Slightly OT: How you get your voicemails and texts when travelling in Europe with a Euro-based SIM card?

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philb2

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I know that this thread is slightly OT, but there are lots of very smart, experienced people in this forum, so I'm hoping no one objects to this post and someone knows the answers.

We are probably going to Europe later this year. On a bunch of business trips in the past 10 years to London, I would simply buy a 1-week SIM card (as soon as I cleared customs and immigration). I didn't worry about getting texts and voicemails,because my wife remained home and it was always a 4-5 day trip. This vacation trip will be about 3 weeks, and I seem to get lots more texts and voicemails. I DO NOT want to pay AT&T's outrageous roaming charges, so we will both get Euro SIM cards. Is there a solution to this problem?

We will obviously have our Windows 10 laptops. We both have iPhones, if that matters.
 
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I'm sure there are other solutions than what I do, but I just leave the phone in airplane mode and then turn it on for a couple of minutes for it to get everything and then put it back in airplane mode to work with it. I'll then queue up all the replies, turn off airplane mode again, send and turn airplane back on again. Voicemails are a bit more costly since it's more data, but it keeps the damage minimal with at&t.
 
Since your using iphones then imessage will continue to work as usual as that is tied to apple ID. Voicemail will be going US number which is tied to your US SIM so ... Going forward may be wise to get a google voice number and use that as it will follow the ID vs the SIM. This is another reason I carry two phones one for work and personal phone. If work wants me check voice/email then they can pay for it otherwise, my OOO says no voice/email until I return.

FWIW ATT has a $10/day international plan that caps at 5 days per billing cycle. so $50 per line will cover the whole trip. I used that last time I was in Bahamas and worked perfectly.
 
Generally speaking you are screwed. I switched to Google Fi which has reasonable international use instead of SIM card switching.
 
Nicklebon said:
Going forward may be wise to get a google voice number and use that as it will follow the ID vs the SIM.
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Not practical, since people already have our mobile numbers. We don't seem to get junk mobile calls. Or course, if I could rewind 10+ years, then yes, in 2010 I should have gotten a Google voice number.

Nicklebon said:
This is another reason I carry two phones one for work and personal phone. If work wants me check voice/email then they can pay for it otherwise, my OOO says no voice/email until I return.
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My last job was as a consultant. We provided our own equipment, and I took tax deductions for laptops, etc.

Nicklebon said:
FWIW ATT has a $10/day international plan that caps at 5 days per billing cycle. so $50 per line will cover the whole trip. I used that last time I was in Bahamas and worked perfectly.
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The ATT plan is still $10/day, with $5/day for additional lines on same plan. That's good. But, the plan now caps at 10 days, and the cap applies per billing period, so I can double these costs for our trip. So I have to discuss with my SO about the tradeoffs.

Thanks to everyone who replied. Now I have the info I need.
 
philb2 said:
Not practical, since people already have our mobile numbers. We don't seem to get junk mobile calls. Or course, if I could rewind 10+ years, then yes, in 2010 I should have gotten a Google voice number.
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Your missing the point ... Call forward ATT voice to google while your away.
 
This is where having a plan with free international roaming like Tmobile or Google Fi is awesome.

I just go, and don't worry about it. :p
 
Nicklebon said:
Your missing the point ... Call forward ATT voice to google while your away.
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That's initially what I was thinking, but that actually does nothing as the voicemails and texts are still on the primary number called.
 
SamirD said:
That's initially what I was thinking, but that actually does nothing as the voicemails and texts are still on the primary number called.
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Correct will do nothing for text but, imessage will continue to work as always as it is tied to his apple id and anyone sending sms from an android device isn't worth thinking about so their texts just don't matter. :) Voicemail is a race condition between ATT and GV depending on settings.
 
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