Can someone explain Cell Phone Roaming Charges

Roaming means using a network you’re not on/don’t pay for. Your own phone company should also be able to explain what charges you may get. It sounds like they told you what they’ll charge you already, I would confirm that’s true if I’m in —- and call —- this is the charge I will get.

You can turn roaming OFF in settings of most cell phones, then you usually can only do what is able to be done on WiFi. And yes if I'm avoiding roaming I also turn airplane mode on. Depending on your phone that may include calling and messaging and you would not be charged roaming, as you wouldn’t be using a different network you’re not a part of.

Warren, Canadian mobile companies are notorious for expensive roaming plans. If you want use your phone, you can leave it in Airplane Mode and turn on WiFi - then you can safely use it without any roaming charges. Only if you turn on "regular phone mode" (turn off Airplane Mode) and your phone has roaming enabled would you be charged, if it connects to some local mobile network where you try to use it.

If your phone is unlocked, you can try to buy a SIM card when you get to Europe so you can use it away from WiFi. This is often quite affordable and practical. The biggest downside is that your will not have the use of your Canadian phone number for calls and texts while you have a European SIM card in the phone - you'll temporarily have a new phone number until you put the Telus SIM card back in your phone.

Yes, you need to keep your phone on airplane mode to avoid all foreign charges which means avoiding roaming charges. I don’t understand why you would be playing with fire by turning on airplane mode. Airplane mode PROTECTS you from roaming charges and any and all international data fees because you can’t possibly connect your phone to foreign cell data when you are on airplane mode.

Turn on airplane mode as soon as you board your transatlantic flight to Europe and leave it on until your plane touches down on to Canadian tarmac.

Once you leave airplane mode on, you will not be charged any roaming fees because you will not be able to roam on airplane mode.

When your plane is on airplane mode, you could walk circles around a foreign cell tower and you will not be charged. Anyone who tells you otherwise is deceiving you.

Sorry. Meant to say playing with fire if I turned off airplane mode. So can anybody tell me if I just turned off airplane mode to make one 5 minute phone call, how I will be charged.

Hello Warren,
I was concerned about these same issues when I travelled to England from Canada a month ago. I contacted my provider in Canada (Virgin Mobile). I got a roaming package from them. It was expensive, I think $15 a day. If I kept the airplane mode on, I was not charged anything. If I needed to make a call or text, I went off airplane mode and was charged $15 for the 24 hours following the call. I could make as many calls or texts in that 24 hour time period as I wanted. I met my brother in London, and was only texting and talking to him about meeting up at a train station in London. I then put the phone back on airplane mode. I was not charged for anything other than the initial 24 hour period. I was able to use my iPad in the hotels to access the internet or to FaceTime.
I could have purchased a new SIM card in England, but I knew I wouldn’t need it. I also didn’t want to have to change my phone number.
Nobody would ever suggest I am the least bit techie. My understanding is that if you don’t have a plan from your cell provider and you don’t purchase a new SIM card for your phone, if you turn off the airplane mode and make even one call, you could incur high roaming charges. Certainly more than the $15/day. Others may have a better answer. This is only my own experience.

Warren, your cell phone company should be able to tell you what the charges would be for international calls. For example, I am with Verizon in the US, and when I go to Europe I have the choice to either pay $10 a day for usage or $100 a month. That's just using Verizon on my cell phone, not using a SIM card in whatever country I am traveling to. So, if i wanted to make a call, then I would have to turn off airplane mode and I would incur the $10 a day from Verizon. If you don't turn off airplane mode, then you could incur charges is someone calls or texts you. Turn on airplane mode and turn off roaming.

One solution is to make your calls and texts through WhatsApp. Or another solution is to get a SIM card.

I use Telus and have a roaming package that I've never used. I've never had the need to turn it and any calls I've made have been via Microsoft Team's for work or WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger for personal. Using a trip to the UK as an example, with Telus if you have a roaming package, as soon as you turn on your data you'll be charged $15 for the next 24 hours of use and that includes free calls and texts to home. Without a roaming package you'll be charged $2.00 per call and $.75 per text, plus ridiculous data fees.

Warren,

Whenever you're accessing a cellular network other than your own network, you'll be roaming. The prices are determined according to whatever arrangement your home network has worked out with other carriers in various countries. As I recall, this is one of the organizations involved in coordinating that sort of thing - https://www.gsma.com/aboutus/ (Telus is one of their members). In the past, the horror stories have often involved data roaming and travellers returning home have received huge bills. Mobile phones do some operations in the background that users are not aware of and that uses data too. The situation is more stable these days, and there are more options for travellers to avoid that.

I use Rogers and on the most recent past trips I've just opted for the Roam Like Home plan. Yes, it's expensive but in the overall cost of a European holiday, I don't find the cost to be a problem. The Rogers plan is $15 per day, for a maximum of 20 days in each billing cycle. Therefore if I'm gone for a month, the cost is $300, which I don't mind paying as it's so darn convenient to just use my home the same way I do at home.

