Modern travel sees great benefits from the tech tools in our pockets. Anyone can download a few smartphone apps (many of them free) to reserve hotel rooms, navigate cities, translate signs through the camera, and, with the latest AI-driven apps, even translate conversations in real time.
But those fancy phone features require a data connection, which typically costs extra through roaming charges when you’re outside your home network. Here’s how to avoid such charges.
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First and foremost, you’ll want to understand how pricey those extra charges are, or whether you’ll be traveling to a region that’s cheaper or free with your carrier. Some mobile carriers have partnered with carriers in other countries for more-affordable roaming or even free service, albeit with some restrictions. For instance, some plans, like T-Mobile’s Essentials, have free service in Canada and Mexico, though only at slow “2G” and “3G”-like speeds, so don’t expect to stream lots of video with that connection.
But traveling to most countries will require you to pay mobile roaming charges if you try to use data services, make voice calls, or send text messages on your phone as normal. If that’s your plan, check out our guide for the best travel phone plans.
If you want to avoid mobile roaming charges, keep the following tips in mind.
Set up mobile service ahead of time
Some carriers will let you pick traveling service options ahead of time, which can include daily, weekly or monthly flat fees to get service from partner carriers in other countries. You can wait until you arrive at your destination and wait to be prompted to select your chosen service, but you can set it up ahead of time. Note that some carriers will simply default you to these services rather than charge you higher roaming fees, though it’s worth confirming before you travel.
These international plans are pretty convenient, though some may come with caveats like being…
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