Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you everyone. Just checked Verizon have a plan $12/ day .

OP

I also have Verizon and have a hack. I up my plan temporarily to the highest level plan which gives you unlimited international talk and text. It costs about $10/month more, but is much better than $10-12/day. Then i change it back when I get home.

I mentioned this unthread, but can confirm that it's easy.

That's a good find!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you everyone. Just checked Verizon have a plan $12/ day .

OP

I also have Verizon and have a hack. I up my plan temporarily to the highest level plan which gives you unlimited international talk and text. It costs about $10/month more, but is much better than $10-12/day. Then i change it back when I get home.

I mentioned this unthread, but can confirm that it's easy.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you everyone. Just checked Verizon have a plan $12/ day .

OP

I also have Verizon and have a hack. I up my plan temporarily to the highest level plan which gives you unlimited international talk and text. It costs about $10/month more, but is much better than $10-12/day. Then i change it back when I get home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just bought a $20 eSIM and used in Paris and it worked great. It was from Orange. Can reload or buy a larger one.

Sounds economical will check it out.

Thanks
OP

I did it cause whenever I used Verizon overseas I have had problems. Maybe because I am Verizon Prepaid, but travel pass has never worked for me in Canada, Mexico or Europe. My husband was on Verizon through a corporate plan so I'm not sure what the issue is, but I decided to try something else. Loved Orange! They have an app that makes it easy to reload if needed.

Canada and Mexico are included free in our "normal" Verizon plan. The $12 daily travel pass kicks in automatically in other countries (in fact, be sure to turn off wifi if you don't want the travel pass). It's really seamless. Alternatively, consider upgrading your monthly plan that will include one additional country with free call and texts. We did this upgrade recently when the whole family traveled, then I downgraded our plan when we returned home.

Verizon travel pass is now $12 per day? It was $10/day last year.

Absolutely no switching back and forth once you set up the eSIM for data.
Pick an eSIM app and read up on how it works. I used Airalo, there are many others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have T-Mobile international coverage for calls and texts, but bought eSIMs just for data for a recent vacation. Worked great.

Interesting- our old grandfathered T-Mobile plan includes free texts when outside the US, but calls are 25 cents/minute so we don't really do that. The data is slow, but it's good enough for maps and things like Whatsapp voice calls. If you want a high speed data connection, we just wait on that stuff (videos, uploading pictures, etc) until back to the hotel/rental and have wifi.

PP you quoted. Sorry, you are right, only texts are free internationally w/T-Mobile.
Data from eSIM was very convenient for GPS (I know, you can download offline maps) and for research on the go, like find a cafe and call/check if it is open on a holiday. Slow/no data was a big annoyance on prior international trips, so I am glad we had it. To save $$, only one person in the group can pay for fast data.

having to switch to a local SIM and lose home phone number.

If you set the eSIM to data only, you stay with the same phone number.
Costs literally $15, tops.

Nice! Had no idea that was an option. Sorry to get in the weeds, but then how does that work with calling/texting? You can't do normal texts then when not in wifi? But you can do Whatsapp and iPhone-iPhone messages? Do you have to enable/disable/switch active eSIM when back within wifi range to get your regular numbers texts, etc?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have T-Mobile international coverage for calls and texts, but bought eSIMs just for data for a recent vacation. Worked great.

Interesting- our old grandfathered T-Mobile plan includes free texts when outside the US, but calls are 25 cents/minute so we don't really do that. The data is slow, but it's good enough for maps and things like Whatsapp voice calls. If you want a high speed data connection, we just wait on that stuff (videos, uploading pictures, etc) until back to the hotel/rental and have wifi.

PP you quoted. Sorry, you are right, only texts are free internationally w/T-Mobile.
Data from eSIM was very convenient for GPS (I know, you can download offline maps) and for research on the go, like find a cafe and call/check if it is open on a holiday. Slow/no data was a big annoyance on prior international trips, so I am glad we had it. To save $$, only one person in the group can pay for fast data.

having to switch to a local SIM and lose home phone number.

If you set the eSIM to data only, you stay with the same phone number.
Costs literally $15, tops.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have T-Mobile international coverage for calls and texts, but bought eSIMs just for data for a recent vacation. Worked great.