I prefer not to bother with "per use" prices and switching data roaming on and off, as it would be a huge annoyance to be figuring out how much each use of the phone is going to cost me. That detracts from the "holiday experience" and would be a PITA.

I assume you've looked at the similar plan offered by Telus - https://www.telus.com/en/mobility/travel . It's not surprising that the cellular providers and techies haven't been able to give you a straight answer as many of them haven't done much international travel. They're often just reading from a screen so will only give you whatever answers are in front of them. There are a few knowledgeable customer service rep's out there who are familiar with travel with a cell, but finding them can be a challenge.

Good luck!

I’m a Telus customer in BC. I turn my data off when I travel and can still use the cell phone for phone calls at the rate Telus quotes. When you are at your hotel, an airport or anywhere else with free wifi, you can fully use your phone if you connect to their wifi (but don’t look up personal stuff like banking etc as you are not on a secure network). If the data is always off, you can take it off airplane mode when not in a plane, without risking data charges.

A few further comments to add to my previous post.....

There have been a number of occasions where I found it extremely useful to have cellular data available. A few examples.....

• Needing to check rail schedules and book tickets in Italy on-the-fly.
• Finding myself in an unfamiliar area and using Google maps to figure out where I was.
• And the most valuable occasion..... unexpectedly finding myself in hospital in Italy and needing the phone to maintain contact with family as well as dealing with the travel insurance firm, travel agent and airline (data was required for that).

If I'm travelling solo, I will never travel without cellular data.

You don't need to set to Airplane mode, just turn off cellular

So can anybody tell me if I just turned off airplane mode to make one 5 minute phone call, how I will be charged.

This is a question for your phone company and the agent may not be able to answer it because during those 5 minutes, you might be receiving a bucket load of texts and who knows how your cellular phone company charges for each of those texts while you are overseas?

When I am overseas, I make phone calls using WhatsApp or FaceTime on Wifi. I always leave airplane mode on.

You don't need to set to Airplane mode, just turn off cellular.

For me, it is too easy to change one of those settings by mistake which is why I make sure that both cellular data is turned OFF and airplane mode is turned ON.

If I'm travelling solo, I will never travel without cellular data.

We are all different. I travel mostly solo overseas and never, ever turn on cellular data. It’s too expensive. With FaceTime and WhatsApp using Wifi, there is no need for me to do so.

Yeah, cell service outside of my home country (US not Canada) confuses me too. But I think a lot of the huge surprise bills come from roaming data charges. Smartphone apps can be using data in the background even if you’re not using the app at that time. So in theory you could turn the data off but leave the phone service on to make/receive calls and SMS texts. You’ll know whether or not you made or answered a call, so the bill wouldn’t be a surprise. A couple of bucks for a quick call probably wouldn’t be a big deal. But if you got a bunch of texts (like maybe on a group text where everyone is constantly replying), you could rack up some fees there quickly depending on how much your plan charges for international texts.
We spent the $$ (in 2019 about $60 from at and t) to add an international plan to my phone for one month, mostly for emergencies and peace of mind. We left my husbands phone in airplane mode with the understanding that if we got inadvertently separated he would turn it on and call me, despite the international calling charges. That thankfully never happened but the international data did come in handy a couple of times for Google maps while we were out and about. Wi-Fi was easy to use at hotels and we took advantage whenever we could for email checking and iMessaging.

1. Turning on airplane mode turns off everything, including your wifi. EDIT: that is how airplane mode works for Android phones and older Apple devices. Even new Apple devices can be set up so that airplane mode turns off everything including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth:
   

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204234#:~:text=Turn%20on%20Airplane%20Mode&text=You%20can%20also%20go%20to,Mode%20to%20turn%20it%20on.&text=Airplane%20Mode%20button-,.,setting%20of%20the%20other%20device.)

1. You can turn off your mobile network which will prevent you from using your mobile data.

2. You can turn off roaming and you will only be able to use your home network.

3. You can take out your home SIM, if you don't trust yourself with 1. - 3.

4. If you can understand 1. - 4., you can use wifi, wherever available. This is free.

5. In addition to 4., you can buy a local SIM and swap it in. This is cheapest alternative if you need local talk, text and/or mobile data while travelling.

6. As an alternative to 6. and costing about the same, you can leave in your home SIM and load up a local eSIM (if your phone has the capability). It is like having 2 phones in one device.

7. You can buy an international plan from your home provider. This will cost a lot more than 6. or 7. You are basically paying a premium for a set plan from your home provider in order to use a local partner provider to provide you with service.

8. You can roam which is the most expensive on a per use basis. I have a pre-paid plan from Public Mobile which is a low cost subsidiary of Telus and it is not capable of roaming.

9. If 1. - 9. is too complicated, you can just leave your phone at home.

Turning on airplane mode turns off everything, including your wifi.

Not for iPhones, why speak for all when you’re wrong? Wifi + airplane mode is how MANY of us travel without data/roaming fees

Perhaps Funpig means you need to turn wifi back on after you turn on airplane mode. With my Samsung Galaxy, when I turn on airplane mode it shuts off my wifi and I have to toggle it back on.

