Using mobile phones abroad Cost of using your mobile phone abroad
It's not always easy to compare how much you'll pay when you use your mobile abroad to make calls.
Mobile operators give mobile roaming costs for all countries on their websites, although this can sometimes be quite tricky to find. We've linked directly to the mobile roaming section of each mobile service provider below:
Add-ons for using your mobile abroad
Vodafone's Passport is probably one of the best mobile roaming add-on around. You have to actively sign up, as the lower costs don't apply automatically, but the add-on is free for both pay-as-you-go and pay-monthly customers.
Vodafone mobile customers who've signed up will pay a 75p connection charge for calls back to the UK. The call will then be charged at the rate you pay at home and you can use any inclusive 'free' minutes. When you receive a call you'll pay the 75p connection charge. You can then talk for 60 minutes free of charge and calls cost 20p a minute after that. It covers making and receiving calls in 35 European countries, Australia and New Zealand.
Many other mobile service providers offer mobile roaming bundles or add-ons. These mean cheaper call rates than using your standard tariff, but they often require you to pay an extra fee to benefit from the lower costs of using your mobile abroad. So you'll need to be sure you'll use your mobile abroad enough to justify the initial cost.
Read our advice guide on the best mobile phone networks to see how each performed in our customer satisfaction survey.
Using the internet on your mobile abroad
Using your mobile to access the internet abroad (data roaming) costs a lot more than it does within the UK. Just downloading a 10 minute-video clip and five music tracks when using your phone abroad could cost as much as £200, depending on your mobile phone network and location.
Mobile phone networks charge for internet access by megabyte (MB) of data downloaded. How much you'll be charged depends on your network, tariff and location.
As a rough guide you'll be charged around £3-5 per MB in Europe and around £6-8 per MB further afield.
Tips for cheaper internet access abroad
Contact your mobile operator before you travel to find out how much it charges for data roaming in the country you're visiting.
Find out if your provider offers any cheap data bundles for internet use abroad. If you plan to use the internet a lot this could work out cheaper.
Ask your mobile operator if it can put a limit on your usage or how much you spend in total so you don't exceed a certain level.
