Avoiding huge bills when traveling internationally

[shannonbrooke]

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this already but I haven't really traveled abroad before so I just want to be 100% positive...I have an iPhone 5 with AT&T and I'm traveling to Europe next week. I won't need it for calls or anything so I'm just bringing it to play games on the plane and I'll use it in WiFi hotspots. So if I only use it for WiFi and I do NOT want a huge bill when I get home from roaming fees, all I need to do is leave it in airplane mode the whole time, correct? I know airplane mode seems kind of obvious, but then again you hear horror stories of people who travel internationally and then have huge bills when they come home…So I just didn't know if there was something more to it than that, maybe something I have to disable in Settings. Thanks.

 

[DanielCoffey]

Airplane mode will stop wifi working too, remember.

Here are a couple of tips that you will find on Google...

1. Ditch data roaming for Wi-Fi
iPhones, and most other smart phones, include a Wi-Fi option that lets you piggyback on local wireless connections. The trick is finding a free hotspot, which is where the brilliant Global Wi-Fi Finder application comes in handy. This nifty utility maps the locations of free Wi-Fi locations in 140 countries around the world. All the data is stored locally on your iPhone, or can be accessed online via JiWire’s website, meaning that you'll never be far from free internet access. Don’t forget to deactivate data roaming first, though: turn it off at Settings > General > Network.

2. Turn off automatic updates
For those of you who steadfastly refuse to switch off data roaming, streamlining your iPhone’s update facility is an absolute must. Go to Settings > Fetch New Data and switch off "Push". Then change "Fetch" to "Manually" – this stops your handset from checking your emails every few minutes, which would otherwise run up a hefty bill over the course of any holiday

 

[thewitt]

Put it in airplane mode then turn wifi on manually and your cellular radio will never be activated.