When trying to lower the cost of your phone bill, you may notice that you get charged when your data begins to roam.
Roaming is when you are using data outside of your phone provider’s network.
While small roaming charges may not cost you much, extended use of data outside of your network can be just as costly as your phone.
Will Airplane Mode Prevent Roaming Charges From Verizon?
Yes, you can use airplane mode to prevent roaming charges, even if you have Verizon.
This trick will actually work for any phone service provider, as well.
However, it is important to keep in mind that you won’t be able to send or receive phone calls or text messages.
The only way you’ll be able to use any of the applications on your phone is if you have access to a nearby Wi-Fi network.
Even then, you’ll only be able to use internet-based applications, such as email, social media, and streaming services.
Roaming data occurs where your service provider does not reach your location, but another provider may be able to reach you.
You will most likely have roaming data charges if you visit another country that doesn’t have the same providers as your local area.
However, it isn’t uncommon to have roaming data, even in the United States.
This is a common problem in the rural parts of the country.
Due to the low population in some areas, they don’t receive the same amount of attention from cellular providers.
When using the airplane mode to prevent roaming charges, you will need to make sure that you don’t turn the mode off.
Even turning the mode off for a second will result in you getting charged for roaming.
Those who frequently plan to travel in areas that Verizon can’t reach may want to consider either changing your plan or your provider.
While airplane mode is okay for traveling or using a couple of times per day, it’s impractical for extended use.
Luckily, there are options for those who have to travel frequently that can help you save money while staying with Verizon.
Travel can be difficult enough without having to worry about how much extra money you’re going to pay on your phone bill.
How Roaming Data Is Charged Domestically
Depending on the plan that you have with Verizon, you may not be charged for domestic roaming.
For customers who have older plans such as the MORE Everything Plan, you will still be charged for domestic roaming fees.
Updating your plan will get rid of the roaming fees.
For all other Verizon customers, you will not experience any additional charges for domestic roaming data.
You will only need to worry about international roaming fees.
Those who are still using older phone plans are missing out on massive savings.
Customers have reported saving as much as $40 after updating their phone plan.
In some cases, Verizon has even bought customers out of their old plans.
Although your old Verizon plan may have saved you money back in the day, all good things must come to an end.
You never know the savings you could be missing out on when you don’t update your plan every couple of years.
No one wants to make the trip down to the Verizon storefront or deal with the hassle of changing their phone service plan, but it could end up saving you on fees that other customers aren’t experiencing.
How Roaming Data Is Charged Internationally
Technically, every Verizon customer has an international talk, text, and data plan.
The free, basic travel plan is Pay As You Go.
These are the roaming charges you see on your bill unless you have to pay an additional amount of money for your traveling service plan.
Depending on which country you are in, roaming service charges for talking on the phone are going to cost you $1.79 to $2.99 per minute.
In Canada, Mexico, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, it will only cost you $0.99 per minute of talking.
No matter what country you’re in, it will cost you $0.50 for each text message you send and $0.05 for every text message you receive.
Multimedia such as photos or videos will cost you additional fees, depending on the size and type.
Those who use the Pay As You Go plan will be charged $2.05 for every megabyte of data that they use.
If you were to stream music for one hour, you’d use up a megabyte.
You go through a megabyte of data after using social media for anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes.
Verizon’s Traveling Plans
Getting a travel plan will save you a lot of money, whether you’re just going for a week-long vacation or living between two countries.
Your options for international service include Verizon’s TravelPass or its Monthly International Plans.
With the TravelPass, you can use your phone exactly how you normally would at home for $10 per day.
It is available in 185 different countries around the world.
Verizon also has the Monthly International Plan, which costs $70 to $130 per month.
For $70 each month on top of your normal phone bill, you will get 100 minutes of being able to talk on the phone.
You will also get to send 100 text messages and receive as many as you like without an additional charge.
While $70 may only get you half of a gigabyte of international data each month, $130 will get you two gigabytes worth of data.
For the maximum price, you will also get 250 minutes of talk time and 1,000 text messages.
Where Does Data Roam Domestically?
Those who want to avoid having their data roam domestically can see where the areas with service are using Verizon’s coverage map.
This allows you to stay within your service network and gives you a warning when you may be exiting your network’s range.
When looking over the map, you will notice most of the country is covered by Verizon’s 4G LTE.
Places with higher populations are also covered by Verizon’s 5G Nationwide service. The 5G Nationwide coverage varies from state to state.
California seems to have the most 5G Nationwide coverage, with states like Delaware, Maine, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina all also having a higher amount of 5G support.
States such as Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have a fair amount of 5G Nationwide coverage.
Major cities around the country have 5G Ultra-Wideband, which include places such as Seattle, Miami, Boston, and many other major cities.
California has seven different cities with the 5G Ultra-Wideband alone.
The coverage map does more than just tell what kind of service is available in which parts of the country.
You can also see where service is unavailable.
Places that are not covered by Verizon are represented by the white parts of the map.
The eastern side of the United States has a lot more even coverage than the western side of the country.
States like Nevada, California, and Washington seem to have the least amount of service from Verizon.
Despite California having the most 5G Ultra-Wideband cities, it has some of the worst coverage.
