on
17-03-2022
09:35
- last edited on
16-11-2023
14:55
by
Dave-O2
For many of us, we've not had a holiday outside the UK for a couple of years now - or possibly even longer. In that time a lot has changed, but the good news is that O2 is the only major network that isn't bringing back EU roaming charges. Up to 25GB.
So, if you're thinking of going on holiday or a trip to one of our Europe Zone destinations, you'll be able to roam freely just like if you were at home. This thread will give you all the info you need to ensure you're fully informed on allowances, costs, options, and what to expect when you travel abroad, even if it's outside of Europe.
Oct 2022 Update: We have a new roaming page here that makes it easier than ever to check your destination to see if O2 Travel is available or to check costs for roaming in that country. Check it out here.
Great news! We cover roaming in our Europe Zone as part of our Tariffs. So your data, minutes and text allowances will work in our Europe Zone, just like they do at home.
Destinations included in our Europe Zone
The below is for reference only, and is correct as of 16 March 2022. Please refer to our website for the most up-to-date list.
Austria | Azores | Belgium |
Bulgaria | Canary Islands | Croatia |
Cyprus* | Czech Republic | Denmark |
Estonia | Finland | France |
French Guiana | Germany | Gibraltar |
Greece | Guadeloupe | Guernsey |
Hungary | Iceland | Ireland |
Isle of Man | Italy | Jersey |
Latvia | Liechtenstein | Lithuania |
Luxembourg | Madeira | Malta |
Martinique | Mayotte | Monaco |
Netherlands | Norway | Poland |
Portugal | Reunion | Romania |
Saint Barthelemy | Saint Martin | San Marino |
Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain |
Sweden | Switzerland | United Kingdom |
Vatican City |
* Not including Northern Cyprus
Tariffs with more than 25GB of monthly data
If your UK monthly data allowance is over 25GB, you’ll have a Roaming Limit of 25GB when roaming in our Europe Zone. This means you can use up to 25GB of your allowance at no extra cost- we’ll text you if you’re getting close to the limit, and again if you reach it. You can still use data if you reach our Roaming Limit, but you’ll be charged £3.50/GB.
These charges will apply until the following (depending on which is earliest);
**If you use all your UK data allowance when roaming outside the UK, you’ll need to buy a data Bolt On if you want to keep using data. See our data Bolt Ons here.
Tariffs with 25GB or less of monthly data
These tariffs are not subject to our Roaming Limit of 25GB. But if you use all your UK data allowance when roaming outside in the UK, you’ll need to buy a data Bolt On if you want to keep using data. See our data Bolt Ons here.
We want going on holidays or roaming abroad to be as stress-free as possible, but we do have some rules in place to prevent abuse and ensure as many of our customers can enjoy uninterrupted access while abroad as possible.
Permanent Roaming
Using our services in our Europe Zone for more than 63 days in any four-month period is what we consider to be unfair use. If you do this we’ll send you a fair usage notification by text. If you continue to use these services after we’ve notified you, we’ll apply surcharges for further usage that we recognise as overage.
These surcharges are £3.50 per GB for data, 3.3p per minute for calls and 1p per text. The surcharges will appear on your next month’s bill. We’ll stop applying surcharges to your European Zone usage once the majority of your usage over the previous four months has been in the UK.
What options do I have?
You can continue to use your phone in our Europe Zone, but you should be aware that usage will be charged at the rates given above. For example, if you use 1GB of data and 100 texts after receiving the notification, you’ll be charged an extra £4.50 - that’s £3.50 for the data and £1 for the texts.
If you find yourself living in the EU for a long period of time, it may be more cost-effective for you to buy a local sim card or take out a contract with a local network.
If this has happened to you and you think it might be a mistake, call 202 from your mobile or 0344 809 0202 from any other phone.
Use of our services in our Europe Zone is subject to our fair usage policy.
What's not included?
