Reminder: Don’t Go Roaming Overseas

I’ve been a longtime Verizon subscriber—a little too long, if I’m being honest, as I’ve been with the company since it was GTE Wireless. My phone number is an original relic from the ’90s boom of mobile technology. You can understand, then, why I’d convince myself to allow Verizon to roam for me while galivanting through the Netherlands and the United Kingdom these last few weeks. I remember when the CDMA-reliant network did not work overseas, nor could I pop in a SIM due to the locked-down hardware. I had to bring a phone with that country’s cellular offerings. It was either that or have no phone.

Anyway, I went so deeply into that memory that I didn’t realize how bad the roaming fees would be—I convinced myself it wouldn’t be so bad. Verizon charges $10/day for international roaming. When I finally got the bill, I realized I had made a grave mistake. It tacked on an extra $80 to my monthly bill when I could have bought a SIM card outright that granted me the same access to data.

Before I left, KnowRoaming offered me a travel SIM for my adventure, so I took it as a sign to finally test out whether it’s worth roaming with a U.S. number around the world for the sheer sake of convenience. As you can already guess from the tone I set here, it’s not. I’m thankful I can afford the bill after the trip, but it was a glaring reminder of why there are data packages specifically for traveling folks.

Two SIMs, one phone

The nice thing about being in the year 2024 is that smartphones can now handle more than a few SIM cards at a time. With the advent of eSIM, it is easier to pay for service than ever before. You don’t have to scour the stalls at the airport for the one that will sell you the prepaid data. Instead, you can go to a service like KnowRoaming, which reached out to me before I left the U.S., and scan a QR code to get going. They offered me a code for 5GB of data for 30 days across 39 countries, and I agreed to it, mostly out of self-preservation in case, for some reason, my Verizon SIM didn’t work overseas. I used it in two of those. The total would have been $20 if I paid. I could have saved at least $60 from what I’d spent extra on my Verizon bill.

I set up the KnowRoaming eSIM with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and kept my Verizon number active on the Google Pixel 8. Each day, I’d get a text message on the Pixel letting me know Verizon was charging $10/day for international roaming. “That’s fine,” I told myself. I continued to convince myself of my brilliant idea as I received text messages from overseas. Of course, I had to manually download each message from a group chat with an iPhone user—it’s rough being a green bubble—but I could keep up with what was happening at home. I even managed to catch a message that came solely to me, but that needed forwarding to my partner. “This $10/day is so worth it,” I told myself again.

Here’s what I should have done instead: I should have taken the KnowRoaming SIM and loaded it up on my Pixel 8 instead of the secondary device, the Z Fold 6. Then, I could have switched between that eSIM and my home SIM so that I was only checking in once in a while rather than racking up a fee for each day. I would have saved a little more money had I switched to the eSIM and shut off roaming on my home SIM. Most of what I do on the smartphone is data-related anyway.

Sometimes, I noticed the KnowRoaming SIM had better cellular reach than my Verizon SIM. More than a few times, I used the KnowRoaming SIM on the Z Fold 6 over the Verizon one simply because the browser was moving faster. I also noticed Verizon tended to latch on to LTE towers over 5G ones, even with its coverage map proudly boasting 5G.

If you’re on any of the big carriers and traveling to another country, check to see what your international data roaming charges are like. For instance, AT&T customers have a $12/day fee, while T-Mobile is a little more forgiving with global roaming. I also wonder if I could have switched my Google Fi number to the Unlimited Plus or Flexible plans and saved some money. I’ll try that one out on the next trip.