How to use my smartphone while traveling internationally without it costing a fortune. Is there a trick to it?

[Earlybird]

We are traveling to England and France this summer on holiday (currently living in America). Is there a good method for using our American mobile phones that doesn't cost an absolute fortune?

Last time we visited, I used my old English Nokia and simply bought a payg local sim card. That worked OK, but it was a pain to give friends/family the new number for such a short visit. That phone is now ancient (also not a smart phone), so I'd like to find another solution.

Verizon (my mobile company in America) has sent through a quite complex flyer on their plan for calling/texting/minimal data, etc. but I haven't been able to decipher if it is a good plan or not.

I keep thinking there has to be a better/smarter way. I'm not looking to make/receive lots of calls back to America - just want to collect my emails, have my English friends be able to contact me while we're in the country, and have the ability to send/receive a few texts. Don't think I'll need (or will use) much data.

Have you got it sussed, and if so, can you please share? In simple terminology for this technically challenged Mum?

do you have whatsapp or viber, anyone else with that can recieve and send texts and phone calls for free using wifi connection.

Phone your network provider and ask them to switch off your data roaming. They also do bolt ons that charge you an amount per day for using your contracted minutes and texts, my DH did it when he travelled for a stag do, it was £2.50 per day and every call was charged to his 'normal' minutes.

It's worth phoning to see what deals you can get. You don't want a gigantic bill!

WhatsApp for texts

Only use free wifi and use a mixture of Viber and Skype with Whatsapp for texts.
Turn off mobile data in your settings .
I have just been to China and did not spend anything on my iPhone.

If using WhatsApp to send texts, is it true that the recipient must have the app on their phone?

I don't really know how WhatsApp and Viber work. Should I just google to get an explanation?

Yes the other person will need Whatsapp as well.

Viber is like Skype and again both need it, you can use Viber and Skype in wifi.

Do you have iphone? You can FaceTime other iPhones on wifi.

Can you ask your English friends to text rather than phone? Then just switch your cellular signal on every hour or so to get and respond to texts, then switch it off.

Vodafone here do the add on for £3 a day you get to use your home contract whilst abroad, although I'm not sure it extends to America. As Fern said, speak to your provider and check if they have a similar scheme.

www.cellularabroad.com/verizon_intl.php

This website gives a simpler description but it boils down to needing a pone that can use the GSMS bands as opposed to the CDMA bands Verizon uses.

iPhone 5 and 6 and Samsung Galaxy should be ok.

Not sure how this works with American phones, but when we go abroad in Europe we just disable data roaming and connect to free wifi to get emails.

Since you are in USA at present, can I suggest checking TWiT.TV - there's the 'Tech Guy' Leo Laporte who himself has been to Europe quite a bit, and has a syndicated radio show from 11:00-14:00 Pacific on Saturday and Sunday, and has the website TechguyLabs.com and a quick search for "Europe" showed a number of questions about 'using my smartphone'... 'using my iPhone'...

I also found a tag for "International Data" so here's a *> LINK GSMarena.com

I've just checked with Three and their PAYG SIM (3p/ minute for voice, 2p / text, and 1p/ MB) can be used in various countries... such as France and USA under their *> "Feel at Home"

By the way, while in the UK, if you see information lines, etc, then the only ones which can be called (without costing a fortune on PAYG) are 0800, 0808 or 0500 numbers, or those numbers starting 01xxx, 02xxx, or 03xxx which are geographic numbers for various towns/cities with 03xxx which are business geographic numbers.

If you got the "All-in-One 15" £15 top-up, then calling 0800 etc would come out of your 300 minutes (and more expensive numbers like 0871, 09xxx, would be blocked. Also, don't call from a hotel phone - probably better to ask on MN for advice because there may be other options to call that won't cost you so much...

Finally - might be worth asking in the Expats area - some of the people there who are living in USA for a while may have some tips on what they do for short visits back in the UK... Enjoy your holiday.

I have Irish and UK payg sims and just use a different number in each country so not much help, sorry. When I arrive back in UK I just a put a quick message on Facebook reminding people to use my UK number. Every six months if I haven't returned to the UK I put my UK sim in and send a text - that keeps my number in service. I picked a payg service which gives unlimited data once you top up a certain amount so I can use Skype if I'm calling someone in the other country.

Even if your hotel doesn't offer free wifi, most coffee places and McD do.

Tarka - might be worth mentioning which networks you use so others can learn. Incidentally, I think 90 days is a more common (UK) limit on how long before a network might cancel a SIM and any remaining credit, if it has not been used... so leaving it as long as even approaching 6 months seems a bit risky.

It won't help for the OP (unless they travel to Eire or Germany in future) but there's an Irish firm, with *> website MyPlaceConnect.com

I was going to add that I know Three and Asda have credit which doesn't simply expire after 30 days (the way many UK networks now force on PAYG customers), but only if one doesn't buy an 'add-on' 'bundle'.

I still have some old Virgin Mobile SIMs from 2005 or so with free voicemail and just send a text every month or two to "keep them alive".

I use O2 in UK and 3 in Ireland. O2 credit only lasts three months but they have confirmed to me that I can keep my number if I use it every 6 months.
Im not sure if O2 is the best payg deal it was just the only local shop when I needed to swap my contract sim for a payg one in a hurry before emigrating.

Hoping that Earlybird spots this thread sometime :)

Thanks for the info Tarka - seems O2 are more flexible than some (such as Three, which seems unable to cope with transfer of a PAYG number to contract - even though that's likely to be better for them for income!). Also the clarification about 3 or 6 months - again, they seem to be happy to keep you.