verizon cell phones: US cell phones and JA calling cards

[missyfussy]

and sevenmile, if you look on the T.A. boards this exact same question is asked over and over again, down to the same explanation of the 1.99/minute, ja phone card, etc etc - this is a common inquiry and the response is always the same.

personally, i just don't understand what the attachment is to using one's home phone while there.

I can speak a bit to the attachment to using one's home phone in Jamaica. I have one kid in college (away from home) and a 12 year old daughter, and would love them to still be able to speed dial me in case of an emergency. I've done a lot of research on the phone thing and will probably just borrow a phone from Rocky, but the attachment/need to research and ask lots of questions, for me, comes from my desire to be available to my kids if there was a bona-fide emergency.

[MissBlue]

well yes, your own phone can be accessible to receive emergency calls - mine is as well - I leave it in the room with data & updating turned off, just ICOE. That still doesn't mean it's necessary to carry it around with me 24-7 and use it for all calls, for making reservations, drivers, meeting up with friends, etc.

Besides which you can always give your local JA number to people back home to call you on your local phone as easily as they can call you on your home phone. if it's an emergency they are not gonna care about paying for the call. I also check my home voicemail throughout the day by calling it from the local Digicel phone -- if there was an emergency I could call them back from the local phone or just use my home phone, cause again in a true emergency I would not care about the roaming charges or cost.

'ICOE' still doesn't make it worth it - to me - to use my regular home phone for everything while there.

[SweetSue]

The international minutes cost under $20 and if you are going to be calling back to the States it is better. If you put regular local minutes on your digicel and make a call to the States that ONE call will eat up alot of your minutes.

ONLY if you make a lot of LONG calls to the US. Last time I bought the international plan, I had to share my phone with every Jamaican I knew just to use up half of the minutes. It is only about 8 to 12 JD per minute to make calls - That is plenty cheap to phone home, make sure the kids are OK or to make a friend jealous.

[sevenmile]

i'll need my smartphone to make/receive calls and receive/send emails. i have my own small business that i unfortuntaly cannot block-out during vacation.
probably only a hand ful of emails and 20+/- minutes worth of calls each day (if that).

guess i need to call verizon back and speak with an experienced customer service rep to get the facts straight. thanks!

[BrenJaLee]

If you have a smartphone, I would suggest putting it in "airplane mode" so that you don't incurr any of the roaming charges but can still access internet and e-mail using wifi. Then use your JA phone to call your US phone's voice mail to check messages and call people back from your JA phone. I check my US cell VM about every 3-4 days for messages when I'm there but if you need it for business, just check your Voice Mail 3-4 times a day if you have to. You can still get business done and won't have to deal with any mega cell phone bills when you get home.

[BrenJaLee]

Also, I was told by my cell company (can't remember if it was AT&T or Verizon at the time) that the cost was $1.50 per minute and it didn't matter if I made the call or I rec'd the call and also didn't matter if I answered it. Basically, if someone called my number and I didn't pick up, I'd still get charged $1.50/minute for them to listen to my outgoing message and leave me a voice mail (if my phone was turned on - if it's in airplane mode thats equivalent to the phone being turned off).

I've been putting it in airplane mode ever since and never had a problem. The only thing you can't do in airplane mode is text. I still e-mail using wifi and can still check voice mail messages using my JA phone so I'm good to go. I just tell all my friends who normally text me that they need to either send an e-mail or leave a voicemial while I'm gone.

[MissBlue]

oh, yah, if you gotta have it for business that's a different story..... co-sign BJL; airplane mode w/local wifi & JA phone for outgoing calls, will be the least costly way to do it.

[MoFromMonroe]

Thank you Brenda. I didn't realize you can put the Iphone in airplane mode and use it to receive emails. I didn't think emails would come through that way.

[MissBlue]

you can get online and do e-mail if you have a local WiFi connection, Mo -

[BrenJaLee]

Thank you Brenda. I didn't realize you can put the Iphone in airplane mode and use it to receive emails. I didn't think emails would come through that way.

Yep, they will come through as long as the phone is connected to the internet. So if your hotel has wifi, just connect to it via your phone and you're good to go. Otherwise, just carry the phone with you and when you get to a place with wifi, hook up and check e-mail.

Just a note, if you stay at a place with security wifi and have a laptop with you as well, you may have to get two codes from the front desk, one for computer and one for phone. I had to do that at CocoLaPalm after my computer fried. I kept trying to get on from my phone and couldn't get the code to work. Finally asked the front desk and found out that once it's used on a device, it can't be used again (and they expire after 7 days). So after I had used it for the computer, it wasn't good on a 2nd device. I guess that's their way of preventing guests from giving out the code to other people.