"We are all different. I travel mostly solo overseas and never, ever turn on cellular data. It’s too expensive. With FaceTime and WhatsApp using Wifi, there is no need for me to do so."

It's great that WiFi works so well for you during travels. That wasn't an option in the situation I was in, as the hospital in Italy didn't offer WiFi to patients. The travel insurance company and my travel agent preferred to use E-Mail and occasional voice calls, so I absolutely needed data service.

"Turning on airplane mode turns off everything, including your wifi."

As others have noted, this doesn't apply to iPhones. When airplane mode is activated on an iPhone, both WiFi and Bluetooth will remain active. The only function that is deactivated is cellular service (which is where the highest transmit power occurs on the phone and that could certainly interfere with the avionics in the aircraft). Typically a mobile phone uses the lowest transmit power necessary to connect with a tower. If it can't connect, it will ramp up to maximum transmit power which I recall is 3 watts.

I suspect Apple configured the phones this way as these days many airlines offer WiFi service. In addition, many people (the majority except for me?) are now using wireless earphones which use Bluetooth.

Since 2011, we have been to Europe 6 times. During these 6 trips, which add up to almost 6 months on the ground, we have not used the phone to place a call on even one time. We use email and aps for contact. So, the need for a phone in Europe is not clear to me. Why do you want a phone? What is the purpose of the phone, that cannot be performed with emails?

I will say that in our most recent trip, to Italy in Sept and Oct, we found very few coffee shops with open WiFi systems. In past trips, this was our go-to approach for WiFi and email. We have a roaming router from T-Mobile ($10/month) which we often used to get WiFi on the go. This was successful while walking around (to use maps) and on the trains.

Paul:

Since 2011, we have been to Europe 6 times. During these 6 trips, which add up to almost 6 months on the ground, we have not used the phone to place a call on even one time. We use email and aps for contact. So, the need for a phone in Europe is not clear to me. Why do you want a phone? What is the purpose of the phone, that cannot be performed with emails?

Paul, have you ever tried to resolve an urgent issue with your airline or with a credit card company via email? Some issues just require direct communication via real-time conversation. I know the OP is Canadian, but for Americans, it can be basically free to use Google Voice to make/receive voice calls while overseas. (Google Voice is free for calls to US phone numbers, but you need either WiFi or Mobile data.) Canadians can subscribe to Skype to make cheap voice calls home or to anywhere if need be from their smart phones.

OK, Andrew does remind me that we did have a credit card issue which did require a phone call, so I stand corrected - there was a credit card issue. We called the overseas operator for our credit card. We had to call from the hotel, and pay a charge for that call.

This topic is a lot like the carry-on vs. checking or roller vs backpack or carry passport vs leave it in the hotel room.

It continues to surprise me that it "sounds" like folks can't imagine that people have different needs and preferences.

For example: In my daily work life if I am not available by phone (let's say within an hour or so) a bad outcome can occur. Because I have lived my life from the age of 23 forward with a pager or a cell phone I am used to being available. I am also the fixer in my family so they are used to being able to reach me. It is true, that I could go on vacation and turn off cellular data and check for messages using hotel wifi, and it would be fine. But that seems crazy to me when all I have to do is pay $10 per day to have my phone. People in need can reach me and I can use the internet whenever I want and I can use my phone for navigation. I don't have to change my phone number or anything. This plan is much more relaxing to me than to be worried that I am going to have an important message waiting for me at the end of the day. My "mileage" varies from yours.

I mildly resent the comment that this plan is just for "rich people". Maybe you skimp on your phone use but pay for a bottle of wine every day. I don't pay for beverages, I drink tap water. But I would never say drinking wine on vacation is just for rich people.

The OP states that he needs to make an occasional phone call what are the options and also could he be stuck with unexpected charges.

My 2 cents are
1. As mentioned above, you risk roaming charges from incoming texts and from cellular use from your apps while you are on the phone.
2. I would suggest the $15/day plan. As mentioned, you are only charged the $15 if you use your phone. So...if you need to make a call, go ahead. You will be charged $15. Then for the next 23+ hours you can use your phone to make calls, to navigate, text and use the internet. Just be sure you turn airplane mode on before the 24 hours runs out. Next time you need to make a call rinse and repeat. Then you know however long the call is, the most you pay is $15 and you get the bonus of being able to use your phone the rest of the day.

If you don't need incoming calls, Skype is a lot cheaper than $15/day for making the occasional phone call. (Maybe $15 for an entire trip.) You don't even need mobile data if you can make the Skype calls while on WiFi. Just a few cents a minute for a call back to a Canadian phone number. If you need random access - need to receive calls anywhere - then I would pay the roaming fees.

A SIM card just gives you mobile data if you want to use the phone away from WiFi. Being able to use the phone anywhere is an added convenience that to me costs so little it's silly not to have it (unless your phone is locked and/or you find the idea of a SIM card or eSIM intimidating).

@Andrew,
Why pay roaming fees when you can cap the daily fee to $15???

I guess I considered $15/day to be a roaming fee.