Set up roaming before travelling?

[drcarrera]

I'm on a monthly contract and will be travelling to Jersey shortly.  Is there a way to add roaming before going?

On our last trip abroad, to France, it was a nightmare. We received the text when reaching France but couldn't activate roaming  - it just wouldn't work. We couldn't access the website for help as we had no data connection as we hadn't activated roaming!  Eventually we used someone else's phone to contact EE help and got it sorted but it was a long and frustrating process which we'd like to avoid this time!

[XRaySpeX · Accepted solution]

Yes & no. There are 2 parts to roaming that need to be considered:

1. Yes to enabling your ability to roam anywhere regardless of how your are gonna be paying for it. To do so text ROAMING to 150 before you leave UK. There is no cost associated with this.
2. No to buying a billing roaming pass to cover the cost of roaming calls, texts & data. This has to be done abroad as you previously did in France by responding to the offers you receive in a Welcome text upon arrival.

[drcarrera]

Thanks for the reply. It seems crazy it can't be done in advance. At least we'll be at a hotel soon after arriving this time, so will have access to Wi-Fi if there are any issues.

[XRaySpeX]

Thanks! You're welcome 🙂 ! Glad I could be of assistance & trust it is now sorted.

[bristolian]

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@drcarrera wrote:

On our last trip abroad, to France, it was a nightmare. We received the text when reaching France but couldn't activate roaming  - it just wouldn't work. 

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Receiving a text message meant you had a connection to a local network in France. Thus you were roaming.

[drcarrera]

OK, technically, yes, but you know what I mean! We needed the EE roaming package so we could use data  and make and receive calls without it costing a fortune.

[bristolian]

Unfortunately... misunderstanding between the roaming facility, and a roaming billing add-on, causes far too many users to travel abroad with an add-on but no roaming ability.

Anything that breaks down that confusion, has to be a good thing if it stops one user from being caught out abroad...