Traveling OVERSEAS with iPhone?

[jeniferkey]

Travelling last year, I left my phone on, turned off data roaming and had my voicemail service disabled while I was gone. It was free for me to receive texts (part of my plan) and cost me .50 to send texts. Still cheaper than the $1 something a minute for a call.
Like this the only charges I saw on the bill were for the couple of texts I sent and the one phone call I made. I used Truphone in wifi areas to make calls back home. I was glad the one time I did need to make a local call.
No extra costs, and once I was back, AT&T immediately enabled my voicemail again, when I called and asked them to. If I hadn't turned that off, I probably wouldn't have used the phone for the one emergency call I needed to make, so I was glad I'd done that.

 

[tivoboy]

yes

Yes, I think AT&T is really missing the point of charging for the VM round turn, if they encouraged me to leave my phone ON, they would probably get more $$ from me. As it is, I know that If i do turn it on I am going to get screwed for having it in, so I leave it off.

 

[Cyclo5656]

recap for me please...

OK -- so I am going from the US to the UK for about a week. My desire is to not use phone for calls.
I want to exclusively use Skype and internet. Do I really need to buy the AT&T's international data package for this?
Please reiterate the proper protocol for protecting against roaming charges and setting up for wi-fi and using Skype for calls -- deactivating VM from AT&T, etc.
I just want to make sure I am not slammed with any charges...I'm not that savvy with this thing yet. Got the 3Gs.

many thx for the patient replies in advance