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Going to another country. Will these steps stop unwanted charges?

E

EC99SS

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 6, 2012
34
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Hi all
I am visiting another country and have my 4s. I'd like to be able to receive calls in emergencies and will only use wifi. If I do the following will it keep me from getting surprise charges?

1) turn off cellular data (I don't see an option to turn off roaming data too)

2) turn off location services

3) turn off push and set fetch to manual

4) turn on wifi

Basically I want to be able to get iMessages and emails via wifi. I also want the ability to receive phone calls in case of emergency. Did I do everything needed so that I don't incur unwanted charges?

Also if I turn cellular data off and have wifi on, the calls made are free right?

Thanks
 
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Ahh ok thanks for the info. I thought the stock phone works with wifi.

So when I have cellular data off and wifi accessed, what am I using when on a call? I see the country's network name listed in place of my normal AT&T.

Or is cellular data only refer to emails, Internet, push data etc

Thanks and appreciate the help
 
Cellular data and wifi are for emain, internet, etc. Calls don't go through your data. If you make or receive calls while out of the country, you're likely to incur some hefty costs for roaming. But you're correct that you'll be able to use iMessage and internet when you have access to wifi.
 
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Tha is all. I read other people turn off "roaming data". I don't see that on my 4s. Is that now combined with "cellular data"
 
EC99SS said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

Tha is all. I read other people turn off "roaming data". I don't see that on my 4s. Is that now combined with "cellular data"
Click to expand...

There should be a "Data Roaming" toggle.

What carrier are you using?
 

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Just turn off cellular data. That should take care of everything. Location services needs data so that'll take care of that. Setting email to push wont do anything since there will be no data until it gets on wifi. Setting data to not roam wont do anything since the data will be off. Just having wifi on will make your iPhone an iPod touch.
 
I would look into an international data plan for the time you will be overseas, it should be less expensive than getting hit with roaming charges if you overlook something. I saw a guy who used 146 megs of data and it cost $3100. international data plan for a month would have been way less than that.
 
Trying to avoid international rates.....

EC99SS said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

Hi all
I am visiting another country and have my 4s. I'd like to be able to receive calls in emergencies and will only use wifi. If I do the following will it keep me from getting surprise charges?

1) turn off cellular data (I don't see an option to turn off roaming data too)

2) turn off location services

3) turn off push and set fetch to manual

4) turn on wifi

Basically I want to be able to get iMessages and emails via wifi. I also want the ability to receive phone calls in case of emergency. Did I do everything needed so that I don't incur unwanted charges?

Also if I turn cellular data off and have wifi on, the calls made are free right?

Thanks
Click to expand...


I am concerned because I am overseas and turned off everything I could find to turn off and I had Vodafone carrier pop up on my phone today and received 2 texts... one from a friend, and one saying international rates were $19.95/MB..... I turned all cellular data off, 3G off.

What am I missing? I only want to use wi-fi.

Thanks in advance.
 
When I went to Israel for 6 weeks, I had my iPhone on airplane mode for the entire trip. I made phone calls via skype on wifi and it was fine.
 
I don't understand the trouble everyone is going through. There is only step to take in order to make sure you're not going to receive unwanted charges:

Disable data roaming.

That's it.
 
chriscollins4 said:
I am concerned because I am overseas and turned off everything I could find to turn off and I had Vodafone carrier pop up on my phone today and received 2 texts... one from a friend, and one saying international rates were $19.95/MB..... I turned all cellular data off, 3G off.

What am I missing? I only want to use wi-fi.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Calls and SMS do not require Cellular Data - there's your problem.
 
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I go overseas all the time and I can assure you, the only thing you have to do is turn off data roaming. Setting > General > Network.

You'll still be able to recieve calls and text messages. Incoming texts go against your existing plan, so if you have unlimited text messaging, you won't be charge for any incoming text. However, any text you send will be at $0.50 (SMS) $1.40 (MMS).

You need to call AT&T before you depart and tell them you are traveling overseas and to enable international capabilities. This doesn't cost anything, but must be turned on for your phone to connect to international cell towers. AT&Ts policy to turn this on is your account having been in good standing for 90 days.

Connecting to cell towers doesn't cost anything and provides you the ability to make/recieve calls as well as text as mentioned. Phone call rates are different per country but approximate $4.00 per minute. As long as data roaming is turned off, there is no chance of getting charged for data at all!

Again, I'm overseas at least 1 week per month and the only thing necessary is to ensure data roaming is turned off (by the way, it is defaulted to OFF). Hope this helps.
 
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It is a requirement for American cell providers to warn you of international rates when you connect to an international cell tower. Text messages stating "international data rate is $19.95 per MB" is normal and doesnt cost you anything. Read my post above.

As long as data roaming is turned off, there is NO way to use data overseas except through wifi. Just because your phone connects to an overseas tower doesn't mean you are using data. However, current law requires you cell provider to warn you incase you decide to turn data roaming on and use data.
 
takeshi74 said:
Check your carrier's international roaming pages on how unanswered calls and calls that go to voicemail are handled.
Click to expand...
Definitely! I've seen a lot of threads over the years where folks are surprised that they can get billed international rates for not even answering their phones!

Here's how it works with AT&T:

Q. How am I charged for voicemail calls while roaming internationally?

A. Voicemail calls are charged as follows:

When your device is on:

Calls that you do not answer that are routed to the AT&T voicemail system will be charged as an international roaming incoming call to your device.
In addition, the foreign carrier's routing of that call to the AT&T voicemail system may generate an outgoing call charge from your device's location to the U.S.
These charges apply even if the caller disconnects from the voicemail system without leaving a message.

If your device is turned off or in flight mode and the wireless network is off:

When someone tries to call you, the call will go directly to your personal voicemail greeting.
Since the network does not try to deliver the call to you in a foreign country, there are no international roaming charges.
Click to expand...
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/faq.jsp

Personally, when I travel and know that I'm not going to be in flight mode, I always call AT&T beforehand and disable voicemail on my account until I'm back from my trip.
 
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