How to Avoid International Roaming Charges
Roaming charges are a choice your carrier makes to extract money from people who don't know there are alternatives. You don't have to play along.
There are several ways to avoid them entirely. Which one makes sense depends on your phone, your destination, and how long you're going.
The easiest option: get a travel eSIM
If your phone supports eSIM, this is the lowest-friction solution. Buy a data plan for your destination, scan a QR code, and your phone connects to a local network at local rates. No physical SIM swap, no airport kiosk queues.
For a typical week in Europe, you're looking at £5-10 for a solid data plan. Compare that to UK carriers charging £2-5 per day for roaming - often with throttled speeds after a daily cap. The maths isn't close.
Make sure to turn off data roaming on your primary SIM after you install the travel eSIM, or you might accidentally route data through your home network and get charged anyway.
Buy a local SIM on arrival
In countries where data is cheap - Thailand, Vietnam, India, Mexico - a local SIM bought at a convenience store or airport kiosk often beats any international plan on price. You lose your home number for calls and texts, but if you're mostly using WhatsApp anyway, that's not much of a sacrifice.
The downside is hassle. You need to find a shop, possibly deal with a language barrier, register the SIM (some countries require passport ID), and figure out activation. Fine if you're staying somewhere for a week or more. Annoying for a three-day trip.
Turn on Airplane Mode and use Wi-Fi only
The nuclear option. Airplane Mode kills all cellular connection, meaning zero roaming charges, ever. You rely entirely on Wi-Fi - hotels, cafés, restaurants. Works fine in most cities, obviously useless the moment you leave them.
If you do this, make sure Wi-Fi calling is enabled before you go. You can still make and receive calls on your home number through Wi-Fi without any cellular connection.
Check if your home plan includes roaming
Some carriers - particularly in Europe - still include roaming within certain regions as standard. EE, O2, and Three all have EU roaming included on some plans. In the US, T-Mobile includes free international data in 215+ countries, though it's throttled to 2G speeds. It's worth actually reading your plan details before assuming you'll be charged.
Disable data roaming as a safety net
Even if you're using a travel eSIM, turn off data roaming on your home SIM. On iPhone: Settings → Mobile Data → [your home SIM] → Data Roaming → Off. On Android: Settings → Connections → Mobile Networks → Data Roaming → Off. This stops your phone accidentally connecting to a roaming network and running up charges in the background.
Watch out for these surprises
Receiving calls. Even with data roaming off, receiving a phone call on your home number while abroad might still trigger a charge depending on your carrier. Enable Wi-Fi calling and have people reach you that way.
Voicemail. Checking voicemail from abroad can trigger roaming charges on some older plans. Check with your carrier.
App notifications. Some apps wake up your cellular connection even when you think data is off. Check your settings thoroughly or just use Airplane Mode with Wi-Fi on.
The short version: get a travel eSIM, turn off data roaming on your home SIM, enable Wi-Fi calling. That combination costs you almost nothing and eliminates the bill shock completely.