Roaming data charges have been scrapped in Europe. You are now able to use your bundled texts, minutes and mobile data anywhere in the European Union without it costing you any extra - but what happens after Brexit?

We've covered what happens to roaming after Brexit elsewhere, but in the meantime, you can uploading your holiday snaps to Facebook or Instagram as you go is much more justifiable than it has ever been in the past.

Unfortunately, there are no caps on roaming fees outside of Europe, or the countries not included in the EU, so if you are lucky enough to travel a lot, here is a roundup of what the different networks offer in terms of roaming and which give jetsetters the best deals.

Vodafone roaming

 

Vodafone now offers 5G roaming at no extra cost (unlike any other network). You can get 5G roaming in Italy, Germany and Spain – with 55 European towns and cities in total now with 5G. Vodafone’s 5G roaming will allow you to stream music, play online games, watch ultra-high definition TV and sport or upload photos and videos instantly without worrying about running out of data or running up a large bill.

Vodafone offers Vodafone Global Roaming as standard for Pay Monthly plans, as well as SIM-only plans. This incentive includes 48 "Roam-free" destinations, some of which extend further than just those covered by the EU roaming regulations.

If you sign up for an Unlimited Max Data plan, starting at £30/m for unlimited date, you'll also get free roaming to 29 more destinations than previously including the USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia - 77 destinations in all - under Global Roaming Plus. 

Users visiting any of the Roam-free destinations will be able to use their allowance as they would in the UK without spending any extra. Charges will apply if you go out of your bundle but the regulations state that they cannot be more than they would be in the UK.

The Roam-free destinations are: Austria, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (inc Corsica), French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Madeira, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain (inc Balearic Islands), St Martin, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Vatican City.

For those travelling further than the 48 countries on the Roam-free list, there are 104 "Roam-further" destinations available under the Vodafone Global Roaming incentive for Pay Monthly customers and SIM-only customers.

A daily flat rate of £6 allows you to use your phone in any of the participating Roam-further countries as you would in the UK, including calling, texting and data usage and you will only be charged on the days you use your phone. The day is calculated according to the capital city of the country you are in and it runs from midnight to midnight. 

The Roam-further destinations are: Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic of, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Macau, Macedonia, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Mozambique, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Myanmar,  New Zealand, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Russia, Saba, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, South Africa, South Korean, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Suriname, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Toga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, USA, Uruguay,  US Virgin Islands, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Three roaming

Three offers its Go Roam incentive to Pay Monthly starting at £10 for 4GB and Pay As You Go customers (£10 for 4GB), offering free roaming in 71 countries, some of which are not in the EU.

It doesn't matter what device you are using and like Vodafone, you can use your phone as you would in the UK but Three doesn't charge you anything for the privilege when you go further afield, such as the US or Australia. What's more, it works on PAYG plans too.

The Go Roam in Europe destinations are: Aland Islands, Austria, Azores, Balearic Islands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Réunion, Romania, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Vatican City.

Outside of Europe: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Macau, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands, USA, Vietnam.

There is also a £5 a day data passport, allow unlimited mobile Internet in those countries above and: Azerbaijan, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates.

There is one snag, if you have All-You-Can-Eat data, texts and minutes then only up to 19GB in Europe (12GB non Eu), 5000 texts and 3000 minutes are included in the incentive for no extra charge but that's still quite a lot. You also have to be on one of Three's Advanced plans if you're a Pay Monthly customer, and if you're PAYG you'll need to convert your credit into an Add-on to use Go Roam.

 

O2 roaming

O2 offers free roaming to 75 countries within its Europe Zone. Just like Vodafone and Three, Pay Monthly customers travelling to any of the countries within the O2's Europe Zone can use their minutes, data and text allowances as they would at home. 

The Europe Zone destinations are: Austria, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Vatican City.

The Europe Zone applies to PAYG customers too but Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Monaco and Switzerland are not included as they are for Pay Monthly customers. PAYG customers visiting these five countries can opt into the O2 Travel Bolt on, where you will also be charged £1.99 for data with a limit of 100MB a day, while calls will cost 4p per minute to make and free to receive. Texts cost 1p per message when sent to the UK or elsewhere in Europe.