Good news, our O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Bolt On is now included with selected O2 Refresh tariffs over 90GB and SIM only tariffs over 100GB. You can also select the O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Bolt On as your Extra if your O2 Refresh tariff is between 30GB and 89GB.
With our O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Bolt On, you get a daily allowance of 120 calls, 120 minutes and data roaming in 27 additional destinations (our Inclusive Zone) including USA, Australia and New Zealand. You you can find all of the the included destinations here.
Destinations included in our Travel Inclusive Zone
The below is for reference only, and is correct as of 16 March 2022. Please refer to our website for the most up-to-date list.
Argentina | Honduras |
Australia | Madagascar |
Botswana | Mexico |
Canada | Myanmar |
Chile | New Zealand |
Colombia | Nicaragua |
Costa Rica | Panama |
Ecuador | Paraguay |
El Salvador | Peru |
Greenland | Rwanda |
Guatemala | United States |
Guinea | Uruguay |
Guyana | Venezuela |
Yemen |
If you go over your allowance, you’ll pay the standard international roaming rates for the country you’re roaming in. See rates for your destination
Calling from the USA
From 2023, you’ll be unable to use your UK mobile phone to make regular calls when visiting the USA because of changes to their mobile networks. However, you’ll be able to use your phone to make calls using the 4G network – provided you have a compatible phone.
Follow the steps listed here to check whether your phone is compatible, or you can find a list of compatible devices if you go here and click the link shown in the screenshot below the most up-to-date compatibility list.
If the device you have isn't compatible with 4G roaming, then you will be unable to make and receive calls when you're roaming in the USA. This down to USA network technology changes rather than anything on our side, or that O2 is in control of.
You can still get our full O2 Travel Bolt On for £6 a day in selected destinations. Your data allowance will reset at midnight every night and you will only be charged for the days you use it.
If you go over your O2 Travel daily 120 minute/text allowance, you will be charged standard rates. Cruise ship travel is not included in this Bolt On and your O2 Travel Bolt On cannot be used in the UK.
To UK | To our Europe Zone | To Rest of World | |
---|---|---|---|
From our Europe Zone | Included in your allowance | Included in your allowance | Making calls £1.79min Receiving calls free Sending texts 50p |
From Rest of World | Making calls £2min Receiving calls £2min Sending texts 50p Using data £7.20/MB |
Making calls £2min Receiving calls £2min Sending texts 50p Using data £7.20/MB |
Making calls £2min Receiving calls £2min Sending texts 50p Using data £7.20/MB |
If you're travelling in our Europe Zone, use your phone like you do at home, at no extra cost, on Pay As You Go plans. There are over 40 countries included in our Europe Zone. When travelling within any of these countries, you can make calls and texts like you would in the UK. You can also receive calls and texts at no extra cost.
Calling or texting premium rate, directory service and some non-geographical numbers will incur additional charges. If you are using your Pay As You Go or Big Bundle plan abroad for an extended period, beyond a holiday or short break, you could be charged or suspended from your service.
If you're travelling to Monaco, Jersey, Isle of Man, Guernsey or Switzerland (MJIGS, in the table below), you can stay connected with O2 Travel Pay As You Go. For £1.99 a day, you'll get 100MB data. Calls back to the UK and within these five countries cost 4p a minute. Texts sent to the UK and the five countries included cost 1p, but are free to receive.
To UK | To Europe Zone | To MJIGS 1 | To ROW 2 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
From Europe Zone | RLH | RLH | 4p/min (MO) 1p/text |
£1.79/min (MO) 25p/text |
From MJIGS | 4p/min (MO) 1p/text |
4p/min (MO) 1p/text |
4p/min (MO) 1p/text |
£1.79/min (MO) 25p/text |
From ROW | £2.00/min (MO/MT) 50p/text £7.20/MB (CUK) |
£2.00/min (MO/MT) 50p/text £7.20/MB (CUK) |
£2.00/min (MO/MT) 50p/text £7.20/MB (CUK) |
£2.00/min (MO/MT) 50p/text £7.20/MB (CUK) |
We know there's a lot of information covered above, so we have this section that acts as a sort of summary, along with some useful tips and tricks you should check before leaving the UK.
