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Guide - Using your mobile abroad

When you go abroad, your device will be able to connect to local network providers, so you can carry on using your giffgaff SIM for calls, texts and data. This is called roaming.

Charges can vary depending on where you are travelling to, so be sure to check the roaming pricing page and the extra info in this guide.

Useful quick tips

  • When you arrive in a new country, you'll receive a text about the roaming charges there
  • Roaming in some countries requires you to have credit in your account.
  • Check your balance online at https://giffgaff.com/dashboard or on the giffgaff app
  • You may need to top-up the credit in your account. To do so, head to https://giffgaff.com/top-up
  • The usage statement will show your mobile charges from roaming
  • To call a UK number while abroad, you'll need to add the international dialling code – strip off the 0 at the beginning of the number and add +44 instead (or 00 44)

Using your phone in the EU and selected destinations

  • Which countries and territories are included in the "Roam Like Home" agreement?

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus (South), Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland (including Aland Islands), France (including Corsica, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion, Saint Martin and additionally, Saint Barthelemy), Germany, Gibraltar, Greece (including all islands), Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy (including Sardinia, Sicily, and additionally, San Marino, Vatican City), Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands (but NOT Aruba, Curaçao or Sint Maarten), Norway, Poland, Portugal (including Azores, Madeira), Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain (including Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla), Sweden.

If you need further clarification on the country you're travelling to or want to check out the costs when you are visiting other countries, see our roaming page.

How your allowances are used

  • Plans

You can use your plan allowance while travelling in the EU. This means that data usage, calls and texts to standard UK landline and mobile numbers, and numbers in the other EU countries will simply be deducted from your remaining allowance.

Calls and texts are free to receive.

Our plans have a roaming cap, but only after you’ve used 5 GB. After this, data will be charged at 10p/MB while roaming in the EU.

This inclusive roaming is meant for members who reside and spend most of their time in the UK. If it seems you do not meet this description, you may have inclusive roaming removed.

For more info, see our fair usage guidelines.

  • Using credit

If you don't have a plan, and are roaming within any EU member state or territory, our pay as you go rates for calls and texts to landline and mobile numbers in the UK and to landline and mobile numbers in other countries and territories within the EU are charged at the same rate as calls and texts to UK landline and mobile numbers when those calls are made and those texts are sent within the UK.

  • giffgaff-to-giffgaff calls and texts

giffgaff-to-giffgaff calls are not free to make when you are roaming. When you are in the EU, having a plan and calling another giffgaff number will utilise minutes from your allowance like any other standard call. Without a plan, the standard pay as you go rates apply.

  • What's not included?

Picture messages (MMS); Sending and receiving devices may be charged with 30p/message to a UK/EU number or 24p/message to a non-UK/EU number.

If you are roaming in the EU and call or text another non-giffgaff number outside of the EU, this will also be charged at £1p/min, 30p/text.

Check your balance abroad

There are several ways to easily check your balance when abroad:

How to submit proof of UK residency?

Note: The vast majority of members won't need to submit any proof of residency. You can check your current eligibility in your account settings, just scroll down to Roaming Status in Phone and call service settings.

To be eligible for the inclusive EU roaming on our plans, we need to make sure you are a genuine giffgaff member, and someone who typically lives in the UK, but may take trips to other EU destinations from time to time. The vast majority of our members will become eligible without needing to do anything different.

We'll make things easy by automatically turning on EU roaming as part of your plan. However, if we can’t see any recent UK usage, we’ll send you an email and SMS asking for proof of residency in the UK. You’ll have to provide this to us within 14 days to ensure you remain eligible.

If you fail to submit such evidence, you’ll receive an email advising you of your impending ineligibility for inclusive roaming and an SMS shortly thereafter confirming that your inclusive roaming has been switched off.  If you submit the required evidence at a later stage, (or we see evidence of UK usage) your inclusive roaming will be switched on again.

You can submit various documents as proof of residency.

We typically require 2 types of documents:

  1. Proof of ID
    It can be a scanned copy/photo of either your passport or your driving license (photo-card version is fine)

  2. Proof of residency (dated within last 3 months)
    This can be a recent mortgage, utility bill (gas, water, electric); current council tax bill; house or motor insurance certificate; credit card statement; university acceptance letter.

Once you've got them, contact our agents here. They will respond as soon as possible and will guide you through the next steps. In case you forgot to add the documents beforehand, don't worry. You will be given a place to upload them later. 

Note: Even after having submitted a document as proof of residency, you’ll still be subject to the same fair usage guidelines. In particular, the inclusive plan roaming may be removed if you spend extended periods of time outside the UK, and our agents will not be able to turn this back on for you.

Using your phone in the rest of the world

Here we are talking about using your phone when visiting any of the countries that fall outside of the “EU and selected destinations”. Whether you have a plan or not, all usage when visiting these countries is charged for, which means you'll need to have some credit in your account.

Please note: giffgaff-to-giffgaff calls are also not free while roaming in the rest of the world, and are charged at the normal roaming rates.

Check out the roaming rates for each country here

How can I limit my roaming charges?

For useful tips on how to save money while roaming, check out this guide.

Problems with service while roaming

  • Can't connect to data

If you're having problems connecting to data while abroad, you may need to go in and change a few settings in your device (known as "APN settings").

Note: You need to be using the giffgaff APN: giffgaff.com

If your APN is set to something different, please use the guide here to update your settings.

  • Some services not available

Roaming coverage is dependent on agreements with, and service provided by, other networks around the world. Particularly in more remote locations, we can't always guarantee you'll be able to connect to data or make and receive calls and texts. If roaming coverage is critical for you when travelling somewhere remote, we recommend having a back-up plan if service isn't available.

If you are still struggling, you can view this guide here

Using voicemail abroad

While you're overseas, it doesn't cost anything when someone leaves a voicemail message. It'll only cost if you retrieve it while you're away.

In the EU and selected destination, ringing voicemail will be charged like it is in the UK:

  • With a plan – 1 minute utilised per call
  • Without a plan – 8p per call

In the rest of the world, you'll be charged the “per minute” rate of the country you are visiting. You may want to disable your voicemail so callers can't leave a message - set a reminder to switch it back on when you get back.

Some people prefer to divert all calls to voicemail - remember to set up your voicemail PIN before you leave, that way when you dial your mobile number you won't have to waste credit listening to set up instructions as you will be charged per minute while roaming.

Non-terrestrial networks

‘Non-terrestrial’ networks are ones that operate in places like airplanes, cruise ships, and ferries. 

How are they charged?

These non-terrestrial networks, where available, are charged at ‘Rest of the World’ roaming rates: £1/Min to make and receive calls, 30p to send a text, and £5/MB of data. They are not included in our plans.

Accidental Roaming

When travelling, you might get close to a national border with non-EU /ROW countries. Your phone might pick up a network from across the border. If this happens, you’ll be charged from your credit, as if you were roaming in the nearby country or territory. To avoid this, you can set your mobile to manually roam to a specific network within the country you are in to avoid the charges.