Your phone is the ultimate travel tool, but is it safe? View the full article at: http://accent.chubb.com/smarter-travel-with-your-phone Accent by Chubb is your link to relevant and entertaining lifestyle content from Chubb Personal Insurance. Updated monthly, Accent by Chubb covers travel, style, technology, collectibles, health and more. You’ll also find event listings, videos and image galleries. For more information about the latest technology visit: http://accent.chubb.com/technology

1. Smarter Travel With Your Smartphone
Your phone is the ultimate travel tool, but is it safe?

2. Gone are the days when travelers needed bulky
folios for papers and documents.
Now your smartphone, with its endless apps can act
as guidebook, map, translator, and even medication
reminder (change time zones enough and this
function can be crucial).
But apps use a tremendous amount of data, which
can cost about $20 per megabyte if you and your
phone are roaming without an international plan.

3. Thanks to a 2011 agreement between major U.S.
wireless service providers and the Federal
Communication Commission, subscribers can receive
free alerts when they exceed limits on their voice,
data or text usage.
This allows travelers to avoid the shock of returning
home to an outrageous bill. Thankfully, there are a
number of ways to use your smartphone to its
international potential without racking up overages
in the first place. Here are some tips.

4. Several of the major U.S. carriers charge users who
don’t have roaming packages charge significantly more
for international calls and data usage, so enroll in a
plan.
AT&T, for instance, has temporary plans that cover you
for the time you plan to be away and are available in
different prices and data sizes; just make sure that their
service works in the country where you’ll be traveling.
Sign up for an international phone plan

5. If you don’t know how much data you need or use,
reset your phone’s meter, which you can find in the
Settings menu.
Monitor your use through the meter or with apps
like NetCounter or AT&T’s myWireless.

6. In other words, why use your telephone data when
WiFi is available? You can get unlimited access to more
than 1 million hotspots worldwide for $9.95 per month
on Boingo.
And of course you can seek out always-free hotspots at
places such as Starbucks, the Apple store and
McDonald’s internationally. Shut off your data roaming
before you leave (if you need access to your network
outside a hotspot, you can temporarily activate it).
Be smart about WiFi

7. And turn off all push notifications via the Settings
menu. Automated text updates from your apps will
drain data quickly.
Also, keep your phone in airplane mode unless you
need to make or receive a call; otherwise you’ll be
charged anytime someone calls you or even leaves a
voice mail.
And, of course, apps like Skype can help you save
more than a dollar a minute on phone calls.

8. Not really. But you can suspend your own service back
home and use a local carrier for the length of time
you’ll be traveling.
Research local carriers, and when you arrive at your
destination, you can buy a SIM card tied to a local
carrier at the airport or a convenience store.
Dump your smartphone

9. Know which size SIM card your phone takes, and
make sure it supports data for your smartphone.
Just pop the SIM card into the phone (and secure
your normal SIM card to replace it on the trip home).
Communicating should be easier and less expensive
via the local carrier.

10. Make sure to take a few precautions when traveling
(which, frankly, are wise to use when you’re home, as
well). The first rule is to set up a PIN, which locks your
phone against unauthorized users.
Setting this up automatically sets up data encryption on
Apple mobile devices.
Smartphone security measures

11. Under Settings, disable Bluetooth, since hackers often
use this linking technology to gain access to devices.
In a confidential meeting?
Turn off your phone and remove the battery. And
never underestimate the technical prowess of even
your hotel service; when leaving your hotel room,
store devices in the safe.