EE roaming charges explained: All of your questions, answered
Roaming abroad using EE? Find out how you can get the most of your data
Following the UK’s exit from the EU, surcharge-free roaming is a thing of the past. Mobile operators are now steadily beginning to introduce new mobile roaming policies, and EE was the first to reintroduce roaming costs with changes that affected all recently subscribed customers on 3 March.
Depending on your current plan, and when you joined EE, existing customers may have to pay a daily fee in order to use your mobile services abroad and in Europe, too. Want to avoid a whopping great big bill? Here we’ll explain everything you need to know before you use your phone abroad.
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EE Roaming charges explained: What about existing customers?
If you joined the EE network prior to 7 July 2021, and you’re on a monthly handset or SIM plan, then there are currently no changes to your roaming allowances.
If you’re on a tablet, laptop, mobile broadband or data SIM plan and you enrolled before 18 August 2021, these changes will also not affect you.
If you joined after those dates, there is a standard £2 fee per day if you use any of your allocated data, minutes or texts whilst in any of the 47 EU countries. The full list of countries is available on EE’s website. The exemption is the Republic of Ireland, where you only have to pay the £2 fee if you go over your allowance for the day.
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EE Roaming charges explained: What about buying data packs?
Existing EE customers can buy the Travel Data Pass, which starts at £5 a day for 500MB in the US and Canada, and £6.27 a day for other areas and data amounts. This can be purchased easily via text once you run out of data.
EE Roaming charges explained: What about other plans?
Previously, customers have been able to buy what’s called the Roam Further pass to use roaming and mobile services whilst travelling abroad. The Roam Further pass has been replaced by the Roam Abroad pass which costs £10/mth and allows you to use your standard minutes, texts and data in the following countries: USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand in addition to the 47 EU countries where fees are introduced.
You can either get the Roam Abroad pass as a chargeable standalone add-on via text, or you can choose to add it as a smart benefit, should you have a Full Works or Smart plan. It’s still possible to buy data packs if you’re on the Roam Abroad pass if you run out.
EE roaming charges explained: How to avoid using data abroad
Whether you are travelling for your holidays or for business, it’s a good idea to use available Wi-Fi networks whenever you can, such as in hotels, cafes or public Wi-Fi hotspots. Many pubs and bars have Wi-Fi available, too. Additionally, there are options you can disable to make sure your phone doesn’t use up available data without your permission:
Automatic updates: Remember to turn off any automatic updates on your phone that might use data, and be wary of social media apps and games that might stream video which requires a lot of bandwidth, or start high capacity downloads that will also drain your daily allowance.
Wi-Fi assist: Sometimes this feature will use data to assist in searches where your Wi-Fi coverage is low, unnecessarily using data when you only want to use Wi-Fi.
EE’s website also suggests making sure texts aren’t longer than 160 characters, as anything beyond that will count as two texts.