BT Mobile Roaming: Roam Like Home in Europe and What It Costs Further Afield

Further afield, a HelloRoam travel eSIM for your destination can carry your maps and messages, while your BT number stays on for calls and texts.

BT Mobile roaming charges by zone, from Europe to the open sea

We read every BT price and rule in this guide on 31 October 2026, mostly in BT's Consumer Price Guide, effective from 25 September 2026, and in its roaming help pages. BT's annual price change, which last took effect on 31 March 2026, covers add-ons and roaming charges, so check the figures again after the next one.

BT gives every country a roaming zone. Zones 1a and 1b are Roam Like Home. Everywhere else, the price guide charges by the minute, the text and the megabyte:

Texts to the UK cost 57p each from Zones 3 to 8, and £1.32 at sea. The price guide also gives each country an international zone for calls from the UK, which is a different thing: the USA is international Zone 2 but roaming Zone 3.

The data rate is the one to watch. BT caps data use abroad at £35 by default, and at £7.74 per MB you reach that cap after about 4.5MB. You can raise the cap to £200 in your My Mobile account, which buys about 25.8MB at the same rate.

Roam Like Home covers 47 destinations at no extra cost

Roam Like Home comes with every BT Mobile plan, and BT says you don't need to call it or do anything to activate your SIM abroad. Zone 1a includes Spain, Portugal with the Azores and Madeira, France, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta and Ireland, plus the Isle of Man, Monaco and Vatican City. Zone 1b adds the Canary Islands, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Gibraltar, Jersey and Guernsey, as well as Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion.

Inside those zones, your plan allowance covers:

• calls and texts to UK landlines and mobiles
• calls and texts to numbers in the country you're in, and to other Roam Like Home destinations
• mobile data
• calls and texts you receive, which are free

It doesn't cover calls or texts from the UK to other countries, calls and texts from Roam Like Home destinations to places outside them, picture messages, or UK numbers starting 084, 087, 09, 118 or 070.

Your allowance runs down just as it does at home. BT texts you at 80% and again at 100%, then charges UK out-of-plan rates: 15.52p per MB of data in Zone 1a and 12.87p in Zone 1b. BT's UK data add-ons work in both zones.

Several places close to Europe sit outside Roam Like Home. Turkey is roaming Zone 3; Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are Zone 4; Serbia, North Macedonia and the Faroe Islands are Zone 5; Montenegro is Zone 6; and Andorra is Zone 7. In Northern Cyprus, BT warns that your phone may join a Turkish network, and roaming charges then apply.

BT's own pages disagree about four places. Monaco and San Marino are on the Roam Like Home list, yet BT's guide to using BT Mobile abroad lists both among the countries where you can't use data roaming. Mayotte is in Zone 1b, but BT also lists it among the places where BT Mobile doesn't work at all. Jersey is in Zone 1b in the price guide and on both Roam Like Home pages, but two other BT help pages leave it out. If one of them is on your route, ask BT before you count on your plan there.

The fair use limit is 15GB or 50GB, depending on which BT page you read

BT's help pages say that if your plan gives you 20GB or more a month, BT may add a surcharge once you use more than 15GB of data while roaming in one billing period. One of its two Roam Like Home pages applies that 15GB limit only to plans of 50GB or more. The price guide draws the line higher still: on plans with more than 50GB, the surcharge starts after 50GB of roaming data in a month.

The price guide puts the surcharge at 0.36p per MB, on top of any out-of-plan charge if your allowance has run out too. On any plan with 20GB or more, these versions give different answers, so ask BT which limit applies to yours before a long trip.

Long stays bring one more rule. BT expects you to keep a stable link to the UK: in any four-month period, you spend at least two months here or mainly use your allowance here rather than abroad. If BT thinks you don't, it asks you to explain, and it can add surcharges if you don't reply within 14 days.

The BT Travel Data Pass costs £7.12 for 500MB a day in 12 countries

Outside Roam Like Home, BT's data add-on is the Travel Data Pass, which it sometimes calls a Roam Abroad Pass. It gives you 500MB for 24 hours, at £7.12 each time, in Andorra, Australia, Canada, China, India, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the USA. Our guide to using your phone abroad compares a pass like this with the other main ways to stay online.

BT's pages give two prices. The price guide and BT's newer Travel Data Pass page say £7.12, while an older BT help page still says £6. The price guide at bt.com/tariffguide is the current edition, so plan on £7.12 and check the price with BT before you buy.

There are three ways to buy it:

1. Text TRAVEL to 150 from your BT mobile, before you go or while you're away.
2. Reply 500 to the text BT sends when you start using data in one of the 12 countries. BT says this usually takes about 10 minutes, but it can take up to 30.
3. Add it online in My BT.

