Iphone help

[CruisersTimesThree]

Hoping someone can help me as I have called Verizon Wireless 3xs and got 3 different answers....who trains these people??!!

I will be taking my iphone 5 with me on my cruise in two weeks and want to know exactly what I should do so I don't incur ridiculous data charges, but I still need access to calling and texting to keep in touch at home. I don't really expect to call, but I do text a couple of times a day to check in, as the cost is not astronomical (50 cents to send, 5 cents to receive) Did this last year with my old phone and the bill was like an extra $20. But now with a smartphone I want to be sure.

I had one tech tell me that texting uses data? I don't think so unless its iphone to iphone, which it will not be (apple uses some iChat feature which does use your data) ...another told me that I had to shut off the regular cellular data and then keep roaming data on in able to get or make a call...again, I don't think so.

As far as I understand all I need to do is just make sure roaming data is in the off position and I'd be ok, still have phone and texting. Apps cant update without data, so if the roaming is turned off the phone wont have any access to any local data network. Am I correct? Do I also need to shut off the regular cellular data to be sure also? (its the first option in the cellular setting on iphone 5)

I know most people say to just put it into airplane mode, but that shuts off everything and I need phone and text.

The good people here at cruise critic are wonderful and so helpful!

Thanks to anyone who can give me some direction and an answer!

P.S. my DH has a droid, I would assume same thing...turn off roaming data?

[Pompein]

Thanks for posting this. I need the same question answered, too!

[waterbug123]

I will be taking my iphone 5 with me on my cruise in two weeks and want to know exactly what I should do so I don't incur ridiculous data charges, but I still need access to calling and texting......As far as I understand all I need to do is just make sure roaming data is in the off position and I'd be ok, still have phone and texting.

 

Correct. Turn off data roaming to avoid the exorbitant charges that occur when your phone automatically checks email, or updates apps that use data etc. You will still be able to call and text. There WILL be a charge for cellular roaming when you make a call. Check with your carrier, but it's typically around $2.49/minute so I'd still plan to keep phone calls short and sweet. If you have unlimited texting (or are within your texting limit) the typical charge when roaming is $0 to receive a text and .50 to send a text. If you send a photo via text, the charge will typically be more. Again- check with your carrier. The rates I've listed are AT&T and I seem to recall those with other carriers posting similar rates.

 

Note: You can often purchase an international calling plan, but if you only plan to make a couple of very short calls, it probably isn't worth it. Typically you would pay something like $25, and then get a reduced rate of 1.99/minute for calls, so the savings is minimal. If you plan to spend hours and hours on the phone it might be worth it, but for two or three 2-minute calls to just make sure the house hasn't burned down, you likely wouldn't recoup the initial cost of the plan. For that matter, if all you intend to do is check every few days to make sure the house didn't burn down (or that the cat sitter showed up, or if your son won or lost his game, whatever... just text...it's by far the cheapest way to communicate with someone back home when you're onboard.

[silentbob007]

The biggest possible accidental charge is roaming data, so if that us shut off there shouldn't be any huge surprises unless you send thousands of texts.

[shoreham01]

I turn off data roaming, 3g, and even wifi. I Just turn wifi back on if I am in a free wifi zone.

 

You may also like to turn off your voicemail as this can be expensive to retrieve abroad. To do this you need to check with your service provider as you will need a code to turn it off.

 

Really text and free wifi is the only way to go.

[Peteymil]

Correct. Turn off data roaming to avoid the exorbitant charges that occur when your phone automatically checks email, or updates apps that use data etc. You will still be able to call and text. There WILL be a charge for cellular roaming when you make a call. Check with your carrier, but it's typically around $2.49/minute so I'd still plan to keep phone calls short and sweet. If you have unlimited texting (or are within your texting limit) the typical charge when roaming is $0 to receive a text and .50 to send a text. If you send a photo via text, the charge will typically be more. Again- check with your carrier. The rates I've listed are AT&T and I seem to recall those with other carriers posting similar rates.

 

Note: You can often purchase an international calling plan, but if you only plan to make a couple of very short calls, it probably isn't worth it. Typically you would pay something like $25, and then get a reduced rate of 1.99/minute for calls, so the savings is minimal. If you plan to spend hours and hours on the phone it might be worth it, but for two or three 2-minute calls to just make sure the house hasn't burned down, you likely wouldn't recoup the initial cost of the plan. For that matter, if all you intend to do is check every few days to make sure the house didn't burn down (or that the cat sitter showed up, or if your son won or lost his game, whatever... just text...it's by far the cheapest way to communicate with someone back home when you're onboard.

