Vodafone allows you to use your phone in more than 150 countries. We have broken down roaming for Vodafone Pay Monthly and Pay As You Move customers. This includes roam-free countries as well as data roaming costs.
Roaming charges may be changed.
Vodafone has decided to discontinue Pay Monthly plans that included roaming free in the Europe Zone. These changes will impact both business and personal customers.
Who will be affected by this?
Customers who have paid monthly and upgraded to Vodafone plans since 11th August will be charged a daily fee for roaming in Europe. Customers who joined Vodafone before 11th August will not see any changes unless they upgrade or modify their plans.
Xtra Airtime plans with 4 Xtra benefits will not be charged the European roaming fee. VOXI plans, Pay As You Go, Talkmobile, Vodafone Basics, and VOXI will not be affected at the moment.
These charges will start on 6th January 2022.
What will it cost to use your smartphone abroad starting in January 2022?
Vodafone has created several European and global destination zones. The charges for each zone will differ depending on where you are located. It will also depend on your plan. You may be able to access your UK data allowance, minutes, and text in certain areas at no additional cost depending on the plan you have. If not, there will be a daily fee to use your phone.
Pay Monthly roaming destinations
Zone A – Republic of Ireland and Isle of Man
Zone B – 49 European destinations
Zone C – 32 international destinations
Zone D – 75 international destinations
The complete list of destinations is on the Vodafone website.
What will happen to my plan?
Log into My Vodafone app or My Vodafone Online to find out which plan you have. Click on Plan Details. These are the different plans that will be affected.
Unlimited Data Xtra Plan with 4 Xtra Benefits
Your UK allowance can be used in Zones B & C.
To use the UK allowance in Zone D, you will need to pay PS6 per day.
Limited Data Xtra Plan with 4 Xtra Benefits
In Zone B, use your UK allowance
To use the UK allowance in Zones C & D, you have to pay PS6 per day.
Vodafone Pay Monthly Plans
For Zone B (Europe Zone), roaming passes will cost you PS8 for 8 or 15 days or PS2 for one day.
You will pay PS6 per day to use your phone in Zones C & D.
Vodafone Pay As You go plans
You will continue to be free to roam as before.
Vodafone Roam Abroad (travel within Europe), Pay Monthly
Global Roaming is available to Pay Monthly customers who joined Vodafone before 11th August 2021 and have not upgraded or modified their plans. This benefit is only available for a short time.
You can use your data, text, and minutes in Europe while you are on holiday. Vodafone offers 5G roaming services in Spain, Germany and Italy. (See the complete list of 5G cities on the Vodafone 5G hub).
You won’t pay any additional if you travel to one of the 51 European countries that are roam-free. You can view a list of all eligible countries here. 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
Using your phone while on a ferry or plane 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 – PS2.40 a minute
- Receiving calls – PS1.80 a minute
- Sending texts – 60p per text
- Picture message – 66p per text (Flight only)
- Data – PS7.20 per MB (Flight only)
However, you will not be able to send a picture message or use data 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 within the UK. Out of plan data is capped at PS39.33.
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, and 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.
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 help you save. You can use these services in the Europe Zone.
Pay Monthly Extras
Customers abroad will probably benefit most from the “300 minutes to UK mobiles and landlines” option for PS3/month. It’s a good backup if you’re out of minutes from your regular plan and need to call home, to the UK, often.
You can activate it by texting 300 to 97888 from your Vodafone phone. You can discontinue the service from your Vodafone account.
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 PS10 for 30 days by texting 46205 from your Vodafone mobile. To stop, text STOP2GBDATA to 49500.
You can also add 100 extra international minutes for PS5 for 30 days. To activate this service, call 34443 from your phone. To stop, text STOPINTERNATIONAL to 49500.
If you only need to call home to the UK when abroad, you can buy 100 minutes to UK mobile and landline numbers starting with 01, 02 and 03. Call 34442 to get this service. You can stop it by texting STOPMINS to 49500.
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 Monthy 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 price 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 EUR3.99 a day, RED Roaming allows unlimited calls and texts back to Ireland and numbers in the country you’re visiting.
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.
Remember, for the best price possible, recycle your old phone with NIX and sign-up to our Premium Membership at NIX.
