Cost of Data Roaming – How Can You Lower Your Rate?

The cost of data roaming can vary dramatically depending on your provider, and where you’re going. Just right off the bat we’d like to make it known that we are going to be using data from US service providers to cover this particular topic. Obviously, the rates are going to vary depending on your data provider as we just mentioned, and also your country of origin. For example, with European service providers you can get preferential rates in all of Europe. With some providers even allowing regular usage within the EU. In the US you’ll see preferential rates in Mexico and Canada. If you go virtually anywhere else though, the rates start to climb. 

One of the positive things that wireless service providers have these days is that they’ve crafted different methods to be able to avoid roaming altogether. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t have to pay an extra dime when you travel abroad. They are, though, ways to make sure that you’re getting more of a fixed rate when you travel abroad. Instead of getting hit with roaming fees. The worst thing about most roaming fees is that it’s hard to even calculate how much you’re going to have to pay until you actually get your bill. Since the wireless service provider is going to control your data usage and your calls there’s little that you can do to fight off a roaming charge. Unless you argue that you actually were never abroad! 

• Cost of Data Roaming With The Most Expensive Provider 
• Ways To Avoid Data Roaming While Staying On Your Regular Plan
• Where You Travel Can Influence The Cost of Data Roaming
• I Don’t Want To Pay Any Extra Fee
• Cost of Data Roaming: What’s More Expensive Minutes or Data Usage? 
• Best American Service Provider When It Comes To Roaming 

Cost of Data Roaming With The Most Expensive Provider 

In our experiences the most expensive provider when it comes to the cost of data roaming in the US is Verizon. In fact, it potentially isn’t only the most expensive provider. It’s the provider that you are most likely to fall into the roaming scheme with. That’s a big issue that doesn’t get talked about. They do offer different payment schemes that you can enroll in. Including a 10 dollar a day travel pass. If you use up more data or minutes than you’re allowed to on these plans the roaming rates are going to kick in. How much money are we talking about here? Let’s run through what you can expect the cost of data roaming to be with Verizon. 

The cost of data roaming in France, Germany, and virtually all of the European countries with Verizon is charged as follows. $1.79 per minute for calls. With data costing $2.05 per MB! The per rate on the calls is certainly steep. When you look at the data rate though, things start getting out of hand! Texts on roaming rates can range from 0.25 cents to 50 cents per text sent. That’s of course contemplating that you didn’t send a picture, video, or audio file in the message. If you do that you can start seeing per text rates go up to over a dollar and change. Verizon doesn’t call it roaming, they call it the pay as you go rate. It can get wild for sure!   

Ways To Avoid Data Roaming While Staying On Your Regular Plan

To their credit companies have acknowledged the fact that roaming fees are excessive. What they’ve done is open up different avenues for people to get coverage while staying on their plan. This benefits the company as well. When people go through the local SIM card route, their regular service provider may not be getting an extra dime throughout that person’s trip. Anyway, the way to avoid roaming fees while staying with your regular service provider is to buy a travel pass or some type of international monthly plan from your provider. The monthly plan option is potentially a roaming trap anyway. So we are going to stick to talking about the travel passes here.  

On a travel pass what you get for the most part, is unlimited coverage for 10 dollars a day. At least unlimited data. Some companies have a cap on the number of minutes or calls that you can make on the pass. When you put up the numbers side by side you realize that the travel pass is a much more cost-efficient option. Just think about the amount of data that you could use for 10 dollars. At 2.05 per MB in the regular cost of data roaming you could rack up a 10 dollar bill real easy. Now, the downside to travel passes is that they typically have a speed cap on data. After using typically around 0.5 GB a day you’ll be limited to slow speed coverage. This is the new way to incentivize people to spend more.

Where You Travel Can Influence The Cost of Data Roaming

In the case of most US service providers they offer preferential rates in Mexico and Canada. We know for a fact that Indian service providers do the same for neighboring countries. Most European service providers also have preferential rates for folks traveling within the EU. If you’re traveling to another part of the world though expect to pay the full extent of data roaming. It’s not only the costs though, that are going to change. It’s also what you can or can’t access through roaming schemes as you travel. For example, T-Mobile offers the possibility to use your phone in Mexico and Canada pretty much in the same way that you do locally. You have to be very careful with these roaming schemes. You may not get a per minute rate or fee for data usage right off the bat.        

