How to Avoid Roaming Charges While Traveling
Modern communications technology can be both a blessing and a curse. While it’s certainly nice to have the ability to 
connect with loved ones, business associates, and even the authorities at a moment’s notice, you may quickly find yourself overwhelmed by the many fees that are associated with cell phone usage. And the worst when you travel is roaming charges. It used to be that you’d only get pegged for calling, but thanks to smarter phones (and smarter carriers) you’ll now get hosed by charges for everything from calling to texting to automatic data functions. Your phone could be racking up a bill when you’re not even using it! So here are just a few tips to help you avoid returning home to find that your roaming charges trump the cost of your trip.
- Call your service provider. Some carriers operate in multiple countries, which means you may be able to get away without paying roaming charges (or at least paying less) with some kind of downloadable international add-on and an awareness of whether or not there are cell towers in the areas you’re traveling to. Your carrier may even have other options to keep you from spending an arm and a leg on cell usage while visiting far-off lands.
- Find Wi-Fi. There are plenty of places that are cosmopolitan enough to have Wi-Fi hotspots; you may just have to do some digging to find them. A good bet is to check out local cafés, bookstores, and college campuses (if any or all of the above are in the area you’re visiting). And if you use a service like Skype (now available for Apple and Android) or IM+ (for Blackberry – it hooks up to multiple communications networks, Skype included), you won’t use your calling minutes while you avoid roaming charges.
- Turn off auto-connects. Whenever your phone is on, it’s looking for cell signals that allow it to do data updates. In some cases, these are connected to apps you’ve downloaded, but even the average phone will check in periodically to update your calendar and clock. So you need to go into your settings and turn off any data roaming and data sync options. You should also clear your phone of any third-party apps that might auto-update despite your change in settings. In fact, your best bet all around is just to keep your phone turned off when not in use (this will also preserve your battery life) and only power up in Wi-Fi zones.
- Buy a burner phone. If you simply don’t trust yourself to know when it’s safe to use your phone without incurring fees, leave it at home. You can always go to a kiosk or tech store in your area to buy an international burner phone. They’re pretty cheap, so you probably won’t have access to any data services. But they come with a set amount of minutes and rather than paying more for over-usage, you simply have to refill the minutes when it runs out.
- Use a prepaid phone card. The only viable way to use a calling card is with a landline. But in conjunction with a prepaid phone, it could end up saving you a ton of money over simply paying international roaming charges with your regular cell phone.
