed you are on the dominant carriers' networks. For same reason I know that's why some with AT&T or T-Mobile in the US use their international options like Verizon's.

[Steve-arino]

Originally Posted by Jim Owen

IÂ’m fixin to benefit from these answers as IÂ’m planning an escape soon.

Steve—when in Bath, the Roman ruins are worth the fee. It’s a very walkable city. The 18th C architecture is beautiful. If you’ve read Austen, you’ve been there.

Jim - I will have to read some Jane Austen. I'm an avid reader and live on my kindle. I'm picking out books now so I don't run short. Pride and Prejudice to start with?

It's a RickSteves tour. He's a well known "travel guy" that specializes in European tours. I'm going to spend time in Bath, the Cotswolds, going to Hadrian's Wall, Wales, The Lake District, Westminster Abbey, and some other neato places. Then I end with 3 days on my own in Liverpool.

I've gone on a couple of RS tours. His guides are extremely experienced, the hotels are always interesting; sort of quirky and often locally owned. No tipping, no extra charges, no shopping. I just got the roster of attendees, 10 couples and 5 singles (including me).

Acousticado - thanks for the e-sim sites. I need to look into them. I'm going to seriously consider google fi too (thanks Imwji). From what I remember, google fi uses wifi when available but switches to phone carriers when the wifi is not available. Monthly fixed rate and UK is included in their plan. I'm going to be on a bus every few days so having access to the internet at any time would be sure nice. I'm ready to bail from Verizon in any case. Verizon customer service is awful.