Trying to understand options for roaming. Have checked the Mega Guide

[Peter_s]

Everything so confused and really worried about my phone not working / running up charges when I'm away so trying to understand ahead of time. I'm travelling to Canada next month for 3 weeks. I have a budget / 4GB Pay Monthly contract.

1] On the O2 website, under roaming in Canada, I see: "If you’re on our new billing system, you’ll be able to buy one of our data roaming bundles. We’ll send you a link when you land, or you can buy one in My O2 before you travel.". That would be a perfect solution for me. Pay £26 for 1GB data to last the 3 weeks I'm away. But I don't know if I'm on the New Billing System, can't find anyway to find out definitively whether I am or not, or whether that magical text and offer to buy data will arrive when I land. I see a range of Bolt Ons in My02 but not one that sounds like 1GB of data roaming in Canada. Am going to need data right off the plane so that sounds High Risk and will probably discount it as an option.

2] I can add the O2 Travel bolt on before I go which sounds like it will work well, Canada is an included country, but it's £6/day so £100+ for the holiday which for someone who pays very little for their contract seems a lot.

Those seem to be my options with O2. If I don't want to do either of those then it looks as though I can:

3] Buy a SIM with internation roaming option before I go. Something like VOXI from Vodafone.

4] Buy a SIM at the airport when I arrive and hope it can be set up and running immediately.

5] My phone won't support eSIM so that's not an option.

Sorry to vent, but have been trying to get support from O2 most of today and it's just impossible. Damn virtual assistant. What a fob off. I think I've answered my own question though. It's going to be 3 or 4. And then I'm going to swap my O2 at the imminent renewal for Lebara.

Thanks for your time.

[MI5]

@Peter_s 

Just get a local payg sim when you arrive in Canada and top up for a month.

Use WhatsApp to call home for free over wifi.

[madasaf1sh]

@Peter_s 

1. You get no included roaming in Canada so the bolt ons dont apply.

2. Yep, you will pay £6 per day on o2

3.. Voxi is an addon and for your trip wont be Valid as they only do 15 days  max at a timeso you need to pay £50 for your trip 

4. This is the only way, to get proper data speeds at cheap rates... 

Just be careful if roaming outside of the EU with Lebara., they are a PAYG operation only outside of the EU

[38pigeons]

I'm having this exact rage-inducing conundrum, and we head to Canada on Monday. So tell me... did you get the magical text??

[Enlli]

@38pigeons Your roaming options for Canada will depend on your tariff.

Check your bolt ons in My O2

If you have Travel Inclusive then you can roam without extra charges

If you just have Travel then you will pay £6 for every day you use your phone.

If you don't have any Travel Bolt ons then

Text TRAVEL to 23336 You can do that now to make sure it's active when you arrive