Heading off on a vacation for a couple of weeks is living in paradise, isn’t it? When Vacation mode is on, we start walking through history, soaking up the sun, brewing in new horizons on the wave of time.

But roaming fees return to a place stealthily in the post-Brexit policy agreements, many UK excursionists are surprisingly racking up stealthy roaming fees on their phone bills when put up in roaming.

These woken up to huge roaming bills can ruin the fun, stealthily being charged a high roaming bill on a savage vacation: It’s phone roaming fees. We’ve all had this common incident during this summer vacation, or maybe lived through them ourselves. You’ve come to return from a great vacation, and are suddenly greeted by a phone bill, and your jaw hits the ground. It sneaks out a nightmare, UK travellers might waste £350 million on incurred roaming fees this summer alone. Vacay on a short trip has wrecked your finances.       

The Roaming Fees Rip-Off!

Before Brexit, on 31 January 2020, we had it easy. Our phones worked across the EU, and we didn’t charge any additional fees; whatever cellular service we used will work in each EU country, and nearly all flagship phones work fine everywhere in Europe. It means you pay only standard domestic prices to make calls, texts, and use cellular data when you travel to any EU countries. Now, the roaming fees in the EU are a different kettle of fish.

The Holafly report shows many UK network providers have quietly re-upped roaming charges. The report is quite shocking as it found approx 13 million Brits are set to travel to popular EU destinations this summer, so you could be paying 2 to £2.60 a day or more just to use your phone, or some networks charge up to £6 per gigabyte. Ouch! If you stream a football match or watch a few episodes on Netflix while you’re away – you probably rack up high data roaming charges. Your holiday could end up costing you an arm and a leg over the summer trips, and this could add up to a dramatic $350 million in rip-off roaming costs this summer.

As Pablo Gomez from Holafly added, “The commonly made misjudgments people often make when travelling abroad are a direct result of relying on or sticking to outdated mobile plans. They often pay no attention to check if their current plan has EU roaming infrastructure, network compatibility in EU roaming zones, and how much roaming costs they have to pay. Often, ignoring this could lead to shockingly high phone bills due to highly chargeable roaming fees, or they waste valuable time searching for and buying a costly local SIM card upon arrival.”

It’s a fact. We’re all used to our phones just working, and we forget to check the international roaming features. So spending your first few hours on arrival in a city of an EU country hunting for a physical SIM card for prepaid cellular to avoid the costly roaming fees from a local store is now a story of the past.

Shocking Souvenir of International Summer Trip & Roaming Fees!

The cobblestones of Prague’s Old Town Square glistened under the morning sun as Maya Chen held up her phone and captured a series of priceless shots of the medieval astronomical clock. Her boyfriend, Jake Williams laughed as a group of pigeons suddenly swirling around the tower; it was a photobombing shot in an ideal couple’s selfie.

“Third time’s the charm?” Jake grinned, his arm slung around Maya’s waist as she repositioned the phone. The scent of fresh trdelník wafted from a nearby vendor, mixing with the aroma of coffee from the café terraces that lined the medieval square. Around them, the morning bustle of tourists and locals created a symphony of languages—German, Italian, Spanish, and the melodic Czech that neither of them understood but found enchanting.

Maya’s thumb hovered over the upload button on Instagram. “Wait,” she said, her brow furrowing as she glanced at the corner of her screen. “Did you see how much data we used yesterday? We’ve only been here two days and I’ve already blown through half my roaming allowance.”

Jake pulled out his own phone, squinting at the screen in the bright sunlight. His face fell. “Bloody hell. I have already been billed to pay £47 more. We haven’t even visited Budapest, Vienna, and Krakow, yet.”

“My friend warned me about expensive EU roaming fees, “Maya muttered and started scrolling through her phone settings. “She said her friend Sarah came back from Italy last summer with a £200 roaming bill. I thought she was exaggerating.”

Jake had made his stress response. “At this rate, we’ll spend more on data than on accommodation. And we’re staying in hostels.” He stared toward a group of travellers, “Spanish students livestreaming their breakfast, completely oblivious to their data consumption running in the background.” They hunched over their phones near the fountain, all wearing the same expression of digital anxiety. “Look at them—they’re probably all facing the same phone roaming bills.”

Three days later, in a cramped hostel room in Budapest, Jake stared at her phone screen in disbelief. The notification flashed accusingly: Data roaming charges: £127.43.  

“This is insane,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “That’s our whole food budget for the next week.”

Sometimes the best adventures aren’t the ones you planned—the solution of problems creating ripples you’d ever faced, yes— its eSIM plans for international travellers. If you buy any 30 day SIM only deals UK phone plans with eSIM, with prices starting at £4.99 for all EU countries and destinations.

Zoiko Mobile’s all no contract sim only deals UK are exclusively allowing EU roaming features, on data use, making calls, and sending texts – are exclusively added on explicitly agree to pay – caps can vary on each mobile top up plans.

Significant Implications-Deploying an eSIM:  

So, how do you cut the roaming charges? The answer is an eSIM. An eSIM is an “embedded” SIM card. Instead of a traditional plastic chip you insert in your phone, it’s a digital version of your SIM. Most flagship smartphones have a built-in eSIM feature.

The use of eSIMs is booming in Europe. Now, millions of European travellers are switching to use EU roaming-included international eSIM plans, and this number is growing. A recent study by Holafly predicts the number of global travellers using eSIMs will jump from 40 million this year to over 215 million by 2028. So, physical SIM cards are becoming outdated, as we have seen this trend on iPhone 14s and flagship models that have an embedded SIM-supported feature, means they no longer support a physical SIM card.

Using phone plans with eSIM for travel is a brilliant hack!

You can buy any phone plans with eSIM online from Zoiko Mobile virtual store before you even leave home. It’s super easy to set up—you just scan a QR code and voila, let our technical assistant do the rest.

The notification buzzing on your phone in less than 5 min: “Your eSIM activation just completed on a smooth setup process”, so your next travel is set to be free of expensive roaming bills.

No faffing at the airport, no language barriers, no need to buy a local SIM card on arrival, no need to worry about losing your SIM card, no suffering from weak network coverage, and searching for a local Wi-Fi network to connect your device. Plus, you can keep your same number active for data use, calls and texts abroad, so you can connect everywhere, anywhere.

The Proof is in the Pudding!

Over the exclusiveness, the real benefit of an eSIM is the cost savings. Juniper Research found that people can save up to 35% data roaming costs with phone plans with eSIM compared to traditional roaming plans. We’re talking about an average of £4.99 per phone plans with eSIM versus £6.85 for traditional roaming charges per day.

Holafly did some number-crunching. If an average Brit used around 2GB of data per day on a 5-day European trip, they could save £60.78.

Heavy data users could save even more—up to £213.78 on a long-stay trip. That’s enough to buy a nice meal for the whole day, and spend money on souvenirs, or even a couple of cocktails on the beach.

Does Roaming buills Really Costs You?

With more and more eSIM providers popping up, it’s more important than ever to know what you’re getting. But with the cost savings and the ease of use, it’s a no-brainer to switch eSIM service provider UK ‘Zoiko Mobile phone plans with eSIM‘, so you don’t need to buy additional roaming add-ons for EU travel.

Otherwise, you may choose international eSIM plans at the lowest cost.

Don’t ruin your next holiday in a perceived expectation of a shocking roaming phone bill. Avoid roaming fees anywhere you travel, get yourself with eSIM plans, and save some extra cash in your pocket where it belongs.