When we started traveling abroad, international phone plans were outrageously expensive. It was frustrating because it was a little reminder reinforcing the myth that international travel is only for the rich.
We started out swapping our physical SIM cards for European ones, then we moved to eSIM cards but there were always problems with switching over to a European plan. First, unless your friends, family, and business associates know how to get a hold of you, you’re missing out because you will never know you missed those calls or texts. Then there were the loopholes cell phones companies added that your phone had to be paid off (not all companies but some).
Sure, it’s idealistic to say “I’m just going to unplug!” but not always realistic. We’ve been wanting to switch to something new, especially with leading groups, and it wasn’t until the night before we left for Europe on this 2025 trip did we pull the trigger.
Verizon (who is our phone carrier) has a new plan. However, I can’t verify how new. What I can say is even many of the people who work at Verizon didn’t understand the plan. It took three hours on chat and a follow up phone the next day to get this plan figured out.
I have heard T-Mobile has a free international plan, which speaks to how phone companies are making this more accessible. We were not interested in changing phone carriers at the moment.
However, for only $10 more a month from what we were currently paying, we now have an international calling plan. We have unlimited phone calls and text to/from the US from just about anywhere we would travel. We can call/text from within the same country we have traveled to. That is a downside because currently we are in Italy but cannot call Spain, for example. We can only call/text within Italy and back to the US. That’s a minor inconvenience.
This plan is called the “Ultimate Unlimited” and with autopay it’s $80 monthly. We were on the plan one step down for $70 monthly.
Here is the confusing part. Verizon has this “International Calling Plan” that is an additional $100 a month. It has all the same features of the Ultimate Unlimited but with a bit more data. I don’t even think I could call Spain while in Italy with this additional plan. We get 15 gigs of data and for an additional $100 a month you get 25 gigs of data. However, with both plans once you go over, they just slow your data down. There is WiFi everywhere. Travel is completely manageable with that much data unless you are here on business but that’s a different conversation.
But wait, there is one more “confusing” part. After three hours on live chat making this switch, Brian calls Spain from the US. We immediately get this text message:
It’s now the day we are leaving and I have to call Verizon. Fortunately the automated system recognizes I was on live chat last night and made changes to our plan so it moves me to the front of the queue and sends me to a more experienced person. Nice job, Verizon.
What we learned is the person who upgraded our plan needed to add the “Global Choice Plan” which is at no additional charge. Well that’s stupid, Verizon. But it’s part of what makes me think it’s a new change in the plan packages. Now we get this message when we land in a new country:
So here we are, in Italy, sipping cocktails and remaining connected. Of course, connected when we want to be; we are on vacation for goodness sake. This is a no-mindless-scroll zone. We don’t want to miss the experience but we don’t want to miss the phone calls/texts from those at home either.
If this blog helped you decide what to do before you travel, give it a like and comment. That helps others see this blog post. My hope is it saves someone time and money.
Until next time, take adventures!
0 Comments