AT&T International Day Pass Limit
Posted by Severe-Journalist781@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 9 comments
Husband is military so we travel a lot. We will be out of the US for about 5-10 years without any opportunity to travel back to the US for at least 2-3 years at a time in between visits but we do want to keep our US numbers as primary numbers since we’ve had them our whole lives (with a phone) and they’re linked to every account we’ve ever created.
We don’t mind paying the extra $180/month for the international day pass if it means we don’t have to deal with extra sims every-time we travel to a new country (often).
We do mostly use WiFi for everything and we don’t call or text much so we don’t use a lot of roaming, WiFi or text data.
My question is, is there a limit on how long we can use this without returning to the US? One agent said you have to return to the US every 6 months and use a tower there. Another said it doesn’t matter how long we’re out of the country, as long as the bill is paid and we’re not abusing the pass.
Thank you in advance.
*Country is in the Middle East.
cafetea@reddit
I can't answer this question about a specific limit, but I have some sort of related experience with it.
My daughter is in the military, and she was in Korea for a year. She kept her US number through AT&T active but also had a Korean number which she got in Korea. Her phone is an iPhone and has the digital SIM.
She would use the US number only when she needed to get a text from her US bank or when she had to call someone in the US using an actual dialed phone number. She would just pay the international day pass rate for that day. The rest of the time when she was out and about in Korea, she used her Korean number using the digital SIM for data.
She had no problems from AT&T doing it this way, and when she moved back to the US, she just went back to using her same AT&T number as she had done before.
gladiator528@reddit
With Google Fi, you can stay outside the country indefinitely if you are military stationed OCONUS. Just have to upload a copy of his orders to a Google Fi support portal every so often to maintain permissions to stay roaming.
Severe-Journalist781@reddit (OP)
I heard Google Fi is horrible with bank verifications. Have you run into any issues?
z050z@reddit
I've run into issues. Some banks and services don't allow verification with Google Voice. However, you can easily test this right now by changing all of your phone numbers.
I use a combination of Google Voice and AT&T. Nowadays, I'm in the USA every month, so I'm not sure about the 6 month rule. During Covid I was stuck in Japan over a year and it didn't get shut off.
My recommendation would one of the following:
I've been doing option #2 for years.
JubalHarshawII@reddit
Google Voice != Google Fi
JubalHarshawII@reddit
Google Fi is the same as any other cell service, Google Voice is a completely different service and does have issues.
I spent a year traveling around the world and Google Fi worked perfectly the whole time.
cp4905@reddit
Go with Popcorn. The international passes will only work for a few months before they cut you off. Popcorn is unlimited text/call/data and works great as you go from country to country. I swear by it. It’s 69/mo for everything and you keep your US number.
Appropriate_Tea_1794@reddit
I would transfer your number to Mint and pay a year at a time. It’s a fabulous system internationally.
dezzypop@reddit
That's an interesting question and I'm sorry, I can't answer, but I'm interested in hearing what other people think about this. We also have AT&T and also have had the numbers for a long time, but the most we are dipping out each time is 6 months, so I have no data to help you out. I hope someone knows though--stands to reason that as long as the bill is paid and the phone is in use, it should be fine, I would think.