Currently, you can 'roam like at home' while using your mobile phone when travelling within the plan.com Eurozone
• Austria • Azores • Belgium • Bulgaria • Canary Islands • Croatia • Cyprus (Republic of) • Czech Republic • Denmark • Estonia • Finland • France • French Guiana • Germany • Gibraltar • Greece • Guadeloupe • Guernsey • Hungary • Iceland • Isle of Man • Ireland (Republic of) • Italy • Jersey • Latvia • Liechtenstein • Lithuania • Luxembourg • Madeira • Malta • Martinique • Monaco • Netherlands (The) • Norway • Poland • Portugal • Reunion Islands • Romania • Saint Barthélemy • Saint Martin • San Marino • Slovakia • Slovenia • Spain • Sweden • Switzerland • Vatican City.
The current rules generally require networks to charge customers the same price for calls, text messages and data services as you pay when in the UK. However, there may be some instances (such as when a network has a fair use policy in place on certain tariffs) where you may be charged more than your domestic charge, so make sure you know what roaming product you are on before heading off. * Note that all maritime, satellite and airborne networks are not included, even though they may be based in Europe. Please see roaming T&Cs for full details about call, text and data usage within the plan.com Europe Zone.
Providers offering roaming services should automatically apply ‘roam like at home’ to all existing and new customers – you don’t have to sign up. Check with your provider if you want to confirm that this has been activated on your contract.
Please do ensure that your APNs are correct before travelling to ensure full service whilst abroad, contact our team on 0345 222 6000 who are happy to check them for you.
The tariff options
The key differences between what you pay outside your bundle will depend on your network, tariff and which inclusive value bundles you have active on your account. Networks offering roaming services should automatically apply ‘roam like at home’ to all existing and new customers – you don’t have to sign up. Beware though that you will still pay higher rates to call the EU from the UK. Some tariffs have a limited number of minutes included but this is NOT part of the legislation.
Outside the plan.com Eurozone
Remember that travelling outside the plan.com Eurozone is where you’re likely to get caught out. Roaming charges are chargeable, and you may want to talk to us to understand the best available deal for the country you’re travelling to. It’s worth considering the purchase of either a permanent or temporary roaming bolt on to suit your travel requirements.
We’ve pulled together some frequently asked questions featured by Ofcom to help you understand the ‘roam like at home’ rules, and how they apply in practice:
The rules from OFCOM apply when UK consumers are roaming within the European Union, as well as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Plan.com go that little bit further and include the following destinations:
The plan.com Eurozone countries are: • Austria • Azores • Belgium • Bulgaria • Canary Islands • Croatia • Cyprus (Republic of) • Czech Republic • Denmark • Estonia • Finland • France • French Guiana • Germany • Gibraltar • Greece • Guadeloupe • Guernsey • Hungary • Iceland • Isle of Man • Ireland (Republic of) • Italy • Jersey • Latvia • Liechtenstein • Lithuania • Luxembourg • Madeira • Malta • Martinique • Monaco • Netherlands (The) • Norway • Poland • Portugal • Reunion Islands • Romania • Saint Barthélemy • Saint Martin • San Marino • Slovakia • Slovenia • Spain • Sweden • Switzerland • Vatican City
As a plan.com customer, you pay a fixed, monthly contractual amount every month. If you exceed your tariff whilst roaming the following charges will apply (unless you have already asked us to cap your spend – give us a call on 0345 222 6000 before you travel for advice)
Mobile phones used in coastal areas or at sea may not be able to connect to landbased 2G, 3G or 4G networks and may instead seek out the ship’s satellite connection. The ‘roam like at home’ tariff and worldwide data limits do not apply to these and charges can therefore be high.
If you think you will need to use your phone at sea, check with your provider before you travel how much it will cost to use your phone via a satellite connection. You could consider manually selecting a preferred network on your handset while you are on the boat/ship to avoid satellite connections but signals can vary and this will mean you wouldn’t receive calls or texts when out of range of the selected network.
If you receive a voicemail whilst roaming in the plan.com Eurozone you should not receive a charge. However, if you are travelling outside of these countries, there will be a charge every time a voicemail message is left on your phone when you are away.
You are able to switch off voicemail while you are away by keying a code into your handset, or we may be able to temporarily disable your voicemail.
Remember, you may need to contact us again to reactivate your voicemail on your return. You will, in any case, be charged to listen to voicemail messages while you are away.
While ‘roam like at home’ does not apply when roaming outside of the Plan.com Eurozone, unless you have opted into a different limit, we will apply a €50 (excluding VAT) cut-off limit on data, regardless of where you travel in the world.
You will receive an alert to your mobile device when you reach 80% and then 100% of the agreed data roaming limit. Charging for data at the 100% point will stop, unless you agree to continue to use data.
To help you manage when your phone accesses data, you can turn off data roaming on your handset.
If you want to regularly browse the web on your phone, use local Wi-Fi hotspots instead of your phone’s mobile internet connection.
You can usually access Wi-Fi in places like cafes, restaurants and hotels, sometimes for free, or you can pay to access the internet for a set time period. Some phone apps can seek out Wi-Fi networks and prompt you to connect to them so that you don’t have to do this manually.
This is particularly useful for downloading maps, checking emails or browsing social networks – all of which would otherwise soon rack up data charges if a mobile internet connection was used. Remember, you don’t need ‘data roaming’ switched on to access Wi-Fi. But this does mean you will need to stay within range of the Wi-Fi to avoid losing your connection. If you haven’t turned data roaming off while using Wi-Fi and the Wi-Fi signal drops, your phone may automatically seek out a mobile network to keep you connected and you may therefore incur data charges.
If you’re not using Wi-Fi, avoid data-heavy activities such as watching videos, updating social media with photos or downloading music. Also, if you are checking emails, avoid opening large attachments.
