Get voicemail & text to my Verizon ACCNT (notphone) even with different SIM card in phone?

[angelag]

I'm going overseas. Verizon's overseas calling plan is not cheap while SIM cards where I'm going are. So I planned to buy a SIM card there and access texts and visual voicemail messages thru Verizon's PC app on my phone.
But now I just talked to a Verizon phone rep who says that when I put the other SIM card in my phone, it's not like my Verizon phone is off, and people can still leave me messages and texts, which is what I'd assumed. She says that when they call or send a text they'll get a msg saying subscriber not found or number not in use or something. Someone else, not a Verizon employee, says it'll act just like it does when the phone is off. Which is more what I expected.

Would love to test this to find out which way it is because it's important but I don't have a spare SIM card lying around.
Can anyone confirm? I have a Samsung S7 Edge. Thanks!

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Welcome to the forum!

Calls and voicemails are easy. You can set your verizon number to auto forward to the number for the phone that works OR you can setup a free Google Voice number and have it forward there. The Google Voice account would be tied to your gmail account, so you could even get voicemails via email if your phone didn't have service.

Texts are a bit hard.

I tested out Straight Talk for a month a while back and had my VZW phone transfer calls and texts, but that caused me to have to have my VZW sim in an old phone that I left on. I installed an app on that phone and my actual phone that would forward texts to and from.

Here's a link to Verizon help explaining how to setup forwarding: How to Use Guide: Call Forwarding | Verizon Wireless

I would do it from the PC so you can make sure that it will forward when there is no answer/etc.

The *72 that they say to dial from your phone, I'm not sure the parameters for that.

When you go to the Google Voice help page about getting it forwarding, there are three numbers that you dial.

Here are all three:

• *71[Your Google Voice number]
• *90[Your Google Voice number]
• *92[Your Google Voice number]

You would replace [Your Google Voice number] with the number you want your calls forwarded to. It's my understanding that each one of these sets something different. 1 is for when there's no answer, I think 1 is for when your line is busy. Things like that.

In any case, you probably won't know what the number will be on the sim you're going to get when you get over there until you're already there and your VZW phone doesn't work, so again, I'd suggest doing it from your computer if you're bringing one and will have internet access.

 

[FoxKat]

Everything I know about carrier-based voicemail is that as long as your account is in good standing, even if your phone doesn't have a SIM card in it, the voicemail account WILL answer and take a message just as if your phone were here, with a Verizon SIM and were either unanswered or powered off.

The Verizon rep is misinformed. There would be no way for Verizon to know that your phone was overseas and didn't have their SIM in it. All you do is power the phone off, either here or overseas, pull the SIM, replace it with the overseas carrier's SIM, power it on and use it normally. Verizon would never have any way of determining where your phone is, no reason to indicate it's "subscriber not found" or "number not in use" since your bill is current and they have no reason to disconnect service. When your phone is off, it's off. End of story.

When your phone has no SIM, it's exactly the same from the towers' points of view as being turned off. The only time that a phone without a SIM here in the US has any connection to a tower is when you dial 911 and press SEND, as by Federal law, all cell phones MUST be able to reach 911 service even with no SIM or paid cellular service. This is the only time that Verizon towers would even know this phone exists if there is no SIM in it while here.

So to be doubly sure, go ahead and pull your SIM out, then power off your phone. Now, call your phone number and you'll quickly find out that it will either ring twice and then go to voicemail or it will go right to voicemail without ringing, but will not say "not found" or otherwise.