You might have seen in the news about some of the major networks bringing back roaming charges. The Government’s traffic light system details which countries are currently safe to travel to, and guidance on what needs to be done before and after you travel can be found here.

But what about your mobile charges?  The UK Government has legislated to protect consumers from unexpected charges, capping limits to £45 per billing period, unless you choose to exceed this. You can read all about the bill passed in Parliament here.

Here’s a guide for what you can expect, obviously this can be subject to change at any time, and if you’re in any doubt before you go abroad check with us to see if you’ve got any caps on or not.

O2

If you’re going abroad periodically, for holidays or for business then your data, minutes and text allowances work in Europe just like they do here in the UK. This is subject to their ‘fair usage’ policy – take note if O2 think you’re using their services outside of these conditions they will charge you.

Vodafone

In-line with EU Roaming Regulations, you can use your data, minutes and text allowances while roaming in Europe for holidays or work, subject to the Vodafone ‘acceptable use’ policy which you can read more about on that link. If you are deemed to be going over their guidelines on usage you will be subject to a surcharge of 3.3p per minute for voice calls, 1p per SMS and £3.13 per GB of data will be applied to further usage.

EE

Things are a little different over at EE, for the time being as long as your contract started before 7th July 2021 things stay standard for roaming charges, using minutes, texts and data abroad as part of your usual monthly plan. However, if you’ve signed up to them since this date, then you can still use your data, minutes and texts BUT you’ll have a charge of £2 per day when abroad. This charge won’t start to be applied until January 2022.