O2 also offer the O2 Travel Bolt on for Pay Monthly customers visiting some 27 destinations outside of the Europe Zone. Customers will be charged £3.99 a day for Turkey, or £4.99 a day when in any of these destinations: Argentina, Honduras, Australia, Madagascar, Botswana, Mexico, Canada, Myanmar, Chile, New Zealand, Colombia, Nicaragua , Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Paraguay, El Salvador, Peru, Greenland, Rwanda, Guatemala, United States, Guinea, Uruguay, Guyana, Venezuela and Yemen.

O2 Travel has a daily allowance of 120 minutes for both making and receiving calls, 120 texts and unlimited data for Pay Monthly customers. PAYG customers have the same limit as mentioned above. You'll only be charged on the days you choose to use it.

You can find out more information on the O2 website.

 

EE roaming

EE offers all customers on all contracts, Pay Monthly and PAYG, free roaming in 48 destinations across Europe. Those on 4GEE Max contracts will also get roaming in a few more places further afield.

As with the other networks, you'll be able to "roam like home", using your data, minute and text allowances. A maximum of 15GB of data can be used while roaming, after which you'll need to buy a data add-on if you want to keep using data whilst roaming.

EE's European Roaming Zone destinations are: Austria, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Canary Islands, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Réunion Island, Romania, San Marino, Saint Martin (French), Saint Barthélemy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Vatican City (Italy).

Customers on the Max plans have roaming access to 53 countries, which also included in: Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and USA.

For those not on Max plans and travelling to one of the five countries included on the Max plans, you can add a World Select Talk and Text add-on. This will give you unlimited calls and texts for £5 a day, with the day running from midnight to midnight in the country you are in. No data is included with this add on though.

There is also a data add on however, called Travel Data Pass. This will offer 500MB of data per day and prices differ depending on the country. For example, it will cost you £6 a day for Turkey, £4.80 a day for United States of America and Canada or £6 a day for Australia, New Zealand, UAE, India, Thailand, Mexico, South Africa and China.

EE's offers are a little more complicated than Vodafone and Three so it's worth going on the EE website to work out your best option and find out exactly how much your specific destination might cost.

 

 

iD from Carphone Warehouse roaming

The Carphone Warehouse network, iD (running from Three), offers a Three "Go Roam" setup for its Pay Monthly, SIM Only and PAYG customers in 50 countries. As with the other networks, customers will be able to use their UK minutes, texts and data for no extra charge.

The "Go Roam" like Home countries are in two bands - Band 1: Austria, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Réunion, Romania, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Vatican City.

And Band 2 is, Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Kazakhstan.

Customers on older the iD's TakeAway plans will also see the United States of America included within the Go Roam Like destination list. Unlike Vodafone and Three, there doesn't appear to be a daily rate for other worldwide destinations though.

For customers on GoTo and ShockProof plans, as well as TakeAway customers travelling to destinations other, the iD network offers a comprehensive list of roaming costs on its site here.

 

Tesco Mobile roaming

Tesco Mobile offers its Home From Home incentive in 48 European destinations for all its customers. Customers can call, text and use data in the Home from Home countries without any extra cost on top of their existing price plans.

Minutes, texts and data limits will still apply as at home. That covers both PAYG and pay monthly customers.

Home from Home destinations are: Austria, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guyana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, St. Martin, St. Barts, Sweden, Switzerland, Vatican City.

As with Three, a maximum of 12GB of monthly data can be used when abroad. Following this, you will need to pay an additional charge per MB. 

Tesco Mobile caps data usage to 5MB so you cannot exceed £40 of spend while abroad elsewhere. That's because it charges £8 per MB if you are outside the Home from Home countries so be wary of using data anywhere other than in Europe or at a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Call charges from outside the EU can also be very pricey. Calls when you are in the US, for example, cost from 89p a minute to make or receive. Sending texts costs 40p a text. For more information on costs from specific countries, you can visit the Tesco Mobile website.

 

Select your SIM Only deal

We've included a SIMO selection tool, if the deals we've chosen haven't appealed to you - so feel use it - taking it to account all the above information.

Simply drop-down menus, and use the sliders to find perfect plan for you.