Mastering Roaming: The Ultimate Guide to Conquering Mobile Data Usage

2023-08-12 00:25:03

Controlling Your Mobile Data Usage While Roaming: Tips and Tricks

No matter where you're going on holiday, or which Vodafone UK plan you have, here's how you can control your smartphone's data usage - and any extra charges - while travelling. Whether you’re travelling abroad for a holiday or a work/business trip, it’s likely you’ll need or want to use mobile data on your smartphone once you’re overseas.

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Before you jet off, it’s worth double checking which roaming destinations are included in your Vodafone UK plan. It’s easy to forget that, even with Vodafone plans taken out before 11 August 2021, there are many countries – especially those outside of Europe and North America – where using mobile data on your plan comes at extra cost.Even if you have an Unlimited plan, it’s also easy to forget that a 25GB fair use policy applies while you’re roaming. 25GB should be more than enough for most people on most trips. But if you’re worried about exceeding that limit, or you’re travelling to a destination where roaming costs extra, here’s how you can keep track of your usage and how, with a wee bit of planning, you can conserve your data allowance to make it go even further.

1. Check Your Mobile Data Usage

To check how much mobile data you’ve used, open the My Vodafone app and tap on the Data tile. The Usage tab will appear, showing you how much mobile data you’ve used in the current billing month. If you’ve never used the My Vodafone app before, you should download it and set it up before you depart on your trip.

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Use Spend manager to set limits on any extra charges. With the Spend manager feature, you can set an upper spending limit on charges for any usage not covered by your plan, ensuring you stay in control of how much you spend. You change your Spend manager limits using the My Vodafone app or by contacting Vodafone UK customer care.

2. Get Roaming Passes for European Destinations

If you have a Pay Monthly plan taken out after 11 August 2021 that doesn’t have inclusive mobile data roaming, you can purchase roaming passes for European destinations – £10 for 8 days or £15 for 15 days. To add one of these roaming passes to your plan, just text 8DAYEUROPE or 15DAYEUROPE to 40506 free from your Vodafone mobile. These passes do not include MMS picture messages, premium calls or texts. If you’re on Pay As You Go, a different set of roaming passes are available.

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3. Turn Off Mobile Data While Roaming

Whether you use an Android handset or an iPhone, you can turn off mobile data roaming entirely if you wish. With Android, the exact steps for doing so may differ depending on your phone’s manufacturer. But they should be broadly similar to the way it’s done on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel handsets.

4. Selectively Turn Off Mobile Data for Some Apps While Roaming

For a less drastic and more fine-grained approach, iPhone owners can choose which specific iOS apps can use mobile data. This feature is available on any iPhone running iOS 12 or later. While there’s no equivalent feature on Android, you may want to change your phone’s settings so that it only backs up automatically to the cloud over WiFi rather than mobile data.

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How to use your phone abroad without mobile data:

5. Utilize Offline Maps and Translation Apps

Google Maps: For most parts of the world, you can download a map for an area of your choice, such as a city, in the Google Maps app. This, combined with your phone’s GPS, should help ensure that you never get lost even when you’re not connected to the internet.

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Google Translate: Instead of fumbling around with a bulky phrasebook, download the relevant language packs for your destination in the Google Translate app. You’ll then be able to translate signs, menus, and other printed materials, as well as search for the word or phrase you’re looking for, even when you’re not online.

6. Enjoy Entertainment Partners

If you have added one of Vodafone’s entertainment partners to your Pay Monthly plan – Amazon Prime Video, YouTube Premium or Spotify Premium – you can download videos, podcasts and/or music to your phone. That could be a godsend for that long, tedious plane journey or lazy days on the beach. Bear in mind that some titles and tracks may not be available for offline use due to legal restrictions.

7. Bring Virtual Guidebooks

If you need help in deciding what to see and do while you’re on holiday, a virtual guidebook on your phone is not only helpful, but lightweight, compact and discreet – unlike paper guidebooks which can be conspicuously hefty tomes. It might be tempting to turn to TripAdvisor, but that app no longer has an offline mode. Almost every book in the long-running Rough Guides series, on the other hand, comes with a download code for a free ebook version. The ebooks can be downloaded as either ePub or Mobi files, which are common ebook formats, so you’ll need an app that can open them such as Google Play Books or Apple Books. Don’t forget to have this sorted before your departure, though!

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