If you leave the country with your phone, you might be placed on a vacation roaming plan. These are travel plans where you are charged a set daily rate (anywhere from $10/day to $30/day) to use your phone outside of your usual coverage area.
- Used a vacation roaming plan before? You’ll likely be placed on one again
- Never used one? Your carrier might assume you want it anyway
Vacation roaming plans can be expensive, and they’re mostly useful if you’re going to be calling and texting a lot while you’re on vacation. (Pssst! iMessage doesn’t count as texting.)
But if you’re going to use your regular phone number sparingly (or not at all), then you’ll likely want to avoid a vacation roaming plan to save money.
So if you know you do NOT want to be placed on a carrier travel plan, here’s what to do …
If you still want to use your phone number on your trip, talk to your carrier beforehand.
They might think they’re doing you a favour by automatically putting you on a carrier travel plan, so you need a note on your account specifying that you have opted out of this service.
This can usually be done via your carrier’s live chat customer support system, but sometimes requires speaking to one of their agents over the phone.
1. Find out how much you’ll be charged for calls/texts
You can say “I need to know your pay-per-use rates. How much do you charge per calling minute, and per text message, while visiting _____?”
Your carrier will have set prices for calling and texting at your destination. (This is often available right on their website, too.) It might be $1 per calling minute and 50 cents per text, for example.
2. Ask for details on their vacation roaming plan
You might luck out with a $10/day travel plan that provides unlimited calling and texting, and lets you use data from your regular plan at home. In some cases, this could be a good deal.
(But keep in mind that a travel eSIM is often only 60 cents a day.)
Ask exactly how much you’d be charged each day, and what their travel roaming plan includes. Some have hidden caps or provide very slow data while you’re in another country.
3. Confirm which option you’d like
If you know you’ll be making 20-30 phone calls every day at $1 per calling minute, it might make sense to choose a carrier travel plan that’s $20 a day.
But if you don’t plan on calling/texting much, and you won’t be using your wireless plan for data abroad, it might be a better deal to officially “opt out” of your carrier travel plan.
You can say “I will be travelling out of the country soon, and I do NOT want to be charged a daily rate for your ‘travel roaming plan.’ Please note this on my account.”
If you do NOT care about using your phone number on your trip, toggle the SIM off.
This option takes about four seconds, and it’s the perfect way to avoid ALL roaming charges while you’re travelling. No active SIM = no charges on your next phone bill.
Carriers charge for data, calls, and texts. But an inactive SIM can’t do any of that.
So if your carrier SIM is completely switched off, it’s not pinging towers. It’s not sending signals back to your carrier, beeping “Hey! This customer just left the country!” It’s absolutely silent, just waiting to be switched back on after your trip.
1. Right before you leave, go into your phone settings
Depending on your phone, this will look like tapping ‘Settings’ and then ‘SIMs’ or ‘Mobile data.’ We have instructions on exactly how to disable your primary SIM on all popular phones.
2. Locate your primary SIM
This is either a physical SIM card from your carrier, or an eSIM from your carrier. It’s connected to your phone number.
3. Toggle this SIM off
There’s no need to physically remove anything from your phone. There will be a simple toggle switch (ON/OFF) where you can toggle your primary SIM off.
Make sure you wait to do this until the very last second, because it’s going to completely shut down this SIM. No calls, no texts, no data. (It might as well be tucked away in a box, chained three times, and padlocked.)
By completing the steps above, you can guarantee you will NOT be charged a flat daily rate ($10-$30) for a vacation roaming plan.
Now you can use that extra cash to treat yourself to something fun on vacation. Imagine how quickly $30/day would have added up – especially if you’re traveling with family members all on the same phone bill.
Need help? Have questions? Our friendly team is available 24/7 via email and live chat. Reach out anytime if we can help.
