A travel roaming plan can be confusing. Sometimes, it’s tricky to know what’s going to rack up extra expenses while you’re visiting other countries, and how extra you’ll have to pay on your next phone bill.
Whether you’re at home or travelling, remember that your mobile carrier is always going to try hard to give you three things:
- Data
- Calling
- Texting
Sure, it’s easiest for your mobile carrier to provide data, calling, and texting when you’re at home (a.k.a. your regular coverage zone). Your bill is probably pretty affordable, and likely doesn’t fluctuate much from month to month.
But if you venture outside of your regular coverage zone, like leaving the country? Your mobile carrier is right there with you – desperately working behind the scenes to make sure your phone works for you … and this gets really expensive.
Roaming charges can be bonkers
Using your phone in another country means your carrier needs to reach across oceans (literally) to make sure you can still call, text, and use data.
And, naturally, your carrier will pass those extra costs along to you – their customer.
Data on vacation?
“Sure! We’ll just partner with another network. It’ll be really expensive (for you) because every tiny megabyte of data is $$$, but all good.”
Phone calls on vacation?
“Absolutely! You’re pretty far away, though, so we’re going to have to charge you five times the price. Hope that’s okay.”
Texts on vacation?
“Of course! You don’t mind paying a dollar or two per text, right? That’s unfortunately just what it costs to send all those memes across the ocean.”
That’s why carriers invented a little thing called a ‘travel roaming plan.’
What’s a travel roaming plan?
A travel roaming plan is when you’re charged a flat daily rate for calls, texts, and data while you’re in another country. They can range from $10/day to $30/day, depending on your destination.
You see, carriers are smart. They know people on vacation don’t want to be charged $5 for a short phone call and $3 for each text message.
(They’ve also had to deal with a LOT of furious people who got four-digit cell phone bills. And they want to avoid upsetting more customers.)
And so, on the seventh day, carriers invented ‘travel roaming plans’ (sometimes called ‘carrier travel plans’ or ‘travel plans.’)
Popular travel roaming plans from major carriers include:
- Verizon TravelPass
- Telus’s Easy Roam
- Bell’s Roam Better
- ATT’s International Day Pass
- Virgin’s Roam Sweet Roam
- Koodo’s Easy Roam
- Teltra’s International Roaming Day Pass
These are plans where you pay a daily rate to be able to use your phone on vacation. Some travel roaming plans include unlimited calling and texting, while some have strict rules and caps, so read the fine print.
Oh, you didn’t tell your carrier you wanted one of these plans? Well, that’s the thing … sometimes you don’t actually choose it.
You may be automatically placed on a travel roaming plan
It’s true – your carrier might *think* you want to be placed on their travel roaming plan, even if it’s not what you wanted.
That’s because it can be really expensive to pay individually for data, calls, and texts when you’re in another country.
Basically, carriers are like “Well, this customer could rack up like $200 a day in roaming charges if they spent hours talking on the phone and streaming high-def video. So SURELY they would rather we quietly charge them $25 a day. Yes, that’s a much better deal for them.”
The problem is, maybe you would have racked up 60 cents total … and now you’re suddenly being charged a flat rate of $25 “just in case.”
Trigger the travel roaming plan, pay the daily rate
Whether you chose to be on a carrier travel plan or not, these plans are often “triggered” by using your primary SIM for anything, once they detect you’re out of the country.
Every mobile carrier is different, but it’s pretty standard that triggers include any usage of your primary SIM.
Travel roaming plan triggers:
- Use your data
- Make a phone call
- Accept a phone call
- Send a text (SMS)
- Receive a text (SMS)
So even if you’re happily using a eSIM for cheap local data (thank you!) you may trigger a carrier travel plan simply by accepting a phone call or receiving a single text.
“Aha!” your carrier might cry happily. “They need us, even on vacation! Quick, team – connect that call and put the customer onto a travel plan straightaway!”
‘But I barely used my phone that day?!’
The tough part of a carrier travel plan is that it’s a flat daily rate.
Whether you answer a single phone call or talk for hours, you may be charged the flat daily rate for your destination (anywhere from $10/day to $30/day).
Whether you send a single text or spend all day texting, it doesn’t matter – any “trigger” action may be enough for your carrier to charge you the daily rate.
Can I opt out of a travel roaming plan?
Yes, you always have the choice to opt out of a travel roaming plan – either before your trip or during a trip. This requires contacting your mobile carrier and explaining that you don’t want this kind of daily-rate plan.
But this usually will not remove charges that have already been added to your bill, so try to opt out before a vacation to avoid all unexpected fees.
It can be frustrating to be charged a high daily rate for using your phone on vacation, especially when you’re using an eSIM for data.
If you were charged for a travel roaming plan and were not expecting to see those fees on your phone bill, we encourage you to discuss this with your carrier. Sometimes the charges can be reduced or removed, depending on the situation and the carrier.
Before your next trip, speak with your carrier about opting out of their travel roaming plan. Once this is noted on your account, you will only be charged pay-per-use rates for calls, texts, and data usage. (And hopefully you’ll be using a local eSIM for data.)
Questions? Our team is available 24/7 via email (support@alosim.com) and live chat on alosim.com. Please let us know if we can help.
