Re: Traveling to Europe with a Verizon Droid Turbo
My son is going to Europe (UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium) and we are debating the best way for him to continue to use his VZW device. We had settled on just getting the VZW international plan as it doesn't cost much and could be prorated over the 3 weeks he is there, but it only give you 100MB of data.
When I traveled last fall with my Droid Maxx, I did use the 100 MB plan primarily. I left data off most of the time and used it only when I needed it. (There were times when I wanted to look at maps, send emails, but most of the time I was fine keeping data off, connecting to WiFi when needed.) However, I also purchased an EU-wide SIM (it had a Latvian number, I believe) that had I think 500 MB of data that I could use if I knew I really needed it. After 2 weeks, I had used 99 MB on my VZW plan - I couldn't have planned it better.
He is reluctant to buy a sim because he thinks it might mess up his contacts and other settings.
It didn't for me.
When you get there and put in a new sim, what does that do to your device? Also, I assume you will have a UK (or whatever county you buy it in) phone number for that time?
It doesn't do too much different. Your Google accounts are still registered and syncing. Yes, it gets a local number (which is good for making local calls - say, to make a reservation, etc.) It changes the APNs so that they can send and receive data, but that happens with the Verizon SIM as well.
You do have to make sure that the device is powered off when you change the SIMs, though. And, of course, be careful with them, and make sure that you buy a nano-SIM.
But, I do think it's hard to buy local SIMs that work in many countries without paying lots of roaming charges. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but it'd be a pain, I think, to buy a SIM in Germany, and France, and the UK, and the Netherlands, and Belgium.
This was the one that I bought:
https://www.prepaidzero.com/product-category/europe/
The Verizon plan may be best. Do note that it charges $25 for an additional 100 MB if you go over, and the default plan has charges for both sent and received texts - so he may want to reduce texting while he is there. There is a 100 sent text, unlimited received text, with 100 calling minutes plan for $40. It's 50 cents for sending a text and 5 cents to receive, so you may want to calculate whether it's worth the extra $15, if you go with the Verizon plan.
By the way, be careful of prorating the plan - prorating for three weeks means that you get only about 75 MB of data. I ended up holding the plan for the full month and then having it stop at the next billing cycle.