5 Ways You Can Avoid Hefty International Data Fees

More people are travelling today.  According to research conducted by CCMI, a telecom research company, out of the 200 companies that were surveyed, one third is said to spend $1000 to $3500 within a month on an employee in international roaming charges.

It can be very expensive to use a mobile device during international travel as you will have to encounter the high roaming and other data usage fees. Here are five ways on how you can always avoid the hefty international data fees.

1.Turn off Everything

It is appropriate that you perform a few tasks before your flight departs. It is important that you first set your mail settings to manual fetch rather than pushing mail to you. You will only want your cell phone to fetch the mail when you request it to do so. It can generate a hefty bill when you let it run in the background.

It is also recommended that you always switch on your cellular data statistics whenever you are abroad in order to keep track of your cellular usage. Ensure that you also turn off automatic downloads and application updates or you can decide to restrict this feature on Android and iOS in order to operate only when you are connected to Wi-Fi. Never think of streaming music or videos online when you are roaming internationally.

2.Get a SIM but don’t put it in your cell phone

Getting the best SIM card for Europe travel is another great way of limiting the international fees. The SIM cards  can be purchased in the United States and will always allow you to use SMS, data and voice at local rates.

However, when you are using a SIM card in your phone, you will keep the address book but suddenly have a completely different phone number. Though this might not be a major issue to some people, there are some who always want their family members and colleagues to reach them and using voice or SMS is the most common way.

3. Come up with a Plan

You can now rely on getting an international data plan when your phone is in a state where it cannot bankrupt you. For example, in the United States, such plans range from silly expensive to ridiculously expensive.  You will be lucky if your carrier is T-Mobile since T-Mobile is known to offer unlimited data at a very low price.

4.Wi-Fi Everywhere

One great way of completely eliminating or minimizing data roaming fees is not to roam at all. It is much easier with Android and iOS to turn off cellular data. It is much easier for one to get around solely using Wi-Fi given how prevalent Wi-Fi hot spots have become throughout Asia, Europe and every other place.

5.Do you still use Voice?

It is important that you never try to call from your mobile phone whenever you are roaming. In you do need to make  outbound calls back to the U.S, it is advisable that you either use Skype or Google Voice. However, both will require you to deposit money into your account.  These options will provide you with low rates and the voice quality will be from good to excellent.

6.Buy a prepaid SIM Card

With the recent technological advancements, most people have gotten used to having available and free internet access in their pockets. For you to continue using internet in the way you have been using, you need to seek out for a local cellular provider immediately when you get to your destination country and purchase a prepaid SIM card.


There are different offers from one country to the other, so, it advisable that you do some research before travelling.

If you need assistance on sim card for Europe travel, the author of this article suggests MY UK SIMCARD.