For years the idea of roaming costs was something that many people were aware of and actively tried to avoid. Plenty of times they would show up on your phone bill and you really had no idea how or when you put yourself in a situation to incur in roaming costs. The good thing about AT&T roaming international rates is precisely the fact that you only have to worry about roaming when you travel. In other eras of mobile phones, coverage roaming could occur nationally. Today that is usually not something that you’ll get surprised with. Most networks even brag about how much national coverage they provide.
When you go international there are certain costs that you could face. Particularly if you’re not careful with the amount of data or minutes that you’re using abroad. On this site, we talk a lot about different strategies to be able to get coverage abroad. When it comes to AT&T we’ve explored their international day pass option as well as other worries that people have when they go abroad. If you travel without a real “strategy” as far as how you’re going to get coverage AT&T can actually help you not rack up a massive bill. Topping out some of your services. Still, it’s a good idea to have a clear idea of how much you can be expected to pay.
- AT&T Roaming International Things To Know
- Is The Daypass A Good Idea?
- AT&T Roaming International Calls While Abroad
- Going To Countries Outside Of The Coverage List
- Is It Still A Good Idea To Get A Local SIM Card
- How Many People Are Traveling With You?
AT&T Roaming International Things To Know
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When you look at the AT&T site directly it can be hard to get a quick read on how much you would expect to pay for roaming costs. What could be even more dangerous is not even being aware of what type of actions could result in roaming costs being added to your bill at the end of the month. The first thing that you need to know to be aware of is the fact that there isn’t necessarily free data with AT&T internationally. This can change depending on your plan. However, with AT&T you should just assume that extra costs are coming your way if you use your phone outside of your regular coverage area.
The first thing that you needed to know was kind of harsh. We are certainly going to admit to that. Therefore, we are going to give you more positive news for the second thing you need to know. At maximum, you can expect to pay rates of up to $2.05 per MB when using data abroad. Each text is going to be 50 cents. You can get charged up to 3 dollars a minute if you’re making a call outside of Europe, Mexico, and Canada. Traveling without a plan in place to get a foreign SIM card could totally backfire. If you use up data worth over 10 dollars for example the International day pass should automatically kick in. That’s a positive.
Since you’ll be able to get more data for just 10 dollars a day on the day pass. If you were forced to keep the same $2.05 per MB rate you could end up paying a fortune. Although as we mentioned one thing that you should know about AT&T Roaming International, is that the day pass kicks in. We wouldn’t advise trusting your service provider that much. You should have a plan in place when you travel. Even if that plan is to activate the day pass for however long you happen to be abroad. That way you won’t have to deal with some unwanted costs showing up on your phone bill at the end of the month!
Is The Daypass A Good Idea?
We’ve gone over this topic quite a bit on the site already. We are going to brush up on it here though. For anyone who maybe has not had a chance to read through some of the other articles. We always say that if you’re making a short trip abroad and you don’t want to go through the trouble of getting a local SIM card it could make sense to just pay 20 dollars extra on your phone bill for that month. You won’t have to worry about keeping track of another number; you’ll get your calls and texts on your regular number the same way that you always would. As we’ve said before in certain situations the day pass can make sense.
If on the other hand, you happen to be taking a longer trip abroad it’s going to be harder to justify the day pass as an option. Think about a scenario where you have to take a family of 4 abroad and each member has their own phone. Would you be willing to pay 40 dollars a day for every day of the trip to make sure that everyone gets coverage? Even if you get a discount and you have to pay 25 dollars a day it would be a tough sell. Even for a short 3-day trip.
Those are the reasons why we can’t outright say yes, the day passes by a great deal. Certainly, for business travelers that are going to be at a location for 2 days, it makes a ton of sense. Particularly if you can get your company to pay for the 20 or 30 dollars extra that you’d have to pay. The day passes, though, for families or for people who are taking longer trips just won’t be a great option. Sticking with the roaming costs would be even worse! Once again, it’s usually a good idea to have a strategy on how you’re going to get coverage while abroad.
AT&T Roaming International Calls While Abroad
We went over some of these rates already. AT&T roaming international is not a mode that you’re going to want to find yourself. That’s really the best way to put it. As far as cost per minute AT&T has one of the highest rates in the industry. A dollar a minute to Canada and Mexico. It’s going to cost you 2 dollars a minute to be able to make a call in Europe. When it comes to the rest of the world you’ll be paying 3 dollars a minute. Keep in mind these are the rates that you’re going to have to pay without a package. That could be the international day pass or different add-ons that can be included in your regular package. Particularly when it comes to calls within Mexico and Canada.
It’s important to point out that you won’t necessarily be liable for these costs if you make a call as soon as you get off the plane. What’s important though is that you activate an international pass or AT&T passport before you travel or before you make the call. As we mentioned AT&T supposedly has a feature where if you rack up enough roaming usage of data or calls you’ll be charged the international pass rate even if you hadn’t activated it yet. Another thing that we mentioned is that you typically don’t want to give AT&T the power to charge you freely. If you are going to be using your AT&T phone abroad the best you can do is make sure that you have an active package and you’re not running on roaming.