 

I had the same question. Thank you.

[CruisersTimesThree]

Meg,

Thanks so much for your answer! I know about the extra charges for calls/texting so that isn't a problem.

I will say I am confused by all that I found on the internet because some say to shut off just roaming, some say roaming and cellular, and others say you need to turn off "fetching" for your email,notifications, etc.

I think you are right with just the roaming data off...apps and email cant get through the phone if it has no data to work off of and by having roaming off it cant connect to any.

Once again CC members come through, thanks!

[Lsimon]

As far as I understand all I need to do is just make sure roaming data is in the off position and I'd be ok, still have phone and texting. Apps cant update without data, so if the roaming is turned off the phone wont have any access to any local data network. Am I correct? ...

 

Waterbug123's post matches my understanding completely.

 

And your are correct in your post quoted above. You do not have to turn off Cellular data totally - just the data roaming.

 

One other point. At least with ATT the visual voice mail on the iPhone requires data services to retrieve voice-mails. Since you can not get data you can not receive, or be notified of, voice-mail with an iPhone. For that reason I change my message before a trip to tell people I will not be available and will not be checking for messages so not to leave one. Of course I used to forget to change the message back but now I just set a reminder on the phone for the day after we get back.

[CruisersTimesThree]

Waterbug123's post matches my understanding completely.

 

And your are correct in your post quoted above. You do not have to turn off Cellular data totally - just the data roaming.

 

One other point. At least with ATT the visual voice mail on the iPhone requires data services to retrieve voice-mails. Since you can not get data you can not receive, or be notified of, voice-mail with an iPhone. For that reason I change my message before a trip to tell people I will not be available and will not be checking for messages so not to leave one. Of course I used to forget to change the message back but now I just set a reminder on the phone for the day after we get back.

 

 

Thanks for the voicemail info, I had no idea about that! If people cant get a hold of me if they need to, I guess they'll just try my husbands droid.

I'll assume his phone is the same case, just turn off roaming data and he'll be all set too.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

[cruiserhal]

This post is just in time for me. Today I purchased an I-phone 4S at Verizon so that I would have international roaming. What I was told was I did not have to purchase the International Calling option since the 4S will give me International Roaming. Now, I will only be using the phone for contacting my transportation company in England and for emergency calls so the extra charges for roaming don't mean much to me and I save $4 a month by not buying the international calling plan. Also, I don't have to rent an international phone anymore.

 

However, since this is my first I-phone may I please ask a question? How do I turn off data roaming? I looked in Settings but don't see it. I'm a total newbie with Apple. Sorry Android but so far I really love the I-phone and wish I would have purchased one earlier.

 

Thanks.

[YOW]

Just one additional thought that may or may not affect you:

 

If you plan to take photos with your iPhone, I find that having the phone in airplane mode while shooting, viewing or editing photos cuts down on battery drain. If not, no worries. But if so, consider going into airplane mode when possible.

[CruisersTimesThree]

 

However, since this is my first I-phone may I please ask a question? How do I turn off data roaming? I looked in Settings but don't see it. I'm a total newbie with Apple. Sorry Android but so far I really love the I-phone and wish I would have purchased one earlier.

 

Thanks.

 

 

My son has a 4s, so I just checked his...go into settings>general>tap on cellular. You will see roaming there and it should by default be set to OFF, if not, tap on it and change it.

[Lsimon]

... How do I turn off data roaming? I looked in Settings but don't see it. I'm a total newbie with Apple....

 

It is under the settings app, click general and then click cellular. The picture below is from an older version of the system on an iPhone 4, but it will look similar to this:

 

 

Also, the data roaming off is the default position so it will probably be in this position.

[cl.klink]

It is under the settings app, click general and then click cellular. The picture below is from an older version of the system on an iPhone 4, but it will look similar to this:

 

 

Also, the data roaming off is the default position so it will probably be in this position.

 

Very helpful. Thanks!

[Pompein]

Thank you all for the the info!:)

[cruiserhal]

My son has a 4s, so I just checked his...go into settings>general>tap on cellular. You will see roaming there and it should by default be set to OFF, if not, tap on it and change it.

 

I want to thank everyone for your help. And, yes, the default on my phone is voice roaming ON and data is OFF. Plus International CDMA is ON but I turned it off.

 

Thanks again, Hal

[Scrapnana]

Thanks so much to everyone who explained this so that even I could understand it!

