Cell Phone Use Abroad - Iphone 5s

[rrali33tt]

I am going to add an international data an calling plan to my phone while we are on vacation. I rarely call people or have lengthy text converstations but I am REALLY worried about data usage!!

I can add 85MB of international data for $80. That seems really low considering I used 2,000,000MB of data per month. I am addicted to checking Facebook lol plus I am not savvy when it comes to apps. I bet I have tons of unnecessary notifications that bring data use up.

2,000,000 MB = 1000MB (i think) so i would have half of that for half the month and its $10/MB over the package = poorhouse lol

I can try to curtail my data usage..but I also think there may be settings on my phone that I am not aware of? Do I just need to put my settings on wifi only? turn off bluetooth? any tips would be appreciated.

 

[kristilew]

A couple of things I've learned the hard way, lol!

Turn OFF your Cellular Data. This is under Settings - Cellular. This will mean you are pretty much only getting data over wifi. Which is how you should try to operate when abroad if you want to save $ on your phone bill. There is wifi in many many places. If you NEED to access data when there's no wifi, you can choose to turn it on, but at least you'll be conscious that you are using those precious mb.

Also under the settings-cellular tab, turn off Data Roaming. For some reason you will be charged roaming for data use even when you are on wifi, unless you turn this off. Like I said, learned that the hard way.

Also, turn off your background refresh. This is settings-general - background app refresh. No need to constantly refresh your apps even when you are not using them. (Setting it this way will save your battery life too.)

Finally, if you do find you are going over early in your trip, don't hesitate to call or go online and up your plan. Much better than it switching to a per-usage fee.

Some folks on this board will probably weigh in with the option of purchasing a sim card for the country you are visiting. This seems like a great option, just no one I know anything about!

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

Good tips - thanks!! I confess that I hear people talking about the sim card option but have never had any idea what they were talking about!

Laurie

 

[kanadar]

I would like to add, that you should be careful with this. My dad purchased an international plan while we were in Italy through Verizon. When we got there he had little or no signal the entire trip so his plan was useless for him. Im sure this doesn't happen to everyone but for some reason it happened to him. Just a heads up.

Also, I check facebook a lot, use my phone all the time. It wasn't that difficult to set it aside and not check things constantly while we were away. And I text my fiance ALLLLLLL the time when we aren't together. I think the time difference helps. I used my ipad at the hotels to check facebook and email and that was good for me. My fiance and I also skyped about every other day when we had time, so skype on wifi is another option since you can also message. We also used data on our trip but very little. When we wanted to find somewhere to eat sometimes we resorted to using Yelp and it worked out really well for us! But other than that we were all fine without using our phones. We talk to each other the most on the phone so that wasn't a worry, and anybody else who would possibly call us knew we were out of the country. You might feel like its a big deal now but once you get there you'll find its not that tough at all.

 

[Chirple]

I just did this on my iPhone 4s for the 12 night Med cruise in July. We use Verizon.

When I called Verizon to add it, I provided them with the countries I'd be visiting. They sent me via email dialing instructions for each country (turned out to the be the same).

I turned off Cellular service, Wireless, and Data roaming. (Activated wireless when there was a connection at the hotel.) I easily made calls from Barcelona and from Florence. I even had to call Verizon from Barcelona--and this was my "gotcha" moment.

I had planned to send text messages to people at home rather than call due to the time difference. They also have iPhones so we normally would use iMessage for texting.

iMessage doesn't work with the international plan. Instead, I sent email when I had a wireless connection.

 

[abdgeek]

I always get an international data plan when I travel abroad and have never had a problem. Verizon only charges about $25 for 100MB(your plan sounds like it charges way too much for international data). As OP have said, turn off your cellular data and data roaming while you are abroad. Whenever you want to surf the internet, turn cellular data back on and then off again when you finish. I also use the hotel wifi whenever possible. I don't do facebook or anything similar, so my data usage is just checking email, etc. I've also never had any problems making calls while I've been abroad either on land or on the cruise ship while in port. With Verizon you are charged per text sent($.50) and received($.05), but that is a lot less than paying $1.99(in some countries) per minute for a international call.

 

[2003Eeyore]

Hi - we did a 12 day Disney Med cruise this past June I have an Iphone with Tmobile I was able to use text and data for free every where we went except Croatia. The coverage was better /faster most of the time there then it is here in the Dallas area. It was all included in my basic plan. I texted and posted pics and stayed on the internet. So that might be an option for you. Have a great trip.

