Questions and Answers

Hi All,
We are moving into a sailboat in the Caribbean for a year or so and are trying to decide my mobile phone strategy. I’m a currently a Verizon customer and have 20 year history with the same phone number. My bank accounts, WhatsApp, amazon, and heaps of mobile apps are tied to my current stateside phone number. I’m trying to decide whether to suspend my phone number and deal with the huge hassle of updating all my accounts to reflect a local (digicel seems to be the best carrier in town) number or port my number to the digicel plan. I’m guessing the ladder strategy would incur many ling distance charges? My head is spinning and hoping you all can help guide me to the best decision.

Thanks!
Jennifer

[QUOTE=”Jennifer Mimi, post: 65323″]Hi All,
We are moving into a sailboat in the Caribbean for a year or so and are trying to decide my mobile phone strategy. I’m a currently a Verizon customer and have 20 year history with the same phone number. My bank accounts, WhatsApp, amazon, and heaps of mobile apps are tied to my current stateside phone number. I’m trying to decide whether to suspend my phone number and deal with the huge hassle of updating all my accounts to reflect a local (digicel seems to be the best carrier in town) number or port my number to the digicel plan. I’m guessing the ladder strategy would incur many ling distance charges? My head is spinning and hoping you all can help guide me to the best decision.

Thanks!
Jennifer[/QUOTE]

Sounds cool. I’m quite envious! Verizon has various options which I think may work in your situation where you could keep your number. Its TravelPass option is only cost-effective for short(er) vacations, not living overseas (or on the sea), but Verizon does have pay-as-you-go options that may work for you if you don’t use your phone a lot. Probably the best option is Verizon’s Monthly International Plans – $70 or $130. If you don’t use your phone much, the $70 plan will probably cover keeping in touch with family and your banking, etc. See:
[URL]https://www.verizonwireless.com/solutions-and-services/international-travel/[/URL]
I’m sure other carriers have similar options.

If you’ll be in port often and have access to wi-fi, I’d stick with what you currently have. Almost everything works off wi-fi these days.

I use T-Mobile, and texting and data are unlimited and free internationally. I think calls are $.25/minute. But, who calls anymore? 🙂

You should be able to port your number over from Verizon to T-Mobile if you go that route. My number was originally with Verizon probably 4-5 years ago.