No one wants to face a massive phone bill when they get home from an international trip. If you’re looking for a way to avoid roaming fees on your iPhone, electronic SIM cards (or eSIMs) are a quick and easy solution.
Let’s walk through how to avoid roaming charges with an iPhone eSIM. We’ll also go over how to turn off roaming on your iPhone to avoid unexpected charges.
Phone networks are limited to individual countries. When you leave the country, your phone carrier must connect your device to a different carrier’s network, so you can keep getting service. But there’s a cost for this, known as a roaming fee, which you’ll have to pay.
Roaming fees are usually charged by the minute (pay-as-you-go) or per day. As of the time of writing, Rogers charges $12 per day of roaming in the United States or $15 per day of roaming in many other countries. Likewise, $12 Telus charges $14 per day of roaming in the United States or $16 per day of roaming in 200+ other countries.
Stop losing cash to roaming fees. When you get an eSIM for your iPhone, you can cut out roaming fees and travel without worrying about service disruptions when you change countries.
Unlike physical SIM cards, eSIMs are built directly into the hardware of devices. Waiting line at the store to buy a SIM card or waiting for one to be shipped to your house is a thing of the past. An eSIM card can be purchased online and installed from home.
The price you’ll pay for an eSIM plan depends on how much data you need, your destination country, the length of your stay, and other factors. eSIMs cost as little as a few dollars for a day and less than 1GB of data or as much as $100+ for 365 days of travel and unlimited data.
It’s easy to disable roaming on iPhones. Here’s what you need to do:
It’s always a good idea to turn off roaming on your iPhone before you travel. Otherwise, you might be charged roaming fees without realizing it.
iPhone and Android users can get around roaming charges by using an eSIM plan when traveling. Pre-installed on most new iPhone models, eSIMs can be activated from anywhere and are much more convenient than physical SIM cards. Additionally, it’s easy to switch eSIM plans when switching countries.
Learn more about the difference between eSIMs and physical SIM cards here.
Yes, going on Airplane Mode prevents your phone from connecting to mobile networks. This makes it impossible to activate roaming. To keep using your phone without enabling roaming, you’ll need a new physical SIM card or eSIM.
Stop worrying about how to stay connected with friends and family when traveling abroad. Use an eSIM on your iPhone to enjoy international network access and avoid crazy roaming charges. Most new iPhone models support eSIMs, and you’ve got plenty of eSIM plans to choose from regardless of where you’re going and how much data you need.