 

[GAN]

We're heading to London/France in a few weeks and went round and round between choosing the best option. We had iPhone 4s's and thought maybe we would have Sprint/Apple unlock the phone(our agreement had expired so we would have been free to do so) and buy a SIM card in London, but ultimately we just upgraded to 5s's and decided to go with Sprint's international plan. I believe it's $5 and you get $0.99/ minute calls and $0.50 texts ..for $40 we can add 40MB of data, which isn't much for two weeks but enough to give me some wiggle room when not able to jump on wifi. I just didn't feel the whole going to get a SIM card was worth whatever I could have saved. I used AT&T's plan a few years ago when in Italy and it worked out fine for what I needed -no Facebook, etc. ....mostly just Yelp, and a couple travel Apps. Everything else is through wifi which in a city like London is not a big deal.

 

[k5jm]

2000MB is 2GB of data. 2 Million MB is more data than I consume in a year and I consume a lot. The most I have ever used on a wireless device is 26GB.

I have International Data Turned on for my phone as we are heading out on an ABD Italy trip Saturday. I turn off all data except for email and Imessage. I also purchase a 5GB SIM for my Ipad while in Italy. This is where I do most of my data consumption. My phone is pretty much just for phone.

 

[TheRefinedChap]

One thing to be really wary of is Facebook - it seems the default for the Facebook mobile app is to auto-play videos. So unless you turn that feature off, any videos on your feed will start downloading automatically, which is a real nightmare if you're roaming and not on wifi. You'll be spending money and not even be aware its happening.

I find the best method is to get a roaming SIM card, like the sort you can get from GO-SIM or Telestial - but you'll need an unlocked handset first. I set it up so that calls to my regular number are forwarded to me. Worked really well on a tour around Europe earlier this year.

 

[sayhello]

One thing to be really wary of is Facebook - it seems the default for the Facebook mobile app is to auto-play videos. So unless you turn that feature off, any videos on your feed will start downloading automatically, which is a real nightmare if you're roaming and not on wifi. You'll be spending money and not even be aware its happening.

I find the best method is to get a roaming SIM card, like the sort you can get from GO-SIM or Telestial - but you'll need an unlocked handset first. I set it up so that calls to my regular number are forwarded to me. Worked really well on a tour around Europe earlier this year.

So how do you get an unlocked handset? Is that allowed if you're still under contract?

Sayhello

 

[GAN]

So how do you get an unlocked handset? Is that allowed if you're still under contract? Sayhello

I believe that depends on your provider. I know that with Sprint, you need to be out of contract.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I got burned by AT&T after our MED cruise. I'd added an international package, but for some reason it wasn't picking up all the calls it should have. I returned to a huge bill that took hours on the phone to get taken care of. Total nightmare for a phone that I didn't use much because I was scared of accidentally downloading too much data (i.e. someone sending me a video or picture, etc.).

Anyway, fast forward to the following year on a trip to London, where we decided to unlock our old iPhones (all 4 in our family) and buy sim cards. It was amazing--so easy and cheap I couldn't believe it. For as little as 10 GBP a person we had as many texts/calls to each other as we wanted, plus some data. I've done it many times since, but on my last trip to Scotland in June, for example, I bought a SIM card for about 20 GBP and it gave me unlimited texts and calls to UK, international calls home every day, and more data than I could come close to using. For the next trip to multiple countries, I'm planning to buy one of those roaming SIM cards.

What I've learned? Our cellular/mobile rates are a joke compared to the UK. So cheap there and easy to "top up," as they say, as needed. Carphone Warehouse is a frequent first stop. Take a look at some of the current deals: http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/sims/pay-as-you-go/pay-as-you-go-sims#payGoInternationalSim

 

[GAN]

I got burned by AT&T after our MED cruise. I'd added an international package, but for some reason it wasn't picking up all the calls it should have. I returned to a huge bill that took hours on the phone to get taken care of. Total nightmare for a phone that I didn't use much because I was scared of accidentally downloading too much data (i.e. someone sending me a video or picture, etc.). Anyway, fast forward to the following year on a trip to London, where we decided to unlock our old iPhones (all 4 in our family) and buy sim cards. It was amazing--so easy and cheap I couldn't believe it. For as little as 10 GBP a person we had as many texts/calls to each other as we wanted, plus some data. I've done it many times since, but on my last trip to Scotland in June, for example, I bought a SIM card for about 20 GBP and it gave me unlimited texts and calls to UK, international calls home every day, and more data than I could come close to using. For the next trip to multiple countries, I'm planning to buy one of those roaming SIM cards. What I've learned? Our cellular/mobile rates are a joke compared to the UK. So cheap there and easy to "top up," as they say, as needed. Carphone Warehouse is a frequent first stop. Take a look at some of the current deals: http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/sims/pay-as-you-go/pay-as-you-go-sims#payGoInternationalSim