Going To Countries Outside Of The Coverage List
Kind of an obvious one here, but if you travel to countries outside of the 210+ countries that are on the list you should expect coverage. What happens though if you can’t find the country on the list and you arrive and you somehow get coverage? That’s a hard call to make, literally. If this happens there’s a chance that you could get hit with all of the worst roaming fees that we’ve discussed here. Why is that? Naturally, there’s no way that you’re going to be able to activate a package that covers that area. That means if by some miracle you do get coverage the only thing that you’d have is roaming.
Ideally, before you travel make sure that you check whether or not the country that you’re traveling to is on the list. Doing so is going to allow you to create a budget at least a hypothetical one. If the country that you’re traveling to is not on the list the best thing that you can do is make sure that your data is off the whole that you’re in that country. You’ll still be able to use some features, specifically certain apps if you’re connected through a wifi network.
The best-case scenario for countries off the list of coverage is to communicate through wifi. We’ve covered this topic in some of our other articles on the site. Going data off and only wifi can actually be one of the least expensive ways to get coverage abroad. Of course, there is one major drawback here. Once you’re out of the hotel or outside of the wifi coverage in general you won’t be able to use your phone at all! That could be a better deal though than paying all of the roaming fees. Of course, you are for the most part going to be able to use the local SIM card option!
Is It Still A Good Idea To Get A Local SIM Card
We’ve already discussed the fact that if you happen to be in a country that’s off the coverage list you pretty much have no other option. Being honest, AT & T roaming international costs are some of the highest on the market. For example, with T-Mobile, you can get 25 cents a minute calls even as a roaming fee. With AT&T roaming you’re looking at 1 dollar a minute as your minimum charge. Having said this, a lot of AT&T customers that are traveling abroad should consider the local SIM card option. Especially if you’re going to be abroad for more than a week.
Even with their day pass or some of the add-ons that you can get the coverage is usually at best limited on your regular plan. For the most part, it’s also expensive. The thing with international coverage on your regular plan is that you’re probably going to have to monitor your call and data usage. To make sure that you don’t go over the allowed amount and are charged more. If you’re going to be abroad for 2 weeks getting a local SIM card for around 30 dollars could just make more sense. You wouldn’t need to monitor your data usage as much. There are countries where you could end up paying way less than 30 dollars for monthly coverage.
It’s not that we have a particular bias that favors local SIM card usage. The thing with AT&T, in particular, is that getting hit with roaming fees can really set you back hundreds of dollars. That’s obviously more likely if you’re going to be abroad for more than a week. The benefit that you typically get with local SIM cards is that you don’t have to monitor your data usage all that much. Particularly if you’re able to buy one with unlimited data for the month. Is it still a good idea then, to get a local SIM card? It really depends on how much you use your phone and where you happen to be traveling. Each case is certainly unique in its own right!
How Many People Are Traveling With You?
Party of how many? It’s not that we are getting ready to sit you down at a restaurant. It’s just that the number of people that are going on the trip could definitely matter. Particularly, if you’re the one who has to pay for the bill at the end of the month. If you have a family of four each with your own cell phone and you plan to just accept the roaming fees, hopefully you have a pretty good job. Otherwise you can find yourself in a ton of trouble! Just add up all of the costs that we’ve talked about and we’re sure you can see for yourself how bad it can get.
Again, the site is not meant to provide parenting skills for anyone. Do you think that you can trust your kids to monitor the amount of data they use or calls they make? If you can, that’s great if you don’t think you can make sure their data roaming is off. That’s just going to be the best piece of advice that we can give. If you want to be extra careful you may even want to make sure that they leave their phone at home! Getting hit with roaming fees from all angles is not something that you want. Buying a local SIM card for maybe a couple or at least one phone could be a very viable option.
AT&T Roaming International Conclusion
For the most part, you are going to want to avoid AT&T roaming international costs. There are very few instances where it would make sense to not have a plan and ultimately end up paying what we could consider the full cost. If you find yourself in that situation you should probably just buy the International day pass for that particular day. That way you know ahead of time it’s going to be 10 dollars and you’ll be able to use your phone almost as you would locally. If you use your phone without a day pass you could rack up costs that go over those ten dollars rather quickly.
We know what you’re thinking. The International Day pass is going to be activated automatically. We’ve seen this happen without too much trouble. We’ve also gotten reports of people who have had to pay some AT&T roaming international residual costs on top of the day pass. If you find yourself in that situation where you don’t have a local SIM card and you need to make a call particularly outside of Mexico and Canada get the pass. Even in Mexico and Canada paying the 5 dollars could be a much better idea than allowing roaming costs to build up!