How to avoid charges with Airalo eSIM and Verizon wireless?

December 23, 2023 7:08 PM

We have Verizon wireless for our iPhone 13's. If we buy an Airalo eSIM for a trip to France, how do we avoid getting International Roaming charges? We called Verizon and they said to put the phone in airplane mode -- but then it won't use the eSIM's data, right?

Do we have to call them and specifically request that they disable International Roaming and/or "Travelpass"?

We plan to use data only for WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, but no Verizon cellular calls or SMS. Will Apple's Messages app work with only data (for addresses associated with the AppleID, though not the phone number)?

This is confusing. Thank you!

posted by wenestvedt to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

Best answer: Go to Settings, click Cellular, scroll down to SIMs, and turn off the Verizon one, while turning on the Airalo one.

…you may want to also do things like set your Airalo SIM for low-data use, but the basic step above will shut off Verizon and push all data through the eSIM, including iMessage, WhatsApp etc.

Disclosure: I haven’t used Airalo, but I am presently in rural India using an Ubigi eSIM in the way I describe, and I think this end of eSIM usage is the same for all providers.
posted by aramaic at 7:16 PM on December 23, 2023 [7 favorites]

Best answer: +1. aramaic. I did those steps for ubigi in JP and it worked as intended. You wont get texts etc but if you use other apps you can communicate.
posted by drowsy at 7:52 PM on December 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Yes to the suggestion (and confirmation!) above to turn off the Verizon SIM. Sometimes Airalo can take a few minutes to switch over and if you run out of data, things may slow down but not completely stop, which is confusing. I've used Airalo in multiple places, including France, and it was good! My one tip is that an Airalo SIM card only for France will only work in France, sadly, so if you cross borders you'll need a more inclusive one. But it really does work!!!
posted by smorgasbord at 11:09 PM on December 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I am overseas using Airalo right now and followed the same steps aramaic outlined above. Usually I get a cellular roaming notification via text with the the daily $$ fee and there has been nothing. I can toggle freely from eSIM to free wifi and back without issues. I was an Airalo rookie prior to this.
posted by Juniper Toast at 3:22 AM on December 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Just to be sure, I just called Verizon and asked them to disable automatic TravelPass on our phones. It took some time on hold but the agent happily did it for us.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:43 AM on December 24, 2023