Travellers are downloading more than ever while overseas. What’s it costing?

My daughter, on a whim, decided to head over to New Zealand to visit a friend this week. Of course I was tasked with finding her an international SIM that show could use over there without breaking the bank.

Like so many of us post-COVID lockdowns she is travelling the world (New Zealand is the world right?) and given she’s a teenager will be all over the TikTok and Snapchat and whatever else the kids use these days. With the wrong SIM this could get expensive given the cost some of our telcos charge for roaming data these days. Luckily for her it won’t.

Vodafone has said that postpaid users who travel overseas are using 34% more data per day while overseas compared with last year (109MB vs 80MB). With some Telcos charging up to $3 per megabyte that could get very expensive very quickly but with Vodafone customers pay just $5 per day for their roaming data service.

These days everyone wants to share their experiences and travel online with family and friends through various social media channels with Vodafone estimating that travelers could be spending up to $39 per TikTok video created and up to $12 per day for four pictures shared on Instagram. Ouch.

Vodafone postpaid customers can access international roaming in over 100 countries worldwide and use their usual data, call and text allowance just as they would at home here in Australia.

A Vodafone spokesperson said: “With Vodafone, you can forget about the great roaming rip-off when heading overseas.  For just $5 a day, you can download, talk, and share content with friends and family without worrying about a nasty phone bill when you get home.”

International roaming is also available to Vodafone pre-paid customers via a Pre-Paid Roaming add-on — something I had my parents purchase before heading to Europe last year as they aren’t Vodafone customers. For $35 you can get 2GB of data with a 7-day expiry, 200 call minutes and 300 texts.

This is why I don’t have to worry about my daughter racking up a huge bill while overseas. She is a Vodafone customer and just had to enable international roaming in her Vodafone app before leaving Australia.

If you are heading overseas beware of hidden roaming costs and consider purchasing a SIM card for use overseas exclusively or if you are a Vodafone customer simple enable international roaming and jetset away.