How to avoid roaming charges

first78

I'm travelling outside the EU next month. I haven't been abroad with a mobile phone for a long time and have no idea how to avoid incurring charges. I will only need my phone for social media, calls using WhatsApp etc. I don't plan on making calls or texting. Is it as simple as just connecting to WiFi in places?

Brie

I'm currently in Canada and have taken my sim out of my phone and replaced it with a local one.  this is because I need to be able to text and call and refuse to pay the £5 a day or whatever my provider wants to charge me.  Instead I picked up a sim at the airport with more than ample access plus 100 minutes of calls, no restriction on receiving calls and a huge amount of texts.  Cost was $28 CAD - so about £18 for 30 days use (even though I'm here for less than 2 weeks - it's still cheap).  I have my phone and laptop set up to any and every local wifi spot to save on the web access for when I'm out and about as a lot of wifi is locked.

Whether you want a sim or not may depend on where you are - crossing borders a lot might make it a non option.  I might have tried to do the whatsapp phone thing but no one I know outside of work uses it including all my family here and there and they are most likely the people I need to call. 

first78

Brie said:

I'm currently in Canada and have taken my sim out of my phone and replaced it with a local one.  this is because I need to be able to text and call and refuse to pay the £5 a day or whatever my provider wants to charge me.  Instead I picked up a sim at the airport with more than ample access plus 100 minutes of calls, no restriction on receiving calls and a huge amount of texts.  Cost was $28 CAD - so about £18 for 30 days use (even though I'm here for less than 2 weeks - it's still cheap).  I have my phone and laptop set up to any and every local wifi spot to save on the web access for when I'm out and about as a lot of wifi is locked.

Whether you want a sim or not may depend on where you are - crossing borders a lot might make it a non option.  I might have tried to do the whatsapp phone thing but no one I know outside of work uses it including all my family here and there and they are most likely the people I need to call. 

Thank-you for commenting. Sorry if this is a silly question, but if you've had to purchase a local SIM card, does that mean you've had to give friends and family a different number to call you on?

eskbanker

I'd recommend the Three PAYG SIM deal listed at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/best-pay-as-you-go-sim-cards/#roaming, which gives you up to 10GB of data (plus calls/texts) across a month for £10, in 42 non-EU countries.

Check your own provider's roaming tariffs though, but this one was certainly very cost-effective for me....

savagelyric

You could use the free wifi as you mentioned or an alternative is an e-sim if your phone supports it. My teenager went to the US over the summer and I got them one with unlimited data so I didn't have to worry about unexpected charges. I found these guides useful: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/cheap-roaming-calls/ and https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/what-is-an-esim/

MSE_James

I've used e-sims from Airalo and easySim in three countries this year and it's worked very well. 

oldernonethewiser

If you want to stick to using free wifi then you won't incur any extra charges but do make sure the "roaming" option is switched off on your phone. This will stop anything updating/connecting to a cellular signal and costing you money.

maman

oldernonethewiser said:

If you want to stick to using free wifi then you won't incur any extra charges but do make sure the "roaming" option is switched off on your phone. This will stop anything updating/connecting to a cellular signal and costing you money.

@savagelyric made other arrangements for a teenager but the WiFi solution is fine for the use you describe.

We travelled to Turkey this summer and found that Wi-Fi is widely available, not just in our hotel but in most bars, restaurants and coffee shops. 

hugheskevi

first78 said:

I'm travelling outside the EU next month.

It would be helpful to name the specific country (or countries).

first78 said:

I haven't been abroad with a mobile phone for a long time and have no idea how to avoid incurring charges.

Just turn off the roaming option in the phone settings.

first78 said:

I will only need my phone for social media, calls using WhatsApp etc. I don't plan on making calls or texting. Is it as simple as just connecting to WiFi in places?

You wouldn't find it helpful to have Uber? Or maybe having access to things like AirBnb and Booking.com as you look for your accommodation? Or live Google maps, Waze, etc, to navigate (offline maps can be downloaded, but the experience isn't as good)? Or Whatsapp to communicate with tour providers, or accommodation providers whilst on the move? Or receiving notifications of spend in live time (if your bank does this) when you make transactions?

The 3 PAYG SIM is an excellent option if it covers the countries you are going to. If you have an E-SIM compatible phone, this can be a good option to have your phone working as soon as you arrive, but I find ESIMS cripplingly expensive compared to local SIMS, so I either don't use them at all or only use a very small amount for arrival, before I get a local SIM.

If you have a dual-SIM phone, a local SIM is a very good option to have available as you travel in today's always connected world, and usually takes less than 30 minutes to sort in any country (considerably faster in some). Even if is just to have available to while away time on a bus/train, etc. You simply add the local SIM alongside your UK SIM and choose in phone settings to use the local SIM for data and calling.

If you only have a single physical SIM slot, a local SIM can be annoying, as you often need your UK SIM, even if only to receive text message passcodes, etc. You can change it over, but it is an unwelcome phaff.

first78 said:
Sorry if this is a silly question, but if you've had to purchase a local SIM card, does that mean you've had to give friends and family a different number to call you on?

Whatsapp will work just fine with a local SIM, as it is tied to your UK number and uses data. You wouldn't have friends and family call you on the local SIM number (unless they are in the overseas country with you), as it would be an international call for them.