Can I reduce my bill costs when I’m travelling overseas?
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Avoid unwanted roaming costs
To avoid any unwanted international roaming costs we recommend you do the following
To avoid all roaming charges
- Disable International Roaming and Day Pass, or remove your SIM before your travel abroad.
If you wish to maintain International Roaming, the following may trigger roaming charges
- If you are using a dual-SIM or eSIM, please ensure International Roaming is disabled on the secondary (unused) service.
You will incur International Roaming charges when using call forwarding / MessageBank
- When someone calls you and leaves a Voicemail/MessageBank message
- When you call and listen to your Voicemail/MessageBank messages
- If you use SMS to have your Voicemail/MessageBank call you
To avoid these potential unwanted costs please do the following
- Set unconditional diversion to Voicemail/MessageBank in phone settings (you can still make calls and retrieve Voicemail while roaming, but these will be charged at standard roaming rates as per your plan). You will not be able to receive any phone calls while unconditional diversions are in place.
- Disabling international roaming or removing your SIM after you have begun travelling may still incur roaming charges if:
- Someone calls and leaves a Voicemail/MessageBank message (if call forwarding unconditional diversion has not been setup in your phone settings beforehand)
See here for more information about forwarding calls to your mobile.
Check more details in Our Customer Terms for your service or solution.
How to reduce data usage when roaming
International roaming is an additional service on your mobile phone plan. Whatever plan you’re on, activating international roaming will mean your bill costs are going to be higher than usual because you’ll be using extra data.
If you choose to use international roaming while you’re overseas (remember, you also have the options of buying a local SIM or tapping into local hotspots), follow our tips to help keep your data usage costs down:
- Turn off mobile data when you’re asleep (it’s a simple slider button in phone settings that can easily be turned back on when you need it). Need help? Visit device guides.
- Turn off auto software and app updates + any unnecessary apps
- Turn off your location tracking and GPS
- Keep an eye out for SMS usage updates from Telstra
- Track your usage in My Telstra app
- Take advantage of free Wi-Fi calling to Australia when you're overseas
Streaming uses lots of data
While streaming platforms like Netflix, Stan, Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube are awesome when you have some airport downtime, they can quickly chew through your mobile data allowance. We strongly recommend downloading and saving streaming content before you leave, so it’s available to watch offline later. This will free up your data for more important things like accessing crucial travel info, maps, connecting via your socials, texting and calling.
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