I almost used CarPhoneWarehouse, and have heard good things about them, but decided I'd upgrade my phone and go with an International plan with Sprint. I figure it will end up costing me around $80-100 for 2-weeks -which given the overall cost of the trip isn't a big deal. But I did have a question regarding SIM cards; I understand that you receive a "new" phone number ...how does this affect any of the apps you have running on the phone prior to the switch? I'm thinking that they are all running without issue, for me that would be the whole point.

 

[sayhello]

I got burned by AT&T after our MED cruise. I'd added an international package, but for some reason it wasn't picking up all the calls it should have. I returned to a huge bill that took hours on the phone to get taken care of. Total nightmare for a phone that I didn't use much because I was scared of accidentally downloading too much data (i.e. someone sending me a video or picture, etc.).

Anyway, fast forward to the following year on a trip to London, where we decided to unlock our old iPhones (all 4 in our family) and buy sim cards. It was amazing--so easy and cheap I couldn't believe it. For as little as 10 GBP a person we had as many texts/calls to each other as we wanted, plus some data. I've done it many times since, but on my last trip to Scotland in June, for example, I bought a SIM card for about 20 GBP and it gave me unlimited texts and calls to UK, international calls home every day, and more data than I could come close to using. For the next trip to multiple countries, I'm planning to buy one of those roaming SIM cards.

What I've learned? Our cellular/mobile rates are a joke compared to the UK. So cheap there and easy to "top up," as they say, as needed. Carphone Warehouse is a frequent first stop. Take a look at some of the current deals: http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/sims/pay-as-you-go/pay-as-you-go-sims#payGoInternationalSim

So does your current phone have to be off contract? Or can you use an old phone that you upgraded from (while you have another, newer phone on contract)? How do you get it unlocked?

Sayhello

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

So does your current phone have to be off contract? Or can you use an old phone that you upgraded from (while you have another, newer phone on contract)? How do you get it unlocked?

Sayhello

If you have AT&T, you have to request that your phone be unlocked, which they will not do until your phone is out of contract. Do a Google search for unlock AT&T phone.. If you have an old phone, you can use it when traveling, you just need to also request an unlock, then will need to buy a SIM card for it.

I have bought SIM cards in other countries and also just turned on international calling and texting when traveling and although it is more expensive than getting a local SIM card, it's a lot easier. Just remember to turn off this feature when you get home!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I almost used CarPhoneWarehouse, and have heard good things about them, but decided I'd upgrade my phone and go with an International plan with Sprint. I figure it will end up costing me around $80-100 for 2-weeks -which given the overall cost of the trip isn't a big deal. But I did have a question regarding SIM cards; I understand that you receive a "new" phone number ...how does this affect any of the apps you have running on the phone prior to the switch? I'm thinking that they are all running without issue, for me that would be the whole point.

Sorry, I must have missed this earlier . . . it doesn't effect anything else on the phone. All our apps, email settings, etc., are all there. Makes it really easy.

So does your current phone have to be off contract? Or can you use an old phone that you upgraded from (while you have another, newer phone on contract)? How do you get it unlocked?

Sayhello

We used old iPhones to we upgraded from, but as someone else said, I think if you are out of contract your carrier will unlock for you on a current phone. I used YELP to find someone to unlock the phones for me--it was about $30 a phone. For our next upgrades I'm going to have AT&T do it when I buy a new phone. You can also do it yourself fairly easily I believe--instructions are all over the internet. I needed it done too quickly or I would have attempted.

 

[TheRefinedChap]

So how do you get an unlocked handset? Is that allowed if you're still under contract?

Sayhello

I think it's just a question of phoning your provider and asking them to do so. Unless you're at the end of your contract, there's likely to be a charge for this, and I'm afraid I've no idea how much that might be. But they do have to unlock your phone for you if that's what you want, which wasn't the case earlier in the year.

Again, if you go to one of these roaming SIM card sites, they sell unlocked handsets of various kinds, from an Android to an old-school cheap mobile. These seem to be pretty popular simply because the battery life is so good - if you're out in the wilds somewhere, you'll want to use something dependable if you're nowhere near a power outlet.