EE introduces roaming fees for millions of customers - where charges apply in Europe

Millions of EE customers face new charges from this week as the network introduced roaming fees for using data abroad.

The change will affect EE pay-as-you-go customers who will now have to pay to make calls, send texts and use mobile data while on holiday in 47 destinations in Europe, including Spain, France and Portugal.

The fees apply to anyone with an EE pay-as-you-go subscription and those who top up their phone credit manually.

The network introduced the roaming fees on Monday (6 June) meaning customers will now be charged standard EE rates by default. This includes 70p per minute for phone calls, 30p for text messages and £3 for 550MB of mobile data.

The move comes after EE reintroduced roaming fees for pay monthly customers in March last year, charging £2 per day to use call, text and data allowances when visiting Europe.

The European destinations where EE customers will be charged roaming fees include the following:

• Austria
• Azores
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Canary Islands
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• French Guyana
• Germany
• Gibraltar
• Greece
• Guadeloupe
• Guernsey
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Isle of Man
• Jersey
• Italy
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Madeira
• Malta
• Martinique
• Mayotte
• Monaco
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Reunion
• Romania
• San Marino
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• St. Martin
• St. Barts
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Vatican City

Customers that have a subscription may be able to save money by buying a “Roam like Home” add-on which costs £2.50 for 24 hours or £10 for seven days.

This allows you to pay upfront to receive a certain number of calls, texts and mobile data over a specified period of time, but the amount of saving this makes will depend on how much you use your phone while abroad.

Mobile networks were previously banned from charging customers extra fees to use their UK allowance for calls, texts and data while holidaying in Europe, but this rule was scrapped following Brexit as European Union rules no longer apply.

EE is not the only network to reintroduce roaming fees. Vodafone introduced a £2 per day charge in Europe on 31 January last year, while Sky started charging customers £2 per day for European roaming from 3 May 2022.

Voxi, which is owned by Vodafone, now charges customers £2 per day to use mobile data in Europe and those who want to keep using their mobile plan while travelling to the EU need to buy a European Roaming Pass.

The notable exception is Virgin Media O2 which has not reintroduced EU roaming charges.

The company, which owns both the Virgin Mobile and O2 networks, said it will not charge customers roaming fees in Europe, unlike the other major mobile networks.