If for any reason you're unclear or unsure about any of the above, just let us know or get in touch with us over the phone, or you can also contact us on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram page and we'd be happy to help.
Bon Voyage! 🏖
on 18-06-2022 22:03
on 18-06-2022 22:03
Ty so basically i can call any Number within Country im in, from my allowance and ofc to UK?
on 18-06-2022 22:15
on 18-06-2022 22:15
Yup, that's it as long as you remain within your allowances.
https://www.o2.co.uk/help/pay-monthly/roaming-in-europe
Before you travel, ring customer services and make sure you have no roaming bars active on your account.
on 06-08-2022 11:12
Hi,
I am currently in Costa Rica and cannot make calls or access the internet. The 3G symbols appears in the corner but I am still able to neither. When I arrived I received a text from o2 saying your tariff includes roaming here and before we left I checked that Costa Rica was included in the outside Europe zones.
it is incredibly important I am able to make calls and access data as we are driving round the country and I need to use my phone as a Sat Nav and to make calls in case of an emergency.
Would you be able to advise me as to what to do. I cannot ring o2 as I cannot make calls.
thanks so much
06-08-2022 11:24 - edited 06-08-2022 11:29
06-08-2022 11:24 - edited 06-08-2022 11:29
Some things to try:
*Make sure data roaming and mobile data is turned on in your phone's settings.
*Manually search for another network
*If you have an iPhone change your data APN to "mobile.o2.co.uk"
*Try toggling Airplane mode on/off (it often helps kickstart things)
*Drop down to 3G and see if that helps.
*Contact O2 to see if there are any roaming bars on the account
If you message O2 on Facebook ( https://o2uk.co/O2CFB) , Twitter ( https://o2uk.co/O2CTW) or Instagram ( https://o2uk.co/O2CIG) , they should be able to help you with this.
Veritas Numquam Perit
on 06-08-2022 11:47
on 06-08-2022 11:47
Thank you. I have tried most of these, but will try contacting o2 on those platforms.
on 06-08-2022 12:18
on 06-08-2022 12:18
Best of luck. When you get through, remember to ask about the roaming bar x
Veritas Numquam Perit
06-08-2022 12:32 - edited 06-08-2022 12:32
06-08-2022 12:32 - edited 06-08-2022 12:32
@Cleoriff wrote:Best of luck. When you get through, remember to ask about the roaming bar x
And check the answer on your earlier request for help, @ConstanceWhite
on 08-08-2022 15:44
Can I use portable hotspot whilst in EU? I have o2 travel included in my 10GB plan... I can turn it on from my phone but not sure if I am being charged or not, it's not clear 😞
on 12-08-2022 18:06
I have the Volt O2 Travel Inclusive Zone and am currently on a road trip in the US. I am using google maps for directions, so fairly high data usage. The automatic network selection defaults to T-Mobile, but coverage it's patchy where I am. Do I have to use this network to benefit from the 'free' roaming? Or can I select other networks without incurring any charges? Also, can my family tether to my hotspot without? I have been searching online for the last 90 mins but have not found a definitive answer...when I chatted with customer services they advised that I need to connect to O2 network in the US (?!?). Any guidance from the community would be very much appreciated!
on 12-08-2022 18:16
on 12-08-2022 18:16
Data whilst roaming in the US is very heavily throttled, @Sproutweasel:
Check this discussion: https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly/No-data-whilst-roaming-in-the-USA/m-p/1555069#M246152
You may be best downloading maps for your day from your hotel or other WiFi, so Maps can guide you - bur realtime traffic, etc, probably is going to struggle.
You could also buy a local PAYG SIM with data to carry you through your stay.
Good luck, @Sproutweasel