So, you’ve finally managed to book a holiday this summer. Nice! It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to escape to foreign climates without the global pandemic and resulting travel restrictions scuppering plans. Why not make the most of it and soak up some sunshine and culture?
While you’re away on your trip, the chances are you’ll still want to stay connected. Whether it’s to share your holiday snaps, use your phone as a satnav, or even just to phone home and check in on your loved ones, it’s worth knowing where you stand with mobile phone charges.
Remember, iD Mobile’s Inclusive Roaming lets you roam like at home in 50 destinations (including a number of countries currently on the UK’s green list). What that means is that you can use all the minutes, texts and data in your allowance in any of these destinations at no extra cost. Totally free. How good is that!
However, while you’re taking a much-earned break from the stresses of daily life (and the UK), it’s still important that you’re fully up-to-date with your phone allowances, what’s included and what’s not, to avoid any nasty bill shocks when you return home.
Here’s our list of top tips for using your phone abroad:
Turn Roaming on:
When you touch down on holiday and get through the airport, you’ll want to get connected asap. You’ll most likely need data to access any reservation emails, like your accommodation and airport transfers. To keep using your data like normal, you’ll need your Roaming switched on in the iD Mobile app and in your phone’s settings. Here’s how to do it:
• Log in to the app or My Account.
• Select ‘Services’.
• Toggle ‘Roaming’ on.
Easy as that!
Checking your usage doesn’t use any data:
That’s right! Both in the UK and in our Inclusive Roaming destinations, logging into the iD Mobile app and checking to see how much data you’ve used doesn’t consume any more data.
So, even if you think you’re mere megabytes away from reaching your limit, double-check to know for certain. That leads us nicely to the next point…
Think you’ll run out of minutes or data while away? Buy an Add-on:
Just like your allowances, Add-ons also work just fine in Inclusive destinations. You’re welcome to buy a data or voice Add-on if you don’t think you have enough minutes or data to last the trip. It works out a lot cheaper than simply leaving it down to out-of-plan charges.
Worried about out-of-plan charges? Change your bill cap:
As we mentioned before, if you run out of data or minutes while you’re away in one of our Inclusive Roaming destinations, and you don’t purchase an Add-on, you’ll be charged standard out-of-plan charges. To avoid this from happening, you can set your bill cap to £0. Here’s how:
- Log in to the iD Mobile app
- Select ‘Services’
- Select ‘Edit my capped limit’ in the ‘Cap My Extra Usage Charges’ section
- Manually enter the amount as £0, then select ‘Set Cap’ and confirm
Now, you can fully relax and know that your bill won’t get out of hand.
Away at sea? Switch your phone to flight mode:
When you use your phone at sea, the ferry and cruise operators use their own phone network that’s connected via satellite - and it’s not cheap:
* Price per minute
** Price per message/text
Prices shown include VAT where applicable
An hour scrolling through Facebook uses roughly 100MB data. That means, if there were no limits whatsoever, that’d cost £960 at sea! If you’re on a cruise, or taking a ferry to reach your holiday destination, we strongly recommend that you either switch your phone to flight mode, stick to Wi-Fi to get online or chat, or don’t use it. Better to be safe than sorry.
Travelling outside Inclusive Roaming destinations:
If you’re going away on holiday, but not to an iD Mobile Inclusive Roaming destination, you won’t be able to use your data, minutes or text allowances. Instead, you’ll be charged per megabyte of data, per call minute and per text. To find out exactly how much it’ll cost to use your phone where you’re going, you can check our International Calling & Roaming Charges page. It’s good to plan ahead!
Those are a few handy tips on using your phone abroad. Got a question about Roaming? We’ve got plenty of helpful content on our Roaming & international page right here on the Community.
Happy and safe travels!