How to Use Your iPhone While Traveling Abroad, Without Going Broke
As some of you may know (after all, I have been peeing my pants posting about this for months), I’m venturing off to Europe with a couple friends in about two weeks. I’m super pumped.
As a self-acclaimed iPhone addict, I’ve been doing some research on how I can use my phone abroad without seriously breaking the bank. I’ve heard the horror stories about people coming back to the states with $2600 bills and I am NOT going to make the same costly mistake. I don’t plan on being glued to my iPhone the entire time, but I know it will come in handy when doing things like connecting with friends abroad, getting directions, finding local restaurants, reassuring worried boyfriends and family members that I’m alive, and of course, blogging.
Here are a few things I’ve learned:
- Turn Data Roaming “OFF”: You’ll find this under Settings > General > Network > Data Roaming. (To make it easy, the iPhone even says “Turn data roaming off when abroad to avoid substantial roaming charges when using email, web browsing, and other data services.) If you’re using your iPhone to simply make and receive phone calls, make sure you do this.
- Turn Fetch New Data “OFF”: This prevents your iPhone from automatically checking for emails. To access this, go to Setting > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data. Switch “Push” to “Off” and click “Manually”. Once switched, you’ll have to manually tell your phone to send and receive emails.
- Put your phone in Airplane Mode and Use Wi-Fi Instead of Data Networks: Airplane Mode blocks phone and data networks from going into and out of your iPhone. Wi-Fi networks, however, are accessible. It basically turns your iPhone into an iPod Touch.
- Download the Skype App: When using WiFi, make Skype calls to the States at no cost. The person on the other end will have to talk to you through their computer, but for conversations with loved ones every few days while you’re traveling, it is the way to go.
- Consider Purchasing an International Data Package: AT&T offers four data packages, ranging from $24.99 to $199. If you are planning, at any point during your trip, to use a data network to access the web or use emails, you should definitely get some sort of plan because access is much cheaper.
- Reset the Usage Tracker to Zero: Under Settings > Usage, you can see how many MB of data you’ve sent and received since you last reset the statistics. So if you’ve purchased an international bandwidth plan, you could theoretically track your statistics to avoid overuse.
