It is possible to stay connected when you are travelling abroad, without the fear of the obscene costs of utilising a minuscule amount of data. If you’re not careful, utilising data when you travel could seriously ramp up the costs of travelling. Indeed, it has been known to cost more than the holiday itself. With responsible data use (i.e. don’t ever stream anything unless you are connected to Wi-Fi), you can access the Internet when you travel.
What many overseas travellers don’t realise, however, is that your normal Internet-allowance package that you get from your mobile operator at home doesn’t apply when you’re outside of your home country.
Utilising your mobile on an overseas network (but still however being billed by your current provider) is termed as ‘data roaming’. For the unwary holidaymaker, data roaming charges could very well lead to unexpectedly huge phone bills. With data still being charged per megabyte, and 1MB being roughly equivalent to viewing just eight web pages or looking at two photographs, it’s still extremely easy for costs to mount up.
Here are a number of very valuable tips to keep your roaming charges in check.
Turn Off Automatic Updates
Your smartphone connects to the Internet automatically in order to update your apps, notifications, as well as emails. This is even if your phone is switched off. So, make sure that you go into the apps store or Google play and change the settings to update only when you are connected to Wi-Fi.
Download In Advance
Before you leave for your overseas holiday, research your destination online and then download maps – as well as travel guides – to your phone which can be used offline once you arrive.
The same applies to your in-flight entertainment. Download your music, films or even the latest Skyscanner travel podcast, before you leave your home country.
Keep Mobile Data Turned-Off While Not in Use
This is the most fundamental way to save on data charges as a whole. This includes WhatsApp data charges. Making sure that you keep your mobile data on even when you’re not using it could result in unknowing data in the background. When you don’t need to use your mobile data at https://www.betbigdollar.com/ or any other purpose, turn it off.
Buy A Bundle
International data bundles can save you an absolute fortune on data. In addition, they give you peace of mind that you can get onto the Internet when you need to without having to be worried about the not-budgeted-for costs.
Utilise a Pay-As-You-Go Solution
If you have a cellphone contract, there is always a risk of you inadvertently spending more than you should. If you have a pay-as-you-go solution, then you can rest assured of how much you are spending.
Don’t Open Email Attachments
Downloading attachments to emails could be a big drain on your data usage so, unless it’s something absolutely critical, wait until you get home to open any. A better idea is to uninstall your email client, from your phone and put an out-of-office notification on so that you won’t be tempted to read any emails.