From travel passes to eSims, here’s how you can avoid high roaming fees on vacation

Costs can quickly add up on an overseas vacation, from lavish meals to airfares and accommodation, but staying connected can sometimes be the biggest source of bill shock for travellers when they arrive home.

So when your cellphone starts to ring during an evening stroll through Paris or Rome or Melbourne, experts say you may want to think twice before answering, lest you end up with a pesky roaming charge — unless you’ve planned ahead.

Canadians have a few options nowadays to use their phones while travelling abroad without breaking the bank, but picking the right one could depend on where you’re travelling and for how long.

Major providers have begun offering roaming packages tailored to longer stays out of the country, rather than just daily roaming rates that have grown more expensive over the years. There’s also inclusive plans that bake roaming in certain countries into monthly fees, while some savvy customers may prefer to purchase an eSim, taking their carrier out of the equation altogether.

“With just a bit of preparation, a lot of costs can be avoided,” said Nadir Marcos, co-founder and CEO of PlanHub.ca, a platform that allows consumers to compare offers across telecom providers.

“Those daily roaming fees, they’re very expensive, so that’s really the option to avoid.”

Marcos said most major carriers offer monthly plans that include roaming to the U.S. or Mexico for around $5 to $10 extra. He said temporarily switching to one of those plans can often be the most affordable option, although the legwork of doing so adds a layer of inconvenience, on top of the risk of sacrificing any ongoing promotions associated with your current plan.

Alternatively, or for destinations further from home, Marcos said he favours activating a prepaid travel eSim on your cellphone. He said there’s a variety of eSim providers that offer significantly cheaper prices compared with Canadian telecoms’ per-day roaming rates.

For instance, for a two-week stay in France, a travel eSim with up to 10 gigabytes of data would currently cost under $14 in total, according to a search on Planhub’s SimBud.com comparison tool.

“The only downside is you can’t answer your calls and call from your own number, which is a problem,” Marcos said.

But in an “age of convenience,” Mohammed Halabi said he recommends customers go a different route to avoid that potential hassle. He said the major carriers’ newly introduced travel passes may be more expensive than an eSim, but come with a process that’s easier to navigate.

“(eSims) are good in terms of giving you service,” said Halabi, director and founder of MyBillsAreHigh.com, a company that helps customers negotiate with telecom companies.

“I personally lean more toward the convenience approach and paying a little bit more.”

The passes vary in price depending on location and travel duration, with offers available for holidays spanning just a few days at a time or even a full month.

With Rogers’ travel passes, for example, it would cost $70 to access your plan’s data, talk and text features during a 14-day European getaway. That compares with the company’s $18 daily roaming rate in the continent.

A U.S. travel pass would cost $60 for the same duration, as opposed to paying the company’s $16 per-day roaming rate.

Halabi said costs are similar across the Big Three providers for comparable travel packages, noting they’ve begun offering those passes over the past year or so. Bell’s 14-day European travel pass is advertised at $75, compared with its $16 per-day rate, while Telus offers the cheapest version at $50 for two weeks, compared with its $18 daily roaming charge.

The move by the country’s major telecoms to expand their offerings comes after facing heat from the industry regulator over expensive roaming fees.

In 2024, the CRTC called on large cellphone companies to provide more affordable roaming options, noting that consumers not only faced rising fees when they travel abroad, but also “inflexible” options.

The regulator said Canadians had lacked choice when roaming, as most consumers couldn’t select plans tailored to their usage and duration of travel, unlike travellers from other countries.

“I have some clients who are spending all of their time overseas and were paying $18 a day,” Halabi said.

“So it was brutal before, but now these new travel passes have alleviated that.”

Other regulations are in place to help prevent surprise fees when travellers return home and check their bill.

Service providers are required to cap data roaming charges in a single monthly billing cycle to $100, unless the customer explicitly agrees to pay more. The cap includes any fee charged to a customer for data roaming, such as daily fixed-rate charges and plans that allow a customer to use their device in another country the same way they would at home in Canada.

Starting in April 2027, service providers must notify customers when their device’s data usage reaches $50 while roaming internationally so they know they’ve reached the halfway point toward the cap.

Both consumer advocates said it’s easy for fees to add up if you’re not paying attention. It’s important to be aware of the potential costs — especially when travelling as a family with multiple devices — and make a plan in advance that makes sense for the situation.

“The best thing is to prepare before you leave,” Marcos said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2026.

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