Taking your phone overseas can often be an expensive affair. While travel eSIMs or a local SIM can help mitigate the damage to your wallet, Vodafone's $5 roaming is one of the simplest options using your phone overseas.
What is Vodafone $5 roaming offer?
Vodafone's $5 roaming is exactly what it sounds like. For an extra $5 per day, you can use your regular Australian plan inclusions in countries overseas, while keeping your Australian number.
The $5 fee is only charged for days on which you use your inclusions: if you're keeping your phone on flight mode and mooching off public WiFi, you won't pay a thing. Actions that will activate the $5 charge include:
- Any network data usage. This includes automatically checking for new emails or updates on Facebook.
- Any network usage for use, such as making or receiving calls. Receiving text messages is free, but sending them isn't.
Once roaming is activated, days are calculated in 24-hour blocks from when you first use your phone overseas. If you land in, say, New Zealand, at 3pm on a Monday, you won't pay another $5 until 3pm on Tuesday.
Vodafone allows roaming for up to 90 days in any given calendar year. After you've used your 90 days, you'll be billed at more expensive pay-as-you-go rates.
How do you get Vodafone's $5 roaming?
Vodafone's $5 roaming is included with all of its postpaid mobile plans. Here are Vodafone's current SIM-only options:
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#1
|
Vodafone
$58 Small SIM Only Plan
$45.00/mth
Min. cost $45
|
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#2
|
Vodafone
$68 Medium SIM Only Plan
$50.00/mth
Min. cost $50
|
|
#3
|
Vodafone
$78 Large SIM Only Plan
$55.00/mth
Min. cost $55
|
$5 roaming is automatically turned on for postpaid Vodafone customers. As soon as you land in an eligible destination, it will work. You can double-check if $5 roaming is switched on through the My Vodafone customer service portal.
Vodafone prepaid plans don't include $5 roaming, but have prepaid roaming packs. These range from $5 for 200MB of data with a one-day expiry to $35 for 2GB of data with a maximum expiry of seven days. They're poor value for money, so we wouldn't recommend them.
What's included in Vodafone's $5 roaming?
- Your plan's standard talk and text inclusions to numbers in the country you're visiting, and in-flight on certain airlines
- Your plan's standard talk and text inclusions to numbers back to Australia.
- The same data allowance you have on your plan in Australia. For example, if you're on a plan with 50GB in Australia, you can use 50GB of data while you're overseas (excluding what you've already used in your billing month).
- The same international call allowance your plan has in Australia.
- 4G and 5G (where available) network coverage.
Where does Vodafone's $5 roaming work?
At present, there are over 100 countries covered by Vodafone's $5 roaming, as pictured above. These include New Zealand, USA, Canada, Mexico, the UK, most of Europe, most of South America, and most of Asia.
Vodafone adds and removes countries from this list from time to time, so it's always best to check the Vodafone website before you travel. If a country is going to be removed, Vodafone will announce it three months in advance.
Outside of the countries listed, all Vodafone customers use pay-as-you-go (PAYG) rates, regardless of the plan you are on. Vodafone's PAYG rates are as follows:
- $1 per minute to make or receive calls
- $0.75c per text message (sending only, no fee to receive)
- $0.75 per MMS message (sending per recipient only, no fee to receive MMS)
- $1 per MB of data
If you find yourself on PAYG rates, try to avoid using data. You could end up paying $40 or more in charges just to watch a single YouTube video.
Vodafone roaming vs. Optus vs. Telstra vs. other telcos
While Vodafone roaming is one of the better roaming offers, you can still get by on the roaming offers with Optus and Telstra. We've now also seen smaller telcos offer international roaming.
Optus international roaming
Optus has its own take on $5 roaming. Customers on postpaid Optus plans pay $5 per 5GB while overseas. This 5GB will last 24 hours, but if you go through it earlier, you'll be billed again and get a fresh allowance.
Optus' roaming also includes unlimited talk and text, but not MMS.
Here are Optus' SIM-only mobile plans:
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#1
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Optus
$60 Optus Choice Plus Plan
$39.00/mth
Min. cost $39
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#2
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Optus
$69 Optus Promo Plan
$69.00/mth
Min. cost $69
|
|
#3
|
Optus
$70 Optus Choice Plus Plan
$70.00/mth
Min. cost $70
|
|
#4
|
Optus
$90 Optus Choice Plus Plan
$90.00/mth
Min. cost $90
|
Optus' roaming works in over 150 countries. You can check these on the Optus website.
Telstra international roaming
Telstra's International Roaming Day Pass will also cost you $5 per day in New Zealand but $10 per day in most other eligible countries.
With this, you'll get unlimited standard talk and text and 2GB of data. If you go over that, you'll be charged an extra $10 for 2GB with a 31-day expiry. MMS is billed at $0.75 per message.
Telstra international roaming works in over 80 countries. Check these on the Telstra website.
Here are Telstra's SIM-only Upfront plans:
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Telstra
$74 Basic Upfront SIM Plan
$74.00/mth
Min. cost $74
Link not supplied
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MVNO international roaming
Several smaller telcos or Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) also offer add-ons or plans with international roaming. At the time of writing, the best include:
- felix mobile
- amaysim
- Belong
- Tangerine
- Boost Mobile
To find out more about smaller telcos offering international roaming add-ons, check out our guide to the best plans with international roaming.
Going over data on Vodafone $5 roaming
If you exceed your data allowance while using $5 roaming, Vodafone will automatically charge an extra $5 and give you an additional 5GB to use until the end of your billing month.
Is Vodafone $5 roaming a good deal?
For shorter trips, $5 roaming is a fantastic option. An entire week overseas would cost you $35 — or less if you don't use your inclusions every day.
Value becomes a little harder to judge the longer you're away from home: a month of taking your phone overseas would bring your roaming bill to as much as $155 on top of your current phone plan fees. If you need to keep your Australian number, that might be worth it, but buying a local SIM or eSIM at your destination could end up being a cheaper option.
These are the most popular NBN 50 plans with WhistleOut users this week:
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#1
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Dodo
All Fixed Line nbn®
Editor's Pick
nbn50 Unlimited Plan
$57.99/mth
Min. cost $57.99
|
|
#2
|
amaysim
All Fixed Line nbn®
NBN50
$75/mth
Min. cost $75
|
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#3
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Belong
All Fixed Line nbn®
NBN Standard Plus – Unlimited
$55/mth
Min. cost $55
|
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#4
|
Tangerine Telecom
All Fixed Line nbn®
Value Plus NBN 50/20
$64.90/mth
Min. cost $64.90
|
|
#5
|
Superloop
All Fixed Line nbn®
Extra-value nbn50/20
$69/mth
Min. cost $69
|
|
#6
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TPG
All Fixed Line nbn®
nbn50 Unlimited Plan
$69.99/mth
Min. cost $69.99
Link not supplied
|
|
#7
|
iiNet
All Fixed Line nbn®
nbn50 Liimitless
$69.99/mth
+ $10 Upfront
Min. cost $79.99
Link not supplied
|
|
#8
|
Kogan Internet
All Fixed Line nbn®
Silver Unlimited
$69.90/mth
Min. cost $69.90
|
|
#9
|
Flip
All Fixed Line nbn®
Unlimited Family nbn50
$68/mth
Min. cost $68
|
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#10
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Vodafone
All Fixed Line nbn®
Essential+ nbn®
$94/mth
Min. cost $94
Link not supplied
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Alex Choros
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