SIM card
 

Doing a driving trip around Switzerland and exploring options for using mobile phone (Verizon). Verizon does not have an "international plan" and suggested I buy a SIM card for the phone. Having never replaced the SIM in my phone I have the following questions: Will I lose all the contacts and apps currently loaded? If so, do I assume I can reload the ones needed, i.e., weather, maps, etc.? Does the local SIM reduce/eliminate roaming charges? With a local SIM can I use something like Google Map for turn-by-turn driving directions? If I buy the SIM in Switzerland will it still work if we wander into Germany, Austria, France or Italy? Any trouble finding places to buy more time, if needed?

I assume I just put my original SIM back in when home and everything will revert to the current settings, right?

Thanks for the help.

>>> Verizon does not have an "international plan"

Verizon does have international plans:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/landi...tional-travel/

What they DON'T have are LOW COST international travel plans.

For your application, the navigation, if you access maps as you go (which can be avoided by offline map you download at home) and would like to use traffic info, then you might be chewing up around 10MB/hour and you would easily blow past Verizon's tiny data limits.

The data roaming cost of European SIMs outside the SIM's issuing country has come down, but not low enough for your type of data consumption. Others would mention that roaming is no longer an issue. That is true for voice and messages, but not yet for heavy data usage.

Verizon also has a plan that lets you use the amount of minutes and data you have on your home plan, by paying $10 per day, which isn't cheap.

If you change SIM cards, your apps and contacts should not be affected at all. On older phones, there was often an option to save your contacts on your SIM card instead of on your phone, but with Android phones and iPhones, contacts are now in the "cloud" and are associated with your user account, not with the SIM card.

I'm a Sprint customer, but I just did this in June with no problems. Got a SIM card from Sunrise (couldn't find Swisscom cards--even the Swisscom store as ZRH was sold out, but Sunrise was fine), and had all my contacts and email like normal. The clerk at the store in the Luzern bahnhoff mall put the card in, but on my way back, I made the swap at ATL myself and had no problems. The most worrying thing is probably keeping up with your Verizon SIM card while you are traveling--might want to bring one of those plastic cases that SD cards come in, or something like that.

We are Verizon customers and spent a couple weeks with our twin daughters in Europe earlier this year.

We opted to buy SIM cards, though it was not quite as simple for us as some have suggested. My biggest suggestion is to AVOID VIRGIN MEDIA. It took us over an hour in the Virgin store and involved several phone calls to their customer service number to set up the phones (including strong "encouragement" for us to pay more than what we'd purchased, even though the bonus plans would not have kicked in until after we'd left the country). The Virgin customer service team also required my credit card number to set up the phones, separate and in addition to from the SIM cards I purchased and paid for in the store.

Other people have seamlessly bought SIM cards in other countries, so it may just be our (in)experience. Once the phones were set up, they worked great, *except* for difficulty in topping off the cards because Virgin has surprisingly few stores where you can do that.

On a brighter note, the process of physically installing the SIMs was easy. If you don't have a paper clip, the store/vendor should have a tool to open the phone.

Re: storage of the Verizon SIMs, we took small containers (about the size of several quarters stacked) and put a cotton ball in each one to cushion the SIMs. They traveled fine and worked fine after we popped them back into our phones after landing in Toronto.

To answer your questions in order:

- you won't lose the apps, you might lose the contacts. All phones have an option to save contacts to the SIM card, the phone, or both. If you've only saved contacts to the SIM, they might be lost. Have a look around your phone's security options to make sure they're saved to both. Apps will be fine, they're not stored on the SIM. However, if you want to use a SIM from another provider, you'll need to make sure that your phone is unlocked. Contact your provider to get them to do this. Once it's unlocked, you can use any SIM from any country in that phone.

- A local SIM would eliminate roaming charges, absolutely. You'll be given a local Swiss number but will pay the rates that locals pay, which are pretty cheap. It may not be quite as cheap as the rest of Europe, because Switzerland is not in the EU, but it shouldn't be too expensive.

- Yes, you'll be able to use Google Maps with your local SIM. However, a good tip would be to download the Google Maps for the area you're visiting in advance. This will give you all the functionality of the online experience (except for up-to-date travel reports) without you having to pay for it.

- If you wander into another country, your local SIM will not work, no. If this is a concern, consider getting an international SIM card. These are designed for international travel and will work when you cross borders (though you might need to prompt your phone to connect to another network). Telestial.com have a good range of international SIMs, including a Europe-based one. This will cover you for the entire region.

- You shouldn't have too much trouble finding places to top-up, you can probably do so in most convenience stores. Again, if you go with the international SIM, you can top-up via their app.

One last thing to bear in mind. Switzerland has a lot of mountains, which makes it less than ideal for using a cellphone. If you do run into problems, make sure it's not the local geography that is messing your signal up before blaming your provider. Good luck, I hope you have a great trip, and I strongly recommend you stop by Murren if you get the chance.