TGarza

The SIM slot is on the side with the button to lock the screen. Just use a paper clip to push the SIM card tray out. I am using a Verizon iPhone 8 with an AT&T SIM card.

gooselee

Vodafone doesn't charge for SIM cards; or at least they don't when you buy a Big Value Bundle or PayGo credit to start up a new line and need a SIM accordingly.

I've been very, very pleased with my Vodafone UK account for the past couple years.

For trips less than ~2 weeks, I've found very good value in the "Pay As You Go 1" scheme. Normal PayGo rates but once you hit Ł1 in charges for the day, the rest of your local calls/texts are free and you also get up to 500MB data for the remainder of the day. Then it all resets at midnight UK time for the following day. Added benefit is you don't have to remember to cancel when you leave, so you can keep your +44 number basically indefinitely and then just top up again when you return.

f you're staying within Vodafone's "Europe Zone" (basically all of Western Europe) and not making many international calls, this works really well and the Ł1/day is legitimate - I just returned from a 12 day trip and my PayGo balance went down by Ł14 I think (the extra charges were for a few int'l calls/texts; rates for those also quite reasonable with the free International add-on).

I suppose if you need a LOT more data or are there for several weeks, the Big Value Bundle makes more sense. But I've never come close to hitting the 500MB/day limit.

gengar

The problem is the one time going over 500MB in one day, it's such a pain to be throttled (same issue with Verizon and Travelpass and one of the reasons I decided to switch to AT&T). On Vodafone IME it's worse than 2G. Even if I rarely go over 500MB in one day, I'd rather just pay the Ł20 (or even the Ł10 for 6GB if on a shorter trip) and not worry about it.

Just FYI it is possible even for payg users to sign up for an online account on the Vodafone website and the "Big Value Bundle" can be disabled from the online account - so it's not necessary to deactivate in-country.

gooselee

I believe if you hit 500MB, you have the option to just text "MORE" or something and get another 500MB for just Ł1 more (still at 4G speed). I investigated it once because I had the same concern you mention; for me just turned out to be a non-issue.

I use the Vodafone website/app to manage and top-up, so all good there. I didn't mean to imply you had to deactivate in-country; I just meant it was one less thing to worry about/deal with when travelling.

The good news is I think both are very good options, really - and both much better than VZW Travelpass!

gengar

Good to know, thanks - I may try this next time.

Moderator2

This thread is about Verizon's offerings. Discussion of other telecom vendors and country specific SIM's are covered in many other threads, Thank you in advance for keeping this thread focused via future posts.

gooselee

Ok, so first time I've had this problem after several trips with the same phone settings/behavior.

Arrived in Europe a few days ago and as usual have mobile data turned off on my Verizon SIM. Am at the office/hotel most of the time anyway so generally on wifi. I don't use VZW service at all when abroad (local SIMs instead), but keep the phone on to receive texts, etc. while on wifi. Since arriving, I've received a couple texts but no calls/VMs. Have not answered any calls or made any outbound calls/texts.

The in the middle of the night last night (2am local time), while on hotel wifi, I get a text from VZW alerting me that my TravelPass will be expiring in approx 22 hours, indicating it was activated at 12:11am local time. I was fast asleep and phone was on wifi at this time. No calls or texts all evening.

I assume I will need to call Verizon when I get back to the US and dispute it, but am a little annoyed that this could occur at all. Will be even more annoyed if it continues to occur as I use a single dual-SIM phone so cannot exactly just turn the phone off and leave it in my suitcase the rest of the trip. I suppose I could remove/deactivate the SIM completely; but I've never had any issues just turning off data, deactivating int'l roaming, and not making calls/texts on the Verizon SIM.

Has anyone else experienced this and gotten VZW to reverse the charge?

gobluetwo

What kind of phone? You had it in airplane mode with wifi on? Did it restart at any point?

gooselee

Umidigi F1. It's a dual SIM phone and I am actively using it with my Vodafone SIM. So, no airplane mode but the Verizon SIM was set to no mobile data and no roaming - my routine is to turn everything off when I board the plane, put it into airplane mode, then take it off airplane mode and only turn data/roaming on for Vodafone. Has not updated or rebooted since I arrived in Europe. If I base it on the timestamp in the text from Verizon, TravelPass was triggered about 40 hours after I came out of airplane mode upon landing in Europe.

This is the third or fourth trip I've taken with this phone using this exact setup and have never had any issue like this.

I did log in to my Verizon account to look up call/data history, and the last activity shown has a timestamp that correlates to when I was in the ATL airport. Nothing since then (though I know roaming activity takes a while to show up).

gfunkdave

I have had something similar happen - phone in airplane mode and I get a SMS from Verizon (while connected to VZW Wifi) that I had a Travelpass expiring. I don't remember what, if anything, I did about it.

LordHamster

Hey folks,

I'm new to Verizon, currently using it along side my Google FI in the same phone (via dual sim). I travel overseas quite a bit and am interested in Verizon's Travel pass, but the language on the website about what "activates" a day of the pass is very vague.




Specifically, they say that receiving a call will activate day of the travel pass. Does receiving mean actually picking up the call? What if:

• I decline the call, will the travel pass be activated?
  
• Ignore the call, will the travel pass be activated?
  
• Have voicemail... if a call goes to voicemail, will the call be activated?
  
• Have call-forwarding enabled... lets say I forward all incoming calls to my Google Number, will receiving a call activate my travel pass?
  

Anyone with firsthand knowledge who has used these passes, your input would be much appreciated.

gooselee

I got my bill over the weekend and called VZW this morning. Very nice rep checked my account and found zero call, outbound text, or data activity for the day in question (and indeed the entire time I was overseas). Quickly put a $10 credit on my account and all is well.

IME, if you ignore the call it will not trigger the TravelPass. I've never used call forwarding so can't speak to that.

Also haven't ever declined or actively sent to voicemail; but that's due to my phone setup. My Google Voice number rings through to my VZW phone, and if I actively decline the call it routes it to VZW email. Instead, I just silence the ringer until it times out, resulting in the call falling back to either VZW voicemail or Google voicemail depending on what number they were calling.

You can receive SMS without activating the TravelPass. You can also receive MMS notifications, but if you download an MMS message (e.g., picture attachment) that will trigger data which turns on the TravelPass.

And of course you can do all this stuff via wifi calling/texting without using the TravelPass - just make darn sure you are connected to wifi and have those settings enabled.

LordHamster

I'm a die-hard Google FI fan, an Apple fan, and an international traveler. Unfortunately, on the iPhone XS Max, FI is essentially T-Mobile. For me T-mobile is less than optimal in 5-10% of places I go (mostly some buildings in the area).

What I've done to try to achieve best of both worlds is this:

• Ported my primary number to Verizon. This allows me to get native iPhone visual voicemail and bug free texting, as well as decent reception in more places. I'm running verizon on my phone's eSIM.
• Google FI is running on my iPhone's physical and will be used for data overseas. I'll forward my primary phone number from verizon to google, then set my phone to use the Google FI sim for all data and calls.
  • This will allow me to bypass Verizon's stupid 500mb / day limit, give me access to google fi data rates + calling rates. when traveling overseas.

I just want to avoid activating my Verizon data pass, although I like having it as a safety net in case I forget to do the setting change before a trip.

747FC

Have you had success forwarding your sim calls to your physical sim number?

LordHamster

I've ended up swapping my primary number back to FI, and am now using verizon only for cellular data domestically. I found that disabling the verizon primary line also kills imessage to my main number, which is a showstopper.

With My primary# on FI, I can just shut off the Data only verizon line when traveling and not have to worry about something accidentally triggering the travelpass on verizon.