[JanineM]

Just a little reality check for all. I turned my iPhone data roaming on twice, read about 2 text-only emails, sent about 5 text messages, and got a text from Verizon indicating that I had over $50 in data charges. That took all of 10 minutes with data roaming turned on.

[CruisersTimesThree]

Data is not needed to sent text messages, I used my non data phone last year from Bermuda to keep in touch at home through texting.

But, my understanding is that if you text iphone to iphone, data is required (can anyone confirm that?)

No one with an Iphone at home will be getting texts from me.

No reason to turn data roaming on, so mine will stay off the whole trip.

P.S. the above comment about iphone to iphone texting (called I-message) I just looked it up and found out that if I-messaging is not available, which I assume would be if you aren't connected to data, it will go through as a regular SMS message.

There is a setting in "settings" under messages...by default it is on for that feature.

Glad I started this thread, learning so much from everyone and my web search!

[Peteymil]

Just a little reality check for all. I turned my iPhone data roaming on twice, read about 2 text-only emails, sent about 5 text messages, and got a text from Verizon indicating that I had over $50 in data charges. That took all of 10 minutes with data roaming turned on.

 

If you had done this in a wireless connection, like a cafe, am I correct that there would be no charges? I was planning on only checking email when I find wireless.

[Iamcruzin]

If you had done this in a wireless connection, like a cafe, am I correct that there would be no charges? I was planning on only checking email when I find wireless.

 

I turned off data and cellular roaming and had the phone in airplane mode as an extra precaution. The only thing I had on was WiFi. I was able to text, email, open social media in hot spots. I found that there were plenty of unlocked hot spots in the Caribbean. The only time I had a problem connecting was on the ships Internet. Actually that was only in the Internet cafe' using their computers. I got better service on my iPhone at the pool when I was using their service. There is no extra charge from the phone carrier company when using WiFi

[Lsimon]

Just a little reality check for all. I turned my iPhone data roaming on twice, read about 2 text-only emails, sent about 5 text messages, and got a text from Verizon indicating that I had over $50 in data charges. That took all of 10 minutes with data roaming turned on.

 

You never want to use the international data roaming without a package! Here is some info for comparison and a frame of reference:

 

ATT rates for international roaming are probably similar to Verizon. If you do not have a package they bill at $0.0195/KB. To put this in perspective the minimum package (not good on cruise ship) runs $30 for 120MB. Without a package that same 120MB would cost you $2,400 and I've run through an entire 120MB package during a cruise just using it at ports of call.

 

What about heavy use? A lot of people have 3GB allowances at home on their iPhone, although few use nearly that much. Divided by 30 that would be 100MB a day which would cost $2,000/day at the non-package international rates.

 

If you had done this in a wireless connection, like a cafe, am I correct that there would be no charges? I was planning on only checking email when I find wireless.

 

If you are logged onto a wi-fi system then you are not using cellular data so there would be no cellular data charges. But to make sure you get no cellular data charges you need to leave your data roaming turned off!! There is no reason, and no need, to turn it on if you are going to a wireless cafe to use their wifi, or using wifi on the ship at the ship's rate ($0.75/minute). One should never turn the data roaming on unless they are covered by am international data roaming package purchased through their cell phone company. Even then you only want to turn it on when needed and then off when finished, and keep track of your usage.

 

Whether you incurred charges or not at the cafe depends on if they charge for WiFi - but this is billed by the cafe and not by your cell phone company so you'll know it since you'll have to log on and buy access. This is a similar situation as using your phone on Celebrity's wi-fi system on the ship - you have to set up an account on the ship and log into it and then it is billed at $0.75 for every minute you are connected and the charge goes to your on-board account.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

I find trying to use free wifi spot, the service is pretty bad a lot of times

But I guess if it free you cannot complain too much

[JanineM]

You never want to use the international data roaming without a package! .

 

Yeah - I knew I was risking a big bill, but I honestly thought "how much data will I really use if I just load the messages but don't read them." I'm normally pretty savvy about these things s this was simply stupidity - and I paid a big stupid tax! I am grateful that Verizon sent me the warning message or I could well have had a thousand dollar bill over a 13 night cruise.

[fishycomics]

How I remembered it. got on board, ship set sail, as within an hour a message came over the text of the phone. I shut down.........

 

When my Bill came, I knew there be a charge for that message, as no where is it posted in any print, and was rewarded th refund.

 

That warning with my carrier came with a fee, if it was 10 cents or a dollar. that text should never be charged if it is a warning to turn your cell off, or fees apply.

 

Wifi is free as long as it is unsecure. texting with Wi-Fi would mean using online services.