Verion in europe

[uscuba2]

DH and I are going toGermany in August for two weeks. We will have free wifi at most of our lodgings. I would like to have at least one phone in case of emergencies, but more so to do research etc. while on the road. I called Verizon and they gave me the scoop on all the international rates, etc. which of course, are outrageous! (I somewhat expected this.) Has anyone used their Global Travel Program and their gobal value plan recently? any issues? Did it result in changes to you contract after you came back?

[hz80408]

Do you have an unlocked phone you could use or borrow from a friend/family member?

It's really simple to buy a SIM card when there (Vonage is my preferred provider) and very cheap; like starting at 10EU

[uscuba2]

I thought about that. Those that I know have/had a GSM phone have either switched over to Verizon or sprint which are both CDMA. Those that are with GSM networks did not keep their old phones.

[katieh]

Whenever I have traveled, I just called Verizon (this was when I had a Blackberry, haven't since I just got my new Droid) and let them know where and when I was traveling. I had to do some code before I left and then my phone worked like normal. When I got back I called and switched back to my regular plan.

Texting and data was pretty reasonable I thought. Calls were expensive but I never used my phone that way. I think it usually ended up being around $30-$60 for a 2 week trip.

[hz80408]

Jul 25, 2012 9:21:42 GMT -5 uscuba2 said:

I thought about that. Those that I know have/had a GSM phone have either switched over to Verizon or sprint which are both CDMA. Those that are with GSM networks did not keep their old phones.

Dang. I borrowed one from a coworker for our trip and it worked well. I suppose you could look on ebay or something, but it may just be easier/same cost to pay Verizon.

[ChiKate]

I actually need to go to Verizon or call them soon because this has been a topic of discussion between DH and I. I have a Razr and DH says its GSM capable so it should work somehow without a huge cost increase. I think I may need to get an Australian SIM card but from what I read, it's cheap to use it overseas and incoming calls are free. It would be the same for Europe, too.

[hz80408]

Jul 25, 2012 10:59:01 GMT -5 ChiKate said:

I actually need to go to Verizon or call them soon because this has been a topic of discussion between DH and I. I have a Razr and DH says its GSM capable so it should work somehow without a huge cost increase. I think I may need to get an Australian SIM card but from what I read, it's cheap to use it overseas and incoming calls are free. It would be the same for Europe, too.

If it's GSM capable; you should be able to buy a GSM SIM card when in Europe and have no issues and not owe Verizon anything extra. Is your Razr an old phone or your active phone?

[ChiKate]

It's my current phone--it's the Droid I got last December. When I go under Network Settings, there's an option to change it to GSM but I'm not anywhere close to a techie and I imagine there's something else I need to do (other than buy a SIM card).

Can I buy an international SIM card at Verizon or do I need to get that online before I go or can I buy it there? I'm going to Australia, not Europe but I think the SIM cards work in 190 countries.

[uscuba2]

Jul 25, 2012 10:59:01 GMT -5 ChiKate said:

I actually need to go to Verizon or call them soon because this has been a topic of discussion between DH and I. I have a Razr and DH says its GSM capable so it should work somehow without a huge cost increase. I think I may need to get an Australian SIM card but from what I read, it's cheap to use it overseas and incoming calls are free. It would be the same for Europe, too.

We both have the Razr and it is GSM capable. However , you need to have the lastest software which is being pushed this summer. I have the latest update (it has circles when locked instead of the slider thing ) .I do not trust new updates right out of the gate.

[ChiKate]

I do have the latest update. Have you contacted Verizon about just using your phone on GSM mode with a different SIM card? Or do you need to have the Global plan? Under Preferred Network Mode there's 3 options: Global, LTE/CDMA and GSM/UMTS. I figured you'd have to switch it to Global if you wanted to stay on the Verizon network but could switch it GSM if you wanted to use Vonage or another carrier. I'm just assuming though, I haven't called Verizon yet.

[hz80408]

Oh sorry, I'm not sure on that. I'd imagine it's much cheaper to by a Voynage/Orange/etc SIM card when in your foriegn country, but i'm not familiar with how it works on an active Verizon phone. I've only done it with old disactivated phones. Good luck!

[uscuba2]

Jul 25, 2012 12:56:35 GMT -5 ChiKate said:

I do have the latest update. Have you contacted Verizon about just using your phone on GSM mode with a different SIM card? Or do you need to have the Global plan? Under Preferred Network Mode there's 3 options: Global, LTE/CDMA and GSM/UMTS. I figured you'd have to switch it to Global if you wanted to stay on the Verizon network but could switch it GSM if you wanted to use Vonage or another carrier. I'm just assuming though, I haven't called Verizon yet.

I called and they said that you have it on global. you need to turn off data roaming if you do want to have huge charges or get the global data and/or voice. vou do not need another sim card or access codes.

[dutchgirl678]

Or you can buy a cheap phone with SIM card when you arrive at the airport. We did that last year when we went to Italy. We only used it for texting and occasional phone calls to apartment owners before arrival. It worked well for us since we do plan to go back to Europe on a regular basis. It was only 50 euros and that included 15 euros worth of minutes or something like that.

[Deleted]

We used the Global Travel Program two years ago when we went to Italy. It was pretty reasonable (~$40 for the week, maybe even less), we just needed a dumb phone for quick calls/emergencies. They overnight you the phone and you just send it back when you're done. You can keep your regular US phone # and the rates were reasonable.

It was cheaper than the prepaid or other int'l options I had priced out. We both had Droids at the time.

[Norticprincess]

We have both a basic little quad band flip phone i bought off overstock several years ago for under $50 and DH's old windows smartphone both are unlocked. We just pick up a local sim card. The local ones normally have free incoming calls. If we need to call home for a long period of time we just use Skype. Either the Skype to skype calls or Skype to real phone. That even worked when DH called from a bad connection in Africa to my cell that was bluetoothed to my car at the time.

[sporky]

i used the global travel program recently, but don't recommend it. it just wasn't worth the hassle or money. the phone they sent me was crap (a samsung sega, maybe?) compared to my droid. it didn't have any of the apps available that i had wanted to be able to use while traveling and didn't even work half the time we were on the trip.

[M]

We just paid Verizon $15 plus minutes to ship a phone that's international capable to us. I think that $15 may have actually been for overnight shipping because we called last minute about it. So you probably just pay the minutes.

Since you have wifi most places, you can just get google voice and make calls to the US free. We helped a friend in Amsterdam set up a US gmail/google voice account and he can make all the calls that he wants to the US free.