On an EE pay monthly plan that started on or after 7 July 2021, using your phone in Europe costs £2.72 a day, and that lets you call UK numbers from your normal allowance. Outside Europe you buy a pass for the country's zone: £6 for 24 hours in the USA, Australia or India, £8 in places like Egypt, Japan or Brazil, and £16 in the most expensive zone, where calls still cost £2.46 a minute on top. Plans that started before 7 July 2021 do not pay the European daily charge.

Below is what each zone costs as of October 2026, what a call home to the UK actually works out at, and how to call UK numbers over hotel WiFi without touching EE's roaming at all.

EE roaming charges by zone

These are the prices on EE's roaming packages page as of October 2026. "UK allowances" means you use the minutes, texts and data from your plan as if you were at home.

Zone	Example countries	24 hours	7 days	12 days	Calls and texts
Europe	France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Germany	£2.72 (daily charge)	£16.50	£27.50	UK allowances
Zone 1	USA, Canada, Australia, India, Turkey, UAE, China	£6	£30	Not offered	UK allowances
Zone 2	Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Philippines, Hong Kong	£8	£40	Not offered	UK allowances
Zone 3	Brazil, Japan, Jamaica, Pakistan, Sri Lanka	£8	Not offered	Not offered	Unlimited, with 500MB data
Zone 4	Nepal, Maldives, Georgia, Lebanon, Zimbabwe	£16	Not offered	Not offered	Still £2.46 a minute and 98p a text; the pass gives 10MB data
Cruises and ferries	Maritime networks	£15	Not offered	Not offered	Unlimited, with 500MB data

A handful of countries, including Cuba, Guatemala and Papua New Guinea, have no data option at all: calls cost £2.46 a minute and texts 98p.

The full country lists are on EE's page. Check yours before you travel, because the zones do not follow geography: Turkey and the UAE sit in Zone 1, but Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia are in Zone 2 and Japan is in Zone 3.

What about the Roam Abroad Pass?

Older articles and forum posts still mention an EE Roam Abroad Pass. EE's current roaming page (October 2026) does not use that name. It lists the European daily charge and the 7-day and 12-day passes instead, and marks Europe and Zone 1 (but not Zones 2 to 4) as available as an "Inclusive Extra", the perk some EE plans let you pick. If your plan has an Inclusive Extra slot, check in the EE app whether roaming is one of your choices before paying for a pass.

Europe: the £2.72 daily charge

EE's Europe zone covers the EU countries plus places like Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Gibraltar, Monaco, the Canary Islands and the Channel Islands. Ireland is handled separately: EE's pay as you go page says calls, texts and data in the Republic of Ireland come out of your normal allowance. Pay monthly customers should check Ireland in the roaming calculator.

For pay monthly customers, the rule depends on when your plan started:

Plan started before 7 July 2021: no daily charge in Europe. Your UK allowance works as at home. If you have upgraded or signed a new contract since, the newer start date is the one that counts, so check in the EE app.
Plan started on or after 7 July 2021: £2.72 for each day you use your calls, texts or data allowance there, unless your plan includes roaming.

If you are away for a week, the 7-day pass at £16.50 beats paying £2.72 seven times (£19.04). For 12 days, the £27.50 pass beats £32.64 in daily charges. If you only need your phone on two or three days of the trip, paying the daily charge is cheaper.

Pay as you go in Europe

EE pay as you go works differently. If you have an active 30-Day plan or Saver plan, EE texts you when you land so you can opt in to Roam like Home: £2.50 for 24 hours or £10 for 7 days. If you do not opt in, or have no active plan, EE's pay as you go roaming page lists standard charges of 70p a minute for calls and 30p a text, plus £3 for 500MB of data.

That 70p a minute adds up quickly: a 15-minute call home from Spain without the add-on costs £10.50.

If you need to top up while abroad, EE's help pages list three ways: log in to EE online, call +44 7953 966 250 and pay by card, or call 360 from your EE phone. Topping up by text is not available abroad.

What a call home to the UK actually costs

The table below shows the real cost of a 20-minute call to a UK mobile from four trips, using EE's October 2026 prices.

