Preventing roaming charges while abroad?

[wordoflife]

Hi all,

I'll be traveling abroad and want to know how to prevent any extra charges while keeping as much functionality of the phone as possible (so... I want to try avoid taking out the SIM).

If I set up call forwarding (via Settings > Phone > Call Forwarding) to my Google Voice number and disable data roaming will I be okay?

The advantage I see to this is that I will still receive SMS (and hopefully MMS?).

I have AT&T.

Thanks

Edit: Also out of curiosity, are there any cheap unlocks available for the 5S for AT&T right now? Last I heard they were pretty expensive.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Hi all,

I'll be traveling abroad and want to know how to prevent any extra charges while keeping as much functionality of the phone as possible (so... I want to try avoid taking out the SIM).

If I set up call forwarding (via Settings > Phone > Call Forwarding) to my Google Voice number and disable data roaming will I be okay?

The advantage I see to this is that I will still receive SMS (and hopefully MMS?).

I have AT&T.

Thanks

Edit: Also out of curiosity, are there any cheap unlocks available for the 5S for AT&T right now? Last I heard they were pretty expensive.

I was just in the Bahamas a few weeks ago, and once I landed I turned off cellular data but everything else was kept in tack. Pretty much data is disabled, meanwhile keeping voice and SMS enabled. I highly recommend adding a global text messaging package from AT&T. Its $10 for 50 messages or $20 for 300 (Could be wrong about amount). Otherwise individual messages are like $.50.

Also, before you takeoff, make sure to turn off cellular data instead of after landing. I forgot to do it that way and it cost me $22.95 in data for 1.1MB because something was running in the background as I was disabling cellular data. I got AT&T to reverse the charge but the fact that they charge over $20 per MB is ridiculous!

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with the call forwarding part of your question, so hopefully someone else can chime in. Goodluck!

 

[wordoflife]

I was just in the Bahamas a few weeks ago, and once I landed I turned off cellular data but everything else was kept in tack. Pretty much data is disabled, meanwhile keeping voice and SMS enabled. I highly recommend adding a global text messaging package from AT&T. Its $10 for 50 messages or $20 for 300 (Could be wrong about amount). Otherwise individual messages are like $.50.

Also, before you takeoff, make sure to turn off cellular data instead of after landing. I forgot to do it that way and it cost me $22.95 in data for 1.1MB because something was running in the background as I was disabling cellular data. I got AT&T to reverse the charge but the fact that they charge over $20 per MB is ridiculous!

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with the call forwarding part of your question, so hopefully someone else can chime in. Goodluck!

Thanks for the information. Sounds good I'll be sure to turn off cellular data before leaving. But actually, I was thinking of keeping cellular data on and just keeping data roaming off.

I wonder if that would be okay too. Reason being, I'd still be able to receive MMS/Group messages. Actually, not sure about that.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Thanks for the information. Sounds good I'll be sure to turn off cellular data before leaving. But actually, I was thinking of keeping cellular data on and just keeping data roaming off.

Image

I wonder if that would be okay too. Reason being, I'd still be able to receive MMS/Group messages. Actually, not sure about that.

It should be okay, but I am unsure how group chats and MMS would work. When traveling I avoided those at all cost. Just used my 50 messages here and there when needed.

 

[abecker]

Hi all,

I'll be traveling abroad and want to know how to prevent any extra charges while keeping as much functionality of the phone as possible (so... I want to try avoid taking out the SIM).

If I set up call forwarding (via Settings > Phone > Call Forwarding) to my Google Voice number and disable data roaming will I be okay?

The advantage I see to this is that I will still receive SMS (and hopefully MMS?).

I have AT&T.

Thanks

Edit: Also out of curiosity, are there any cheap unlocks available for the 5S for AT&T right now? Last I heard they were pretty expensive.

Make sure if you setup forwarding that it does NOT ring your phone. You will get charged if it does.

I would play it safe and keep it in airplane mode + enable wifi afterwards.

 

[Yptcn]

I was just in the Bahamas a few weeks ago, and once I landed I turned off cellular data but everything else was kept in tack. Pretty much data is disabled, meanwhile keeping voice and SMS enabled. I highly recommend adding a global text messaging package from AT&T. Its $10 for 50 messages or $20 for 300 (Could be wrong about amount). Otherwise individual messages are like $.50.

Also, before you takeoff, make sure to turn off cellular data instead of after landing. I forgot to do it that way and it cost me $22.95 in data for 1.1MB because something was running in the background as I was disabling cellular data. I got AT&T to reverse the charge but the fact that they charge over $20 per MB is ridiculous!

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with the call forwarding part of your question, so hopefully someone else can chime in. Goodluck!

Very odd , I travel a lot and the only thing that's off is Data when abroad . Well sometimes 3G ( I don't have 4G or LTE on my 5 bought in France )to save battery . I do take a 50 text message package . I wait to get WiFi to download emails .

Never set up call forwarding and voicemail does not take messages when abroad so I don't panic who called . My message says ICE please send SMS .