Another question about cell phone use in US

[sahmoffour]

I just got an iphone, in hopes of using the Lines App and OLP Transportation Wizard App while in WDW. Now I'm trying to figure out what pkg's to add to my Telus Mobility plan, and was looking at adding the US Data plan ($10 flat fee gives you a rate of $1/MB). I don't plan on using my phone for calls at all, but may add their voice pkg as well just in case. ($5 flat rate for $1/minute rate). I don't think I'll need to txt msg while down there, and am just going to let family know to phone me if there's an emergency.

So all I really plan on using it for is the Lines app and Transp. Wizard App. I can refrain from Facebook and checking email if I have to! I think all I have to do to set up my phone is disable the 'Push' setting for my emails and Facebook?

I thought I was all set, then I was reading about horror stories of people who didn't turn off the Data Roaming switch on their phone and ended up with thousand dollar phone bills. It says right on my phone, under 'General' - 'Network' - 'Data Roaming' to be sure to turn data roaming off when abroad to avoid substantial roaming charges when using email, MMS, web browsing, and other data services.

This might be a dumb question, but if that's off won't I NOT be able to use the Lines and Transp Wizard Apps while there?? Now I'm scared to turn it on though!

 

[roxysmum123]

DON'T DO IT!!! I did everything right, paid for extra data and everything and came home to an 800$ bill and all I did was check ride times 2x a day and park hours once.... and I called home 1time for a 10 minute call

 

[ccudmore]

DON'T DO IT!!! I did everything right, paid for extra data and everything and came home to an 800$ bill and all I did was check ride times 2x a day and park hours once.... and I called home 1time for a 10 minute call

There's no way that simply checking ride times and park hours would end up with $800 extra. You must have been doing something else. Perhaps it was checking for e-mail in the background every few minutes or automatically downloading large attachments.

I regularly add US data roaming packs when I go to the US (both to Disney and otherwise) and by watching what I'm doing and tracking my usage, I almost never go over what I purchased.

 

[pad406]

If your phone is unlocked, or you can get it unlocked, i got a sim with unlimited calls and 100mb of data for about $80 from mrsimcard.com. I used it a lot and got 14 days data out of it.

 

[sahmoffour]

There's no way that simply checking ride times and park hours would end up with $800 extra. You must have been doing something else. Perhaps it was checking for e-mail in the background every few minutes or automatically downloading large attachments.

I regularly add US data roaming packs when I go to the US (both to Disney and otherwise) and by watching what I'm doing and tracking my usage, I almost never go over what I purchased.

Could you tell me exactly what you did on your phone beforehand to make sure you weren't running extras in the background to rack up usage? Like, am I correct that I just need to do things like disable the 'Push' option under email and Facebook and that should be good enough? I know how to check my usage, so I'm assuming as long as I'm keeping an eye on it I shouldn't end up with any surprises when I get home, right? And am I correct that in order to be able to go on the Lines App or Transp. Wizard App that I need to have the data roaming switch turned on, right?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm a major noob when it comes to this stuff!

 

[ccudmore]

Select settings > mail and then set Fetch new data to Manual and Download remote images to off. For each email account set Mail days to sync to 1 day. Also disable data roaming and only turn it on when you want to use data. That will make sure that nothing is using it that you don't expect. Double click on the home button and close all programs that are running in the background. You never know if any of them are using data. Don't send or receive text messages - they are billed separately from data. Don't send or receive