Will Verizon charge me more if I use my iPhone in Mexico?

[Gabi]

I live in the US, but will be traveling to Mexico within the next month. Will Verizon charge me if I go onto Twitter or Instagram or Facebook while in Mexico?

[Expertloaf780]

Yes, they will charge you more than normal for voice, texting, and data (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other apps use data).

You can save some money if you call them ahead of time, tell them you're going to be in Mexico, and ask them to temporarily switch you to an International plan. I've done this when I've been in Mexico.

Another way to save money is to use Wifi as much as you can while you're in Mexico. When your phone is on Wifi it doesn't use any data at all.

Another thing you could do if you'll be there a while, is to get your iPhone unlocked (Verizon will do it if you call their customer service), and then when you're in Mexico, go to a Mexican phone store, like Telcel, and get a Mexico SIM card - then take out your Verizon SIM card and put in the new one instead.

This will only work on the Verizon iPhone 4S or 5, not the Verizon iPhone 4 (because the Verizon iPhone 4 has no SIM card slot). The reason you have to get the phone unlocked first is because if you don't do that, it will only work with the Verizon SIM card that's already in it (unlocking means you're telling the phone it's OK for it to use SIM cards from other companies).

This also might not work for data, I've had problems with data when I tried this with a Verizon Droid phone in Mexico.

P.S. Unlike AT&T and T-Mobile which have phones that *all* have SIM cards, Verizon has some phones that do and some that don't. Only Verizon phones with SIM cards can be used in most countries outside the USA. And those are the only kinds of Verizon phones you can unlock. But when you unlock a Verizon phone, you are only unlocking it to work outside the USA. It will still refuse to use non-Verizon SIM cards when it's being used inside the USA. Go figure.