What can happen though is that they’ll be a speed cap on your data usage. At the same time there may be a limit to the minutes that you can use. From there, you’re going to have to start paying roaming fees. It may make sense to travel to Mexico and Canada on your regular plan, and essentially on the roaming rates. It’s important though, to monitor your data usage. In putting a speed cap on your data usage, what they’re counting on is that users will end up having to buy a travel pass to get their speed back. Something that they are more likely to do if they didn’t set up a strategy to get coverage abroad. When it comes to roaming make sure that you read the fine print. If not you could expect to come home to massive fees.  

I Don’t Want To Pay Any Extra Fee

You may be saying to yourself, I don’t have extra money on my travel budget to be able to pay for roaming fees or any fees for that matter. That would mean in the worst case scenario that the local SIM card option is also off the table. You don’t want to pay a dime more for coverage when you’re abroad. That can be arranged. The downside to this is that you are most likely not going to be able to use your phone at all outside of spots that offer free Wi-Fi. That can certainly be a big risk. Particularly if you’re going to be doing some exploring on your trip. What you could do though is make sure that you turn your data off just as you get on the plane to get to where you’re going. 

Keep the data off the entire trip. Just use your phone through local WIFI spots. We have an article that tells you how to use a tool to find these spots. In those cases what you can do is connect to a WIFI network and make calls or texts through apps. Remember though, with your data off you won’t be able to get calls or regular SMS texts, at any point during the trip. This though, is virtually the only way to be able to guarantee that you won’t be charged an extra fee for roaming. Maybe you should just be careful about the amount of data that you’re using abroad. We understand though, that sometimes you’re on a tight budget. That can lead to the need to take some extra risks.

Cost of Data Roaming: What’s More Expensive Minutes or Data Usage? 

In most pay schemes data usage has become much more expensive than minutes. Particularly, when you take into account the amount of data that you can be spending on a relatively simple task. Let’s put it this way. If you had to make a call and you had the option to make the call through an app on roaming fees, making the same call through the regular line, chose the regular line. At least, that’s the case in most service providers. A lot of people are actually falling for this one. The idea is that you can make the call through an app like Whatsapp, and it’s free right? Sure, you won’t be paying a per minute rate. The problem is that you’ll be using up data while making this call. 

When it’s all set and done the amount of data that you spend on the call is potentially going to cost more than the minutes that you spend on the call. Even if the per minute rate is high. The per minute rate would have to be around a dollar a minute or more for it to make sense to use data to make these calls. Most countries you can call for under a dollar a day. Of course, the good thing about these apps is that you can connect to a WIFI connection and effectively make the call for free. There’s a lot to take in here, and the results could vary. In general though, data is becoming more expensive than minutes when it comes to roaming.    

Best American Service Provider When It Comes To Roaming 

We’ve said before on the site that our favorite is T-Mobile. It was the first to open up access to other countries without necessarily hitting you with roaming fees. If you need to use your regular plan in an emergency when you’re abroad T-Mobile is best because you may not even get hit with roaming fees for minimal usage. With most other service providers if you set foot in another country and want to use your phone you’re already on the hook for something. These “new” roaming rates can be very dangerous though. 

What can happen is that you won’t even notice that you’re on the roaming plan per se. So you keep using your phone as you normally would. At a certain point in time though, the speed of your data is going to drop off. When that happens you’re going to be left with a pretty useless phone. With no other option, but to pay for the travel pass. Which, by most accounts is exactly what these service providers want you to do! 

Cost of Data Roaming Conclusion 

It’s a good idea to know that if you need it you can get coverage from your regular service provider when you travel abroad. If you are going to accept the roaming rates you probably want to be very careful about how much data you’re actually using. The bad part about these new roaming schemes is that since you go on your trip thinking you’ll have coverage you don’t plan ahead. As we just mentioned at some point you’re forced into buying a travel pass. The travel pass option has its benefits, but if you’re going to be abroad for about a week or more then it can get really expensive. 

The whole purpose of this site is to make sure that users are able to avoid hefty fees. With these new roaming rates you have the option of getting into this game of russian roulette. Our advice would be to always have some type of back up plan. To make sure that you are able to get coverage when you’re abroad at a decent rate. In our book the best way to do that is to get a local SIM card from the country that you’re traveling to! You can get a data only SIM, and keep your regular number active on apps. If you’re keen on sticking with the roaming rates though, just make sure that you don’t start watching movies on these devices.