The state with the worst coverage is Nevada.
Many chunks of Nevada don’t have any service from Verizon.
Customers have nothing to fear if they’re going to Las Vegas because the city has 5G Ultra-Wideband coverage.
How To Make Calls While Roaming
You can make calls while your service is roaming.
You’ll know that your service is roaming if you see the word “extended” appearing at the top of your screen.
Making calls while roaming may be simple for some phones, while others may need to do a little extra to get it to work.
If you notice that your phone isn’t wanting to make short-distance calls, you will need to add “1” before plugging in the rest of the phone number you intend to call.
For short-distance calls, this should be all you need to do.
Those who want to make long-distance calls while roaming are going to need to ensure that the International Services Enabled feature is on your line and a part of your service plan.
You have to access your Verizon account to change this feature.
To enable this feature, start by going to the “International Usage and Services” page on the Verizon account website.
In your phone service plan, click on the phone you want to enable international services for.
You will then want to go to the “International Inside the US” tab.
Under your plan information section, you will see whether or not International Service Enabled is actually active or not.
If the service is not a part of your plan, then you can add it to your plan from this screen.
After this, you will want to open the Manage International Options menu and choose “While in the US”.
You will then want to choose the dropdown menu that appears next to the device to which you’re adding the new feature.
Click the “$0.00 – International Serviced Enabled” option and then continue to the next step as the website advises.
You will then choose the starting date and confirm your decisions.
What To Do If Verizon Doesn’t Serve Your Area
Whether you’ve moved to a new location or are simply looking for a new phone service provider, it is incredibly important to look into whether or not a service covers your area.
There isn’t much that can be done if the phone service company doesn’t reach where you live.
Those who have poor reception where they live may find that their data roams frequently.
This is fine as long as you aren’t charged for roaming.
While newer Verizon customers don’t need to worry if they’re roaming, older customers are punished heavily for leaving an area that Verizon covers.
According to Verizon, customers who are in this situation will either need to find one of Verizon’s other phone plans that better fits their needs, or the customer will simply need to go with another phone service provider.
While Verizon appreciates those who want to choose Verizon as their phone service provider, there isn’t much they can do if they don’t have any towers that provide their service in your area.
Different cell phone services have different towers that they’re attached to.
When trying to decide on the kind of phone service to get in your area, check coverage maps and ask people who live in the area which provider they have.
Customers are more than willing to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly about different service providers.
By checking out the website of different providers in your area, you may be able to find better deals or promotions going on that will help save money.
Don’t be afraid to try out new service providers.
Just make sure that you do plenty of research into each one you consider.
Don’t forget to check out review sites.
They’ll help give you an honest idea of what to expect.
How To Turn On Data Roaming
You may notice that the phone doesn’t seem to allow your data to roam.
This is because of one of your phone’s settings.
By ensuring that you have data roaming turned on, you will be able to use your phone even while you’re out of Verizon’s service range.
There are different processes of getting to your data roaming setting that vary depending on the type of phone that you use.
Androids, iPhones, and Motorolas all have different pathways of getting through their settings.
For Android, you are going to want to go into your settings, which is represented by a gear.
Once you’re in your settings, you’ll want to choose More.
You will then be able to choose Mobile Networks.
In this tab, you will find your Data Roaming Access option.
Make sure that you allow access to the feature for all trips.
You will also need to set your network mode to Global.
iPhone users will also find this setting in their settings menu.
You will need to click Cellular, followed by Cellular Data Options.
You will find your Roaming tab here, as well.
On this screen, you will find a list of sliders.
Ensure that the Voice Roaming and Data Roaming selectors are green.
You will want to unselect International CDMA by turning the slider gray.
Then, your iPhone will be ready to go.
Motorola users will need to start by going to your apps and clicking the Settings application.
Click on the Networks & Internet option, and then the Mobile Network tab.
From here, you can select Data Roaming.
By sliding the Data Roaming selector all the way to green, you will be asked if you really want to turn data roaming on.
Confirm your answer and then click on the Preferred Network Type option.
You will want to choose Global.
Should You Turn Off Data Roaming At Home?
No, you shouldn’t need to turn off your data roaming at home unless you want to.
If you aren’t being charged for domestic roaming, then you have no need to turn it off when you’re home.
Those who are still charged when their phone decides to roam may want to turn roaming off if their home Wi-Fi is spotty.
As long as your home has Wi-Fi, your phone will choose to use that over service from another provider any day.
Even while you’re away from the areas where Verizon has service, your phone is going to choose Wi-Fi over data.
You also shouldn’t have to worry about roaming charges if you’re home unless Verizon’s service doesn’t reach you.
In those cases, it would be best to switch from Verizon anyway.
Verizon recommends looking into one of their other phone plans or switching providers at that point.
As long as you are in service range when you’re home and you have Wi-Fi, you won’t need to worry about your data roaming while you’re home.
If you notice that you’re getting charged for roaming while you’re at home, then you may want to inform Verizon and have them come take a look at your area.
Data roaming can cost customers a lot of money.
That’s why many do everything in their power to avoid it.
Your phone service already costs enough, you don’t need additional charges weighing you down as well.