Interesting- our old grandfathered T-Mobile plan includes free texts when outside the US, but calls are 25 cents/minute so we don't really do that. The data is slow, but it's good enough for maps and things like Whatsapp voice calls. If you want a high speed data connection, we just wait on that stuff (videos, uploading pictures, etc) until back to the hotel/rental and have wifi.

PP you quoted. Sorry, you are right, only texts are free internationally w/T-Mobile.
Data from eSIM was very convenient for GPS (I know, you can download offline maps) and for research on the go, like find a cafe and call/check if it is open on a holiday. Slow/no data was a big annoyance on prior international trips, so I am glad we had it. To save $$, only one person in the group can pay for fast data.

FYI, GPS isn't really relying on data from cell towers- that comes directly from the GPS satellites, not the primary data connection to cell towers. So yes, with an offline map downloaded, you can get directions without a cell data connection- although you won't get updated traffic info, for instance.

And you identified the most annoying part about the slow data- basic things like finding a restaurant that's a few blocks away, and having to wait to download the site for hours and the menu, etc. It will seriously take like 60-90 seconds to download a single page if it has some big graphics or video. Other than that we are fine with the slow data because we aren't watching videos, etc while out and about. But that little annoyance is worth it to save hundreds on a "normal" international plan, or having to switch to a local SIM and lose home phone number.

An alternative is to just connect periodically to wi-fi in your hotel, no cellular connection or expense needed. If you have a cellular travel plan, you can reserve it for emergencies but can check mail and texts, albeit less conveniently, using wi-fi only.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have T-Mobile international coverage for calls and texts, but bought eSIMs just for data for a recent vacation. Worked great.

Interesting- our old grandfathered T-Mobile plan includes free texts when outside the US, but calls are 25 cents/minute so we don't really do that. The data is slow, but it's good enough for maps and things like Whatsapp voice calls. If you want a high speed data connection, we just wait on that stuff (videos, uploading pictures, etc) until back to the hotel/rental and have wifi.

PP you quoted. Sorry, you are right, only texts are free internationally w/T-Mobile.
Data from eSIM was very convenient for GPS (I know, you can download offline maps) and for research on the go, like find a cafe and call/check if it is open on a holiday. Slow/no data was a big annoyance on prior international trips, so I am glad we had it. To save $$, only one person in the group can pay for fast data.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just bought a $20 eSIM and used in Paris and it worked great. It was from Orange. Can reload or buy a larger one.

Sounds economical will check it out.

Thanks
OP

I did it cause whenever I used Verizon overseas I have had problems. Maybe because I am Verizon Prepaid, but travel pass has never worked for me in Canada, Mexico or Europe. My husband was on Verizon through a corporate plan so I'm not sure what the issue is, but I decided to try something else. Loved Orange! They have an app that makes it easy to reload if needed.

Canada and Mexico are included free in our "normal" Verizon plan. The $12 daily travel pass kicks in automatically in other countries (in fact, be sure to turn off wifi if you don't want the travel pass). It's really seamless. Alternatively, consider upgrading your monthly plan that will include one additional country with free call and texts. We did this upgrade recently when the whole family traveled, then I downgraded our plan when we returned home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just bought a $20 eSIM and used in Paris and it worked great. It was from Orange. Can reload or buy a larger one.

Sounds economical will check it out.

Thanks
OP

I did it cause whenever I used Verizon overseas I have had problems. Maybe because I am Verizon Prepaid, but travel pass has never worked for me in Canada, Mexico or Europe. My husband was on Verizon through a corporate plan so I'm not sure what the issue is, but I decided to try something else. Loved Orange! They have an app that makes it easy to reload if needed.

Anonymous wrote:We have T-Mobile international coverage for calls and texts, but bought eSIMs just for data for a recent vacation. Worked great.

Interesting- our old grandfathered T-Mobile plan includes free texts when outside the US, but calls are 25 cents/minute so we don't really do that. The data is slow, but it's good enough for maps and things like Whatsapp voice calls. If you want a high speed data connection, we just wait on that stuff (videos, uploading pictures, etc) until back to the hotel/rental and have wifi.

We have T-Mobile international coverage for calls and texts, but bought eSIMs just for data for a recent vacation. Worked great.

T-Mobile has great international coverage, better than VZW. Their international plans for travel are lower cost than either ATT or VZW.