Daughter has an iphone4s, and will be going from US to France. She is using Verizon. Besides a power converter for charging her phone, will her phone operate OK, or should she buy minutes over there . . . or any other advice appreciated.
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Traveling to France
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Roaming costs a stupid amount of money, just tell her to go and buy an Orange prepaid SIM when she's there, just make sure she can speak a bit of French.
I wish I had a phone when I was traveling Europe. I used my cell phone for an alarm clock at the time and just used a calling card. I suggest she gets a native phone over there for rent or lease or something cause the charges are crazy.
Also, not sure about Verizon but with Tmobile I had to call in to tell them i was going international and they had to "turn something on" to allow international use. Not sure what it was but it was free of charge.
Off topic but important, MAKE SURE she calls her bank and credit card company and lets them know she will be abroad. There's nothing worse than needing money out of the ATM pronto and having the bank block it cause of ID theft. This happened to me and a lot of people who studied abroad with me back in college. Then you have to get a calling card, find the number and figure out how to dial BofA or whatever credit card, ask them to unlock it, etc. and it can turn out to be a big pain.
Also, not sure about Verizon but with Tmobile I had to call in to tell them i was going international and they had to "turn something on" to allow international use. Not sure what it was but it was free of charge.
Off topic but important, MAKE SURE she calls her bank and credit card company and lets them know she will be abroad. There's nothing worse than needing money out of the ATM pronto and having the bank block it cause of ID theft. This happened to me and a lot of people who studied abroad with me back in college. Then you have to get a calling card, find the number and figure out how to dial BofA or whatever credit card, ask them to unlock it, etc. and it can turn out to be a big pain.
Sorry so long to get back to this thread, but thank you for the advice. The phone is not unlocked, but I heard/read somewhere that the sim in the Verizon version will work overseas. Am going to take a trip to the local Verizon store before she leaves.
She speaks French OK, took 4 years in high school, and will be staying with a French family, and she's friends with their daughter who was an exchange student with us 2 years ago.
She speaks French OK, took 4 years in high school, and will be staying with a French family, and she's friends with their daughter who was an exchange student with us 2 years ago.
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Accounts in good standing are eligible for carrier unlocks that would allow your daughter to use a foreign carrier's SIM while she's abroad.
Here sir is your guide to use iphone's internationally. Google knowledgebase has all the answers to all of the questions, they already know that people are going to ask such questions.
The Verizon plan for international is now $25.00 per 100 meg. That means for someone who uses 1 gb of data a bill of $250.00 just for data and calls are around $.99 per minute. You pay for each text message you send or receive. This could take your bill out of sight for normal use and even higher.
I go to France every year and I will no longer use my 4s unless I can get a French sim when I get there. Just to much cost. Had a friend with me this last time and his data bill for 3 days was $500.00. Not a happy camper.
Have a good day
Remember this is not the French side that is charging these prices, but our "beloved"
VerizonUpdate:
Found another option after turning off data roaming.
Through Time Warner Cable, for $20 a month, we can call from the US to 100 countries on our digital phone, 1000 minutes a month.
Since our daughter is staying with a family in France, she doesn't need to use her iphone at all to call home. She sends a text to tell us when to call her at the home.
We keep the plan until she returns to the US then drop it.
Found another option after turning off data roaming.
Through Time Warner Cable, for $20 a month, we can call from the US to 100 countries on our digital phone, 1000 minutes a month.
Since our daughter is staying with a family in France, she doesn't need to use her iphone at all to call home. She sends a text to tell us when to call her at the home.
We keep the plan until she returns to the US then drop it.
Why would you do that? Get her iphone unlock, and once she gets to france tell her to buy a prepaid sim card plan then she will be able to imessage you for free. As for calling just tell her to facetime you free as well.
Didn't want to wait for up to 24 hours for a prepaid sim card plan to be activated. At least that's what I've heard/read.
Not at all. She can grab one at any news paper stand and such.
Ad I didnt see why you have to get a plan for international call which I said you can always facetime her or use vonage for free! There are plenty of options for you and her to keep it touch. Viber, nettalk, whatsapp ect.....