{"id":45987,"date":"2017-10-06T05:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T05:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=45987"},"modified":"2017-10-06T05:00:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T05:00:29","slug":"5000-cell-phone-bill-while-traveling-abroad-how-to-avoid-this-nightmare-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/technology\/mobile\/5000-cell-phone-bill-while-traveling-abroad-how-to-avoid-this-nightmare-scenario.html","title":{"rendered":"$5,000 cell phone bill while traveling abroad: How to avoid this nightmare scenario"},"content":{"rendered":"

$5,000 cell phone bill while traveling abroad: How to avoid this nightmare scenario<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

You can still be tripped up by painful cell-phone bills while traveling outside the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n

How badly? One reader showed us a $5,000-plus roaming bill. It required an especially awful set of circumstances\u2014a confusing mix of Google calling apps, unusually restrictive roaming options, and parents in a hurricane\u2019s way\u2014that most wireless users won\u2019t encounter.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the risk of getting dinged with lesser international surcharges remains real, especially at two of the big four wireless carriers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Things started to go wrong for this reader (who asked to stay nameless to avoid people questioning her competence on the job) when work required her to go to Saudi Arabia. Having often used Google Voice to make free calls through her computer\u2019s Web browser, she planned on using the mobile app of the same name to avoid roaming costs on her phone.<\/span><\/p>\n

But although Google\u2019s online help does state that the Google Voice app\u2019s calls \u201cuse minutes from your mobile phone plan,\u201d its listings in Apple and Google\u2019s app stores hide that detail below \u201cmore\u201d buttons and at the end of some scrolling.<\/span><\/p>\n

To make Internet-only calls from a Google Voice number, you instead need to use Google\u2019s Hangouts app\u2014yes, the one that the Google Voice app supposedly replaced in January. The iOS version lets you restrict calls to WiFi, while the Android app\u2019s Hangouts Dialer only does calls over a data connection.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then we have Verizon\u2019s role. The company\u2019s Travel Pass international roaming isn\u2019t bad, but this $10\/day deal isn\u2019t on by default. And Verizon\u2019s lengthy list of Travel Pass countries overstates its reach with extensive double-counting: It lists England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and the United Kingdom as separate destinations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia isn\u2019t even eligible for Travel Pass, leaving visitors stuck with pay-as-you-go rates of $1.79 a minute for calls, 50 cents per text message and $2.05 a megabyte of data. The kingdom also restricts purchases of prepaid SIM cards, the traditional way to avoid international roaming charges.<\/span><\/p>\n

So my reader got one text advising her of those roaming rates on arrival, then received no further warning of her mounting bills as she had many lengthy calls with anxious, hurricane-menaced parents in Florida. The resulting balance due? $5,585.60.<\/span><\/p>\n

Verizon looked into the situation after I inquired about it and volunteered to refund the roaming total, even though my reader had already canceled her account and ported out her Verizon number.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that, as the company notes, this was an unlikely combination of circumstances. But the problem could happen on a lesser <\/span>scale because Verizon\u2019s default international roaming is so expensive. AT&T subscribers face an even worse <\/span>risk since that carrier\u2019s default pay-as-you-go rates outstrip Verizon\u2019s. And AT&T\u2019s $10\/day Day Pass <\/span>option meanwhile works in far fewer countries than its pricier Passport roaming packages.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sprint and T-Mobile, however, each include discounted international roaming in their regular plans. Both charge 20 cents a minute for calls and allow free texting and slow-but-usable 2G data in a much larger assortment of countries than either AT&T or Verizon\u2019s most affordable roaming deals\u2014yes, including Saudi Arabia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source :-\u00a0https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/tech\/columnist\/2017\/10\/05\/5-000-cell-phone-bill-while-traveling-abroad-how-avoid-nightmare-scenario\/726598001\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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