long distance long duration travel questionS!

[walterkurtz]

hi. i am planning on leaving the US for a year. i intend to spend most of it in europe, but also would like to spend a month in japan. i did a few european countries in may and found out the hard way that either A) my verizon LGV40 with international plan was slow or B) portugal has particularly bad internet??. either way it was difficult to navigate using my phone especially after my data had been throttled....

my questions are do i take this phone with me and buy SIM cards along the way?

if so will i still get US text messages? (i have read about porting my number over to google voice which i believe then cancels my verizon contract)

or do i buy a phone here or there that is unlocked? and if so does it matter which one? if my verizon phone is locked i suppose i am open to any brand. but my last two phones were LG and i dig them.

anything else i am missing? i have never traveled for so long and am probably forgetting something MAJOR.

thank you!!

 

[Javier P]

In most European countries there's no roaming anymore so it's much easier buying a pre-paid card and use data wherever you go. Prices depend on countries and carriers. I travel to Europe once a year staying in different countries and my favourite carrier is Orange Spain, cheap pre-paid plans with free roaming. My wife prefers Vodafone UK and none of us ever had a problem traveling around.

We both use dual SIM phones and keep one of our original cards for SMS (banks, bills, etc). If you are considering buying a new phone look for a model with this capability.

 

[Javier P]

One question, which European country will be your starting point? In general is easier and cheaper buying the SIM card in little shop or even supermarkets than in the carriers shops or stands.

Now that mentioned Portugal, Vodafone stands in Lisbon airport are a mess, expensive and could give you some problems with roaming. Make sure that free roaming is included in your plan.

 

[walterkurtz]

planning on starting in lisbon but spending months at a time in germany spain and weeks in london and copenhagen. my current phone only has the one sim card tray.

now i am also wondering if when i switch sim cards am i still able to access google accounts apple music etc?

I've never stayed away from the states longer than a month and always just buy an international plan from my us carrier while i’m away.

thank you!

 

[Javier P]

planning on starting in lisbon but spending months at a time in germany spain and weeks in london and copenhagen. my current phone only has the one sim card tray.

now i am also wondering if when i switch sim cards am i still able to access google accounts apple music etc?

I've never stayed away from the states longer than a month and always just buy an international plan from my us carrier while i’m away.

thank you!

You won't have any problem accessing your accounts after switching the card. You can even use accounts like WhatsApp or Telegram that are associated to that phone number! As a precaution take the card with you and make sure that your contract is active. Some accounts use a two steps verification and use that phone number to send SMS as an extra security measure. You could consider deactivating this option and using another Gmail account as the extra verification.

About Portugal. Things change very quickly in the mobile market so check if Vodafone has good pre-paid plans without roaming limitations. You can find cards from other carriers in many street shops.

About the rest of the countries. I've used Vodafone and Orange cards in Portugal, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK with no problems at all, you just need a plan to pay the monthly fee or top the card up for the whole of the journey (~10-15 Euros/month). I'm sure Denmark is included in most free roaming plans.

About the UK. Tricky, who knows what's going to happen with this Brexit disaster. There's no way to be sure if they are going to stay in the European free roaming or not. My guess is that they will.

I don't know how much would cost a roaming plan for your US card but I would be very surprised if buying a pre-paid card in Europe is not much cheaper.

 

[walterkurtz]

You won't have any problem accessing your accounts after switching the card. You can even use accounts like WhatsApp or Telegram that are associated to that phone number! As a precaution take the card with you and make sure that your contract is active. Some accounts use a two steps verification and use that phone number to send SMS as an extra security measure. You could consider deactivating this option and using another Gmail account as the extra verification.

good idea about disabling two-factor authorization. i wasn't planning on keeping my verizon contract alive. it would be 1400 a year unless they let me downgrade to a minimal plan. but it might be worth it if porting my phone number to google voice disrupts a lot of my daily apps.

but just to be clear since i have never done it before: when i put a new SIM card into this phone the apps no longer recognize it? for instance whatsapp would no longer connect since it knows me by my US mobile number?

thank you!

 

[Javier P]

but just to be clear since i have never done it before: when i put a new SIM card into this phone the apps no longer recognize it? for instance whatsapp would no longer connect since it knows me by my US mobile number?

thank you!

Don't worry, it will work fine. In many travels I've used WhatsApp, Telegram and any other app with the related SIM card kept safe in a box You will only need the card if you want to reinstall those IM apps in order to get the verification SMS. That can be only a problem if you cancel that number. There are different ways to avoid this problem but I have no experience in Google numbers or US carriers.

 

[Javier P]

Let me ask around about porting the number to Google Voice.

 

[walterkurtz]

Let me ask around about porting the number to Google Voice.

thank you!!

 

[Javier P]

Also, if you don't mind losing your old number you can migrate your WhatsApp account very easily to a new number. See this.

https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/android/27585377/?category=5245246

Other apps associated to a phone number have a similar option.