Data roaming on a UK plan: what roaming costs by seller, and the best sim only deals with roaming included

What sellers publish, and what could not be read

How to find out what data abroad will cost you

1. Find your current monthly charge and your end date. Both are on the bill and on the account page. Without them you cannot tell whether a quote is a saving or a sideways move, and you cannot tell whether leaving costs anything.
2. Write down what you actually used last month. Not what you think you use. Most people pay for an allowance they never reach, and on every published ladder here the gap between tiers is real money.
3. Decide term or rolling, before you look at numbers. A 24 month price and a rolling monthly price are different products at similar figures, and the cheaper headline is usually the longer tie.
4. Ask what happens in April. Most UK sellers raise prices during the term. Ask for the increase in writing, as a figure, before you sign anything.

Included, passed, or unsaid

Lycamobile is the clearest publisher of the five sellers read for this record: it prints EU and India roaming with its unlimited plan and states a 35 GB data cap on it, and a 12 GB cap on the 75 GB plan. That is a real answer, with a number, on the page, which is more than most of this market manages.

Vodafone sells passes instead and publishes what they cost: the 8 day pass is £16 and the 15 day pass is £21 for its Zone B destinations. A pass is not worse than an inclusion, but it is a separate purchase and it belongs in the comparison rather than after it.

Why the caps matter more than the inclusion

An unlimited plan with a 35 GB roaming cap is unlimited at home and 35 GB abroad, and that is a different product from the one on the headline. If you spend a month abroad each year, the cap is the number that decides the plan for you, and it is published by exactly one seller in this record.

Ask for the cap as a figure and ask what happens past it, because the two common answers are very different: a charge per gigabyte, or a hard stop. Neither is unreasonable and only one of them can arrive as a bill.

What to ask before you buy

Ask which destinations are included and which are in a paid zone, because a seller's own zoning rarely matches anybody's idea of near and far. Ask what the daily or weekly pass costs, even if roaming is included, because the pass is what you will need in the zone that is not.

And ask whether roaming is included for the life of the plan or as a promotion. This record cannot answer that for any seller: it is not on the pages we could read, which is itself the finding.

Questions people ask before they switch

What does data roaming cost on a UK SIM?

It depends on the seller. Lycamobile publishes EU and India roaming with its unlimited plan behind a 35 GB cap. Vodafone publishes passes instead, at £16 for 8 days and £21 for 15 days in its Zone B destinations.

Which are the best sim only deals with roaming?

Among the sellers whose pages could be read, Lycamobile is the only one printing an inclusion and a cap. That is a fact about what is published rather than a recommendation: the eight sellers whose pages could not be read may well include more.

Is roaming still free in the EU?

Not as a right. Some UK sellers include it and some sell it as a pass, and the only way to know is to read the seller's own page or ask for the answer in writing.

What is a roaming cap?

A limit on how much of your allowance you can use abroad. An unlimited plan with a 35 GB roaming cap is unlimited at home and 35 GB away, which is a different product from the headline.

What this costs by plan type

• What Unlimited data SIMs cost in the UK, from published network prices
• What Cheap SIM only deals cost in the UK, from published network prices
• What SIM only contracts cost in the UK, from published network prices