From then on, BT adds a 500MB allowance and a £7.12 charge every 24 hours while you use data in a covered country, and stops when you turn data roaming off or leave. Unused data doesn't carry over. If you run through the 500MB early, BT charges its normal data rate for that country until the next allowance starts, which is £7.74 per MB in the USA. Reply STOP to one of BT's texts to pause the pass, START to restart it, or remove it in My BT. You can have one pass per SIM, and it shows under One-off charges on your bill.

A week in Florida with data every day costs 7 × £7.12, or £49.84, for 500MB a day. A fortnight comes to £99.68. Before you choose, work out how much data your trip needs.

The pass also leaves gaps. Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore share Zone 3 with the USA but aren't on the list, and nor are Morocco, Egypt or the Maldives. There, every MB costs £7.74 until you hit your cap, so for a holiday in Tokyo or Kyoto, sort out data for a trip to Japan before you fly.

Using BT Mobile abroad needs no activation, just a few checks before you fly

BT says your SIM is usually ready to use abroad. These checks before you go prevent most problems:

1. Check that roaming is switched on for your number, in the settings of My Mobile on My BT.
2. Turn on Data Roaming on your phone. On an iPhone it sits under Settings, Mobile Data, Mobile Data Options, as Apple's guide to data roaming shows. Android menus vary, and our guide to data roaming settings on each phone covers Samsung and Pixel.
3. Leave network selection on automatic, so your phone picks the best local network.
4. Set your caps in My BT. Its settings have two sliders, one for your monthly spend cap and one for your data roaming cap. Data abroad starts capped at £35 and you can raise it to £200. BT says setting both caps to £0 prevents high data charges.
5. Set a voicemail PIN, which you need to hear voicemail from abroad.
6. Going to the USA? Update your phone's software and turn on Voice over 4G before you leave. BT has switched on 4G Calling there, and if 4G isn't available, it says to choose T-Mobile by hand.

To call home, dial the UK number as you would in the UK. BT says there's no need to add +44.

If your phone won't connect after you land, Apple suggests turning Airplane Mode on for about 30 seconds, then off, and checking that Data Roaming is on. If that doesn't help, pick a network by hand from the list in your phone's settings, and if you still can't connect, contact BT. Ofcom notes that 2G and 3G networks are being switched off around the world, so in some countries an older phone may only make calls or get online over Wi-Fi.

Accidental roaming starts at borders, on the UK coast and at sea

Your phone can roam without leaving the UK. BT says that on the coast, and sometimes further inland, it can join networks from France, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, or a cruise ship's maritime network. Abroad, the same can happen in Cyprus near the northern border, where a Turkish network can take over.

BT's fix: if a text welcomes you to another country, don't make or answer calls on that network. Choose your network by hand, and switch data roaming off while you're near the border. At home, BT suggests keeping roaming off until you're actually abroad.

At sea, your phone may join a maritime satellite network. BT charges those at Zone 9 rates, along with ferry and in-flight networks: £14.26 per MB, £8.35 a minute to call the UK and £4.31 a minute to answer. Some cruise ships run their own network linked to another country, such as the USA, and BT bills that as roaming in that country. BT's advice is to wait until you've docked and joined a land network.

Two Ofcom rules back you up. Your provider must send you a message about its roaming charges when you arrive in another country, unless you've opted out, and it can only charge more than a monthly spend limit you set if you agree.

If a charge still looks wrong, check the Roaming section of your bill in My BT. BT notes that phones can use mobile data without you noticing: when Wi-Fi is weak, while they start up, or for app updates and cloud backups. Its Customer Complaints Code, at bt.com/complaintscode, explains how it handles a dispute.

A travel eSIM suits trips outside Roam Like Home

For a trip inside the 47 Roam Like Home destinations, your BT plan already covers data, within its fair use limit, so most BT customers need nothing more. BT sets its own roaming prices, so EE's roaming charges by zone don't apply to a BT SIM.

Further afield, the sums change. For a fortnight in Florida, compare mobile data plans for the USA with the £99.68 that 14 passes cost.

HelloRoam sells travel eSIMs, so this part is about our own product, and our conflict of interest policy explains how we handle that. A HelloRoam eSIM for the country you're visiting adds a second line for data, and your BT SIM stays in the phone for calls and texts. BT doesn't charge for texts you receive anywhere, so your bank's codes cost nothing to receive, but answering a call on the BT line outside Roam Like Home costs £1.22 to £2.29 a minute on land and £4.31 at sea.

Before you buy, check your phone supports eSIM. Then choose the eSIM for mobile data. On an iPhone or a Google Pixel, each line has its own roaming switch, so you can turn data roaming off for the BT line only. On many Samsung Galaxy phones, one Data Roaming switch covers the whole phone, so leave it on and pick the eSIM for mobile data in SIM Card Manager. Our guide on how to avoid roaming charges compares the options in more detail.