A cell phone tip that I just learned

[ls15]

Hey everyone,

I have a new iPhone 4S so I want to bring it to Disney because the camera is amazing on it. I'm a chronic worrier so I am terrified somehow it will "slip" out of Airplane Mode and I'll come home to a billion charges on my phone.

So I called Telus to ask if there is anything else I can do to ENSURE that I will not be hit with 200$ in fines when I am home. On his end, he actually deactivated roaming and connections outside of Canada (not sure how). So there is no way it would work down there.

It gives me a little more peace of mind, so I thought I would share that here.

 

[Tiger926]

We have Blackberries and we can disable roaming on the phones ourselves. There are multiple places where we can disable roaming.

We have Rogers, and they have the best travel packs. For an extra 10.00/month, we can use roaming all we want in the US, as it takes it out of our regular data. Blackberries are very data friendly, so I just returned from 11 days at Disney, plus the drive down, and hardly made a blip in my data, and I used it everyday for messaging, Internet, email, posting photos, etc.

We don't have that airplane mode that iphones have, but it sounds like you are good to go now!

Have a great trip, Tiger

 

[ls15]

As long as I don't get charged, I don't care what I have to do!

 

[Polydweller]

As long as I don't get charged, I don't care what I have to do!

You don't have to leave it in Airplane mode and in fact don't want to, since it turns off everything including gps which can be useful with the free Disney maps apps. If your hotel had wifi you'll want to use that and it's good to have the phone side available. To avoid data charges on an iPhone, go into Settings -> Network and turn cellular data off. That's all, your phone now will not use 3G for internet so no data charges. It will use wifi and in Disney deluxes and moderates that's free.

On the voice side, just don't make or answer any calls and there are no voice charges. Totally in your control. Text costs are controlled by not sending any and getting a low cost US text plan for incoming if you might get a lot.

The horror stories people hear about are those who try to use the phone as if they never left the country. That's a tiny percentage. Almost all of us do the simple things above and never get unexpected charges. Use your phone wisely and you have nothing to worry about but you I'll get much more out of it than airplane mode gives.

 

[dancin Disney style]

You can have a temporary package added to your phone that will cover use in the USA. It's in the $20-$30 range depending on your provider and what you want to add.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

You can have a temporary package added to your phone that will cover use in the USA. It's in the $20-$30 range depending on your provider and what you want to add.

That's what I do .... $20 to $25 buys a month

 

[ls15]

Thank you for the tips. I leave in about 8 hours and just want to use the camera, so I think I'll do airplane mode, anyway. Cheers though!

 

[Sue M]

I go into Settings and turn off Data Roaming. Then when you are in a wifi area at your hotel, you can still use the phone.

I am with Telus and get a US texting plan. I don't need voice, I use a calling card when I'm in the hotel, and can get by with texting only.

 

[ccudmore]

By default Data Roaming is turned off on iPhones. You have to enable it intentionally if you want to use it.