How to avoid roaming charges abroad
Whether you are going on vacation or on a business trip, you’ll want to know how you can communicate with your friends, colleagues and family from another country. This should be sorted out before your departure to avoid a costly bill on your return.
Calling abroad can be expensive due to excessively high roaming charges. It is therefore important to understand what roaming charges are and how to avoid them.
To help you prepare for your trip abroad, the mobile experts at Quick To Link explain how to avoid roaming charges abroad!
What are roaming charges?
Many of us aren’t exactly sure what roaming charges are, but it’s actually quite a simple concept. When you go abroad, your phone automatically connects to a foreign phone network that charges a sum of money for using their services.
The reason roaming charges are so expensive is that your home network carrier pays the international network owner to let you make international calls. Knowing how to avoid sky-high roaming charges is a must when travelling to another part of the world.
It’s possible that there are roaming charge agreements between your home country and your destination country. For example, the European Union has an agreement whereby all EU citizens are exempt from roaming charges when travelling throughout EU countries. Unfortunately, if you’re from outside of the EU, this benefit doesn’t apply to you.
Top up your cell phone !How to avoid roaming charges
There is a simple answer to the question "how do I avoid roaming charges?": deactivate them before leaving your country. Since they are automatically applied once you arrive, you need to deactivate roaming charges before you leave (before you take off by plane or before you cross the land border). Every phone allows you to easily deactivate data roaming.
Make sure to use a free Wi-Fi connection when in another country and avoid reactivating data roaming. We also recommend topping up your mobile online while abroad so you can still communicate with others without paying an extortionate amount.
Top tip: Applications such as WiFi Map allow you to find all the WiFi connection points near you 😉
Disable data roaming on an iPhone
Here's how to disable data roaming on an iPhone:
1. Open your iPhone's Settings app
2. Tap Cellular (You might see Cellular Data or Mobile Data instead)
3. Toggle the Cellular Data switch off
4. Tap on Cellular Data Options, then switch off Data Roaming
Disable data roaming on an Android phone
Here's how to disable data roaming on an Android phone:
1. Open your device's Settings
2. Go to Mobile Networks (or Connections)
3. Tap Mobile Data
4. Toggle the switch to the left
Mobile top-up: a great way to avoid overseas charges
Disabling data roaming is essential if you do not have an international plan that covers your communications abroad. Often, these international plans are very expensive and not always the best solution when you’re abroad.
To contact your loved ones from another country, the online international mobile top-up method is by far the best choice. With this mobile top-up process, all roaming fees are covered so you won’t be in for any nasty surprises. There are no hidden fees or extra charges and it’s down to you how much money you want to top up your phone with, just like it would be with a prepaid phone card.
Recharge your mobile online with Quick To Link!
There’s one simple way to avoid roaming charges when abroad: disable data roaming on your phone. However, this is only the first step when you are travelling to another country. Disabling your data helps avoid any awful surprises and saves you some money.
After disabling data roaming, you need to find the best way to communicate with others without breaking the bank. For this, Quick To Link’s quick mobile top-up service is second-to-none. No extra costs and no nasty shocks when you get back home.
Order your mobile top-up now or contact us! A member of our team will be happy to assist you and answer all your questions about our Quick To Link mobile top-up service!
