Verizon Wireless in St John

[Kat]

I am being told that since we have unlimited texting that my daughter can text while in the US Virgin Islands and there will not be additional charges. Has anyone actually done this from St. John? My fear is I tell her it is OK and 2000 text messages later I get some ridiculous bill.

[promoguy]

I can guarantee that a phone call will result in roaming charges. My guess is that it ain't without extra charges, texting that is.

This is a true test of caveat emptor.

[di]

We leave tomorrow, so we have just been dealing with this. We were told Thursday, that our corporate account would have phone service (after several downloads) but there would be a 69 cent per minute charge for calls. I would think that texts would be similar, but I did not inquire about those. Good luck and enjoy your trip!

[laurie]

There are no verizon towers on STJ, all calls are roaming including text msgs, I would call verizon to verify. Does not matter if you have unlimited texting. Cingular has the best service I think.

[DuxDweller]

I was there in Feb of this year. My verizon treo had very limited service (stayed in the Rendezvous/Ditleff area - high up). I did use the data line when I could get it (mostly Cruz Bay) and didn't notice any extra charge. I also used some texting and again, no noticeable change in my bill. My 12 year old took his phone and did *some* texting too. Good luck!

[nascarfan59]

I too have Verizon and think it is a crap shoot. Some calls I've had roaming charges and others not. Go figure Just be careful on the east end that you are picking up a tower from the BVI or you can end up with a international fee.

[tyke60]

I was told by Verizon that international roaming charges would apply - 69 cents per minute for calls and 25 cents for each text message. We also had to have them program the phone to be able to dial international numbers.

[hlsess]

we were there in march- I didn't incur any roaming charges- we were in cruz Bay

[susan & herb]

Two years ago we stayed in Rendezvous Bay and could not get any cell phone service on our Verizon phone. The calls would start reaching us as we drove into Cruz Bay. My husband needs the phone to stay in contact with my older son who runs the business with him otherwise I would not need the cell.
This year we got an AT&T throw away phone. Threw $20.00 into it and it worked perfectly all over the island. We also did not get roaming charges.

[Xislandgirl]

My friend was texting back and forth to her mom that was staying with her son and she got hit with .25 per text. She has unlimited texting on her plan but they told her that since there was not a Verizon tower, she incurred international charges.

I really think that it is a crap shoot.

[cjroyer]

I was there is April and Verizon charged about $75 in roaming charges. Only made 2 short phone calls and the rest were about 30 text messages. I can't figure it out but it looks like they charge me .69 for each message but the bills shows it in minutes. I think it depends on the length of the message because some the my texts were charged 1 minute, some 2 min. and some 3 min.

[Connie]

We checked this out before we left because last year I received over $120.00 bill for one week using our cell phone.

It's .69 minute because you will be roaming. I didn't even bother with the text messaging.

This year we bought a Sprint phone card and used that. We were charge minute for minute, meaning that if I called home and I was on the phone for 5 minutes, 5 minutes were taken off the card. That's the only way I'll go from now on.

Still took my cell phone for emergencies, but didn't have to use it.

[shoemak38]

I had my kids keep phones at home. After first day they no longer missed phones

[INfamily]

We were billed 50 cents for each text that our daughter sent this past May. We use AT&T and each text bounced through a BVI tower. Ouch!

[toes in the sand]

I have Verizon. We visited StJ in December. Had no service except in Cruz Bay. Only one bar when we did have it. Never had it in Reef Bay/Fish Bay area where we stayed. The people we traveled with had Sprint. They had good service.