Vodafone UK lets you use your phone in over 150 countries around the world, but since January 2022 a few things have changed. Some countries are free to roam in for some customers, while other countries incur daily charges.
We’ve broken down how roaming works for both Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go Vodafone customers – including countries where you can roam for free and other data roaming costs.
Changes to roaming charges
Sadly, Vodafone has changed Pay Monthly plans that have previously included free roaming in its Europe Zone. These changes affect both personal and business customers.
What has changed?
Pay Monthly customers who joined Vodafone or upgraded or changed their plans on or after 11 August 2021 will get a daily charge for using their phones in European roaming zones, unless their plans include roaming in Europe. Customers who joined Vodafone before 11 August won’t see any changes until they upgrade or change their plans.
Full details and eligibility can be found here.
How much will it cost to use your phone abroad from January 2022?
Vodafone has created a number of European and worldwide destination zones and the charges will vary depending on which zone you visit. Your plan will also make a difference: depending on which plan you have, you may be able to access your UK allowance of data, minutes and text in certain zones at no extra cost. If not, there will be a daily charge to use your phone.
Pay Monthly roaming destinations
- Zone A – Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, Iceland, and Norway
- Zone B – 49 European destinations including EU countries
- Zone C – 32 worldwide destinations including Australia, New Zealand and the US
- Zone D – 75 worldwide destinations including Argentina and Vietnam
For the full roaming zone destination list, visit the Vodafone website.
How will my plan be affected?
If you’re not sure which plan you have, log into the My Vodafone app or My Vodafone online and click on Plan Details. Here are how different plans will be affected.
Unlimited Data Xtra plan with 4 Xtra benefits
- Use your UK allowance in Zones A, B & C.
- £6 per day to use UK allowance in Zone D.
Limited Data Xtra plan with 4 Xtra benefits
- Use your UK allowance in Zone A & B.
- £6 per day to use UK allowance in Zones C & D.
Other Vodafone Pay Monthly plans
- Roaming passes for Zone B (Europe Zone) will cost £10 for 8 days or £15 for 15 days, or £2.25 for a single day pass.
- Using your phone in Zones C & D will cost £6 per day.
5G roaming is included in these prices.
Vodafone Pay As You Go plans
There will be no changes to the way you roam.
Pay Monthly – Vodafone Roam Abroad (travel within Europe)
For Pay Monthly customers who joined Vodafone before 11 August 2021 and who have not upgraded or changed their plans, Global Roaming is included. However, bear in mind that this benefit will exist for a limited time only.
For now, you can still use your data, text and minutes abroad as you would in the UK if you’re travelling within Europe.
If you’re travelling to any of the 51 roam-free European countries and have a qualifying Unlimited data Xtra Plan, you won’t be charged anything additional. We’ve listed all included countries below, though you can also look at Vodafone’s handy document.
A -C | Aland Islands, Austria, Azores, Balearic Islands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus (except Northern Cypress), Czech Republic |
D – F | Denmark (inc. Faroe Islands), Estonia, Finland, France (inc Corsica), French Guiana |
G – H | Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary |
I -L | Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg |
M – R | Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania |
S – Z | Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Vatican City |
Vodafone rates on a flight or at sea
If you use your phone while on a ferry or plane, this may connect you to a Maritime or Aerospace network. In this case, when contacting a number in the UK, Vodafone charges the standard Maritime/Aerospace roaming costs, which are as follows:
- Making calls – £2.40 a minute
- Receiving calls – £1.80 a minute
- Sending texts – 60p per text
- Picture message – 66p per text (Flight only)
- Data – £7.20 per MB (Flight only)
You will not be able to send a picture message or use data however if you’re connected to a Maritime network.
If you go over your allotted monthly text, call and data allowance, you would pay the same standard rate as you would within the UK. Out of plan data is capped at £39.33. For more details about the data cap see Vodafone’s FAQ section here.
Global Roaming Plus with Red Entertainment or Unlimited Max plans
Customers who bought a Red Entertainment Plan between 4 September 2018 and 9 July 2019 automatically get Global Roaming Plus, along with customers who bought an Unlimited Max plan from 10 July 2019.
What are Vodafone’s Pay As You Go Global Roaming rates?
Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers travelling within the Europe Zone ( see table above), won’t be charged any additional roaming fees if you stay within your usage allowance. This applies to PAYG Extras, PAYG Bundles and PAYG 1 services.
If, however, you travel to a Roam-Further country (Afghanistan, for example) you would need to pay a separate roaming rate. The rates vary by country. Find your rate by destination using Vodafone’s tool.
If you’re travelling within the Europe Zone and are not on any of these Pay As You Go plans or if you use up your included data, minutes and texts, you’ll need to pay the standard UK rates, which are:
- 55p per minute for calls to UK mobiles, landlines and voicemail
- 35p per text message
- 55p for a UK picture/video message
- 55p per minute for video calls
You can read more on the different types of standard charges here. Also, see our article on how to top up your phone across all networks.
What are Vodafone roaming Extras?
Extras are add-ons to your existing payment plan that give you more flexibility when abroad and can also help you save. You can use these services in the Europe Zone.
Pay Monthly Extras
Pay Monthly customers can benefit from a few Extras (see them all here) but customers abroad will probably benefit most from the 8- or 15-day European Roaming pass, which costs £8 and £15 respectively, and includes data, texts, and minutes.
Pay As You Go Extras
Pay As You Go customers have a few Extras to choose from as well. For instance, you can get an extra 2GB of data for £15 for 30 days by texting ROAMEXTRA8 to 2345 from your Vodafone mobile.
This also gets you 100 minutes and 100 texts
To get 4GB data with 200 minutes and 200 texts for 15 days, you can text ROAMEXTRA15 to 2345.
See all Pay As You Go Extras here.
Vodafone data roaming charges
If you go over your UK data allowance when in Europe you will only be charged what you would be charged in the UK. If you are outside Europe, your rate may be slightly different. You can see UK data charges here, which varies depending on whether you’re a Pay Monthly or Pay As You Go customer.
To see how much data will cost, use this tool from Vodafone, which breaks down costs for both Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go customers. The cost for additional data for Pay Monthly customers involves a few variables, such as when you signed up with Vodafone, whether you have both a Vodafone phone and SIM, just a Vodafone SIM, or a tablet/dongle or Mobile Wi-Fi from Vodafone.
Vodafone RED Roaming (travel from Ireland to Europe Zone)
If you’re a Vodafone customer travelling from Ireland to other countries in the Europe Zone, you can opt into RED Roaming. For €3.99 a day, RED Roaming allows unlimited calls and texts back to Ireland and to numbers in the country you’re visiting.
Read more about RED Roaming here.
Other things to know:
- You can also see how to turn on roaming on your device using Vodafone’s guide.
- Some Vodafone monthly plans may include NOW TV Entertainment or Sky Sports Mobile TV passes. Not all these services will work abroad, or might have limited access. Find out more here.
- If your phone doesn’t work abroad, call 191.
- If you want to access voicemail abroad, call 121. See our detailed article on accessing voicemail across all networks here.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.