iPhone: How to get hit with a $5,000 bill without making a phone call

By Brad Tuttle
October 3, 2012

A woman buys an iPhone, goes to Europe, and unknowingly amasses a $500 bill after four days overseas. By the time she reaches AT&T;, the total is around $5,000.

And yes, as she wrote in the Chicago Tribune, not a single phone call contributed to the hefty bill. Turns out that if you don't watch what you're doing, you can and will be charged an arm and a leg for sending photos, watching YouTube footage, surfing the Web, and checking e-mail.

After contacting AT&T; and switching to a new global data plan retroactively, the writer was able to negate some of the charges. She also learned that when heading overseas, it's essential to turn the data-roaming feature off, and to use Wi-Fi instead of the 3G network for e-mail.

She could have found out about all these pointers and more by reading our iPhone tips and tricks for budget travelers.

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