I need Global Tips and Tricks

[LeeB]

We leave for Germany, England, France, Switzerland, and Italy next week. YIKES. I found out couple seeks ago that our 4 will not work over there. SO I got my wife a 4s and all the Global "STUFF". Our regular plan has unlimited calls and texting between Verizon to Verizon. I know there the charges 5cent incoming 50cent outgoing text and 99cent....

Everyone we know who will be contacting us is Verizon... Got any tips and or tricks I can learn in just a few days? Anything I should be careful of?....

The main reason for staying in contact is we have a handicapped daughter and family and friends will be watching her and I am just a "Ol Worried Dad...

Thanks so much............. LeeB

 

[willerz2]

Unfortunately for the CDMA 4 (Verizon/Sprint iPhone 4), you cannot insert SIM cards, so you can't use it on another carrier as most if not all European carriers use SIM cards, meaning on the GSM 4, the 4S and the 5 are compatible. If you pay for the international plan, you should still be able to use your phone, just that you'd have to pay by the minute/text/data and such rather than buying an unlimited pre-paid SIM for the time that you're in Europe to save a buck here and there.

When abroad, make sure you don't have data roaming on or just turn data off until it's 100% necessary as I believe they charge a few dollars per 100 MB abroad for Verizon. That's the only real fear when it comes to smartphones

 

[LeeB]

Unfortunately for the CDMA 4 (Verizon/Sprint iPhone 4), you cannot insert SIM cards, so you can't use it on another carrier as most if not all European carriers use SIM cards, meaning on the GSM 4, the 4S and the 5 are compatible. If you pay for the international plan, you should still be able to use your phone, just that you'd have to pay by the minute/text/data and such rather than buying an unlimited pre-paid SIM for the time that you're in Europe to save a buck here and there.

When abroad, make sure you don't have data roaming on or just turn data off until it's 100% necessary as I believe they charge a few dollars per 100 MB abroad for Verizon. That's the only real fear when it comes to smartphones

My wife has a 4s
When you say "turn off data" do you mean "cellular data"?
Thanks LeeB

 

[scifan57]

My wife has a 4s When you say "turn off data" do you mean "cellular data"? Thanks LeeB

That's exactly what he means. This will restrict your data to WiFi only.

 

[willerz2]

Data roaming internationally is *shiver* scary. We had a conference in Germany for a few days once, and I left data on. The bill came back, and just from the roaming alone was about $42 for the 3 days we were there, and I didn't manually use data like surfing the web and such.

 

[LeeB]

Thanks so much...... I would have never known... My bill right now with 3 phones is almost $200 I don't want it any higher. I know it will be higher with the Global package added but I can remove that once we get back to the states. We leave the 23rd and return Sept 6th......

Thanks again LeeB......

 

[xrayeyes]

Are you sure the mobile to mobile feature is allowed internationally? I would make sure before you assume you can contact other verizon users for free. There are also many VOIP apps that you can use over Wifi. Viber is an example. You can use that service when you have wifi available and save your international calls for when it's not.

 

[LeeB]

Are you sure the mobile to mobile feature is allowed internationally? I would make sure before you assume you can contact other verizon users for free. There are also many VOIP apps that you can use over Wifi. Viber is an example. You can use that service when you have wifi available and save your international calls for when it's not.

Heck No I ain't sure about nothing when it comes to this crazy 4s Phone.... That's why I am here.

 

[xrayeyes]

Global Roaming FAQs | Verizon Wireless

International Trip Planner

It doesn't appear that mobile to mobile will be free from what I read, but I may very well be wrong. There are two links above to get more info.

 

[mariuss]

Happen to me while away,browse Internet,little Facebook luckily I have a great network and got sms ur data plan exceed 10€ after 20 min next message 20€ then I switch off data on roaming I advice all to keep it off !