Much higher wireless bill because of international travel
By Lena Kovadlo
@lovebuglena (52208)
Staten Island, New York
September 10, 2024 12:16pm CST
So my mom went on vacation to Portugal. Her AT&T wireless plain has an International Day Pass. It is activated automatically when you make a call, send a text, or use data outside the US. The cost is $12/day and all it takes is sending one text or making one call to get charged the $12/day fee.
My mom was billed for this for five days. She was not able to make any calls. They didn't go through for some reason. And messages didn't always go through either. Yet she still has to pay the $60 because she had sent a text message on each of those days. I don't know how many text messages in total she had sent but it definitely doesn't add up to $60 had they been pay-per-text. All I see on her bill online is one text message on each of those days.
The guy I chatted with said to prevent the International Day Pass from activating you have to be on airplane mode. But then if you are on airplane mode wouldn't that mean you can't sent or receive text messages or calls at all?
I thought the guy would reverse these charges but unfortunately my mom has no choice but to pay them. 
6 people like this
5 responses
@kaylachan (84867)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
10 Sep 24
When you're not connected to Wi-Fi, your phone uses data in order to keep you connected to a tower. Yes, if you turn on airplane mode you're turning off access to both wi-fi and cell networks and towers. So, the reason why your mom was charged so much money, is because everyday her phone was trying to maintain or establish a connection with those towers. This happens in the background as long as the phone is powered on.
To avoid international fees, most people buy portable wi-fi that uses the countery's own internal network. This also helps avoid international charges from your carrair because your phone thinks it's on wi-fi and not to connect to local networks.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (52208)
• Staten Island, New York
13 Sep 24
We were told to turn roaming on and then if you make a call or send a text the International Day Pass would automatically turn on. At the end of the day $12/day is not too much to pay but when you can't make calls and not all texts go through then it is not right to be required to pay it.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (52208)
• Staten Island, New York
17 Sep 24
@kaylachan what is portable wi-fi? Is that some kind of a device you attach to your phone?
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (52208)
• Staten Island, New York
17 Sep 24
@kaylachan we need to try and cancel the third line with them. When we went to get new phones and were changing our services to the new ones AT&T offers now the guy said if you add a third line it will be a cheaper monthly bill. We went along with it. But now it’s like, how is it cheaper if we are paying for the third line?
Thing is what this guy did was add the installments for the new phone to the new line (even though my mom uses it on her line) and then kept her line eligible for an upgrade. Not sure if they will be able to get rid of that line because of that.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (52208)
• Staten Island, New York
12 Sep 24
All it takes is sending one text message and you are charged $12 for that day. That is wrong! If she had roaming off she probably wouldn't have been able to send a text (or imessage) at all. Unless maybe she somehow was able to connect to wi-fi.
@RebeccasFarm (91297)
• United States
10 Sep 24
Wow Kayla has the answer there..I had no idea about this..so sorry to hear about your Mom omg terrible.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (52208)
• Staten Island, New York
13 Sep 24
If you are paying $12/day you should be able to make/receive calls and send/receive messages without any issues. I'd say same for being able to use the Internet when needed. But if you can't make calls or sometimes messages don't send then you should not be required to pay that money.
@RasmaSandra (98106)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
10 Sep 24
That certainly is unfair, Sorry she has to pay the charge,
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (222726)
• United States
11 Sep 24
I'm sorry your mom has to pay the charges. Have a good day.
@lovebuglena (52208)
• Staten Island, New York
12 Sep 24
Yeah. That is very upsetting. Just sending some messages having to pay per text message would not have equaled that $60.
1 person likes this