Where you are, which plan	What you pay EE for that day	Cost of the 20-minute call itself
Spain, pay monthly from after July 2021	£2.72 daily charge	From your UK minutes
Spain, pay as you go with Roam like Home	£2.50 for 24 hours	From your plan minutes
Spain, pay as you go without an add-on	Nothing up front	£14.00 at 70p a minute
USA, pay monthly with a 24-hour pass	£6	From your UK minutes
Japan, pay monthly with a 24-hour pass	£8	Included (unlimited calls)
Nepal, pay monthly with a 24-hour pass	£16	£49.20 at £2.46 a minute

So if you are already paying for a pass to use data, a call home in Europe or Zones 1 to 3 costs you nothing extra. The expensive cases are pay as you go without an add-on, Zone 4, and trips where you only want to make one call and would otherwise not touch your phone.

Calling a local number is different

Your pass covers calls back to the UK from your UK allowance. Calling a local number, such as a hotel in Lisbon or a tour operator in Florida, may not count the same way. EE's roaming calculator shows how each number type is charged in each country, so check it before you rely on your allowance for local calls.

Do you pay to receive calls abroad?

EE's roaming packages page does not list a separate price for incoming calls, so the safe reading is that a call you answer is covered in the same way as a call you make: from your UK allowance once you have paid the daily charge or bought a pass, and at the zone's per-minute rate where calls are not included. In Zone 4 and the no-data countries, where calls cost £2.46 a minute, assume a long incoming call is expensive and check EE's roaming calculator for your country before you go.

The one case EE spells out is accidental roaming. Its get ready to roam guide warns that if your phone picks up a Turkish network while you are in Cyprus, "you'll be charged to make and receive calls". Near borders and at sea, set your phone to choose the network manually rather than automatically. EE also offers a text command to 150 that restricts you to EU networks; the exact code is on its accidental roaming help page.

Why EE WiFi Calling will not save you money abroad

Many people assume hotel WiFi solves the problem. On EE it does not, at least not with the phone's built-in dialler. EE's own checklist tells travellers to turn off WiFi Calling before they go because "WiFi Calling is only available in the UK". Calls you make from the normal dialler abroad go over the local mobile network and are charged as roaming.

How to call UK numbers over hotel WiFi instead

The way round it is to make the call over the internet with a service that does not depend on your SIM. Put your phone in airplane mode, turn WiFi back on, and call from an app or a browser. Your EE line is never used, so no daily charge or pass is triggered. The trade-off is that calls to your EE number will not reach you while airplane mode is on.

With BoraPhone, you open the dialler in Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox on your laptop or phone and call any UK number. At the time of writing (October 2026) it costs $0.04 a minute to UK landlines and $0.07 a minute to UK mobiles, billed per minute in US dollars, so that 20-minute call to a UK mobile is $1.40. There is no app or subscription, the rate shows before you call, your first call is free, and you can verify your own EE number as caller ID so family see a number they recognise. Our guide to cheap international calls from the UK covers the same service for calls from home.

To dial a UK number from abroad, use +44 and drop the leading 0. A UK mobile written as 07xxx xxxxxx becomes +44 7xxx xxxxxx, and a London landline written as 020 xxxx xxxx becomes +44 20 xxxx xxxx. Our guide to calling the UK from abroad has the exit codes for each country if you are dialling from a local phone.

Before you fly: a quick EE checklist

Text ROAMING to 150 from your EE phone to check it is set up to roam.
Set or raise your Spend Cap by texting SPEND CAP to 150 or using the EE app. A Spend Cap can limit EU daily charges, but it cannot block data pass or add-on purchases.
Turn on data roaming in your phone's settings only if you plan to buy a pass.
Turn off WiFi Calling, as EE recommends, because it only works in the UK.
Check your zone on EE's roaming packages page, and the roaming calculator for anything not listed.

For more ways to cut the bill, see how to avoid roaming charges on calls. If you also call abroad from the UK, our guide to EE international calls covers the International Pass and other add-ons, which are separate from roaming.

Frequently asked questions

Is roaming free on EE?

Only for some customers. If your pay monthly plan started before 7 July 2021, using your allowance in EE's Europe zone is free. Some plans also include roaming as an Inclusive Extra. Everyone else pays £2.72 a day in Europe or buys a pass for other zones, as of October 2026.

How do I avoid roaming charges on EE?

Keep data roaming off, use airplane mode with WiFi on, and make calls over the internet instead of through the EE network. EE WiFi Calling does not work abroad, so you need an app or a browser-based calling service. Setting a Spend Cap stops surprise charges from building up.

Is an EE roaming pass worth it?

It is if you will use your phone on most days of the trip. In Europe, the £16.50 7-day pass beats paying the £2.72 daily charge every day for a week, and the £27.50 12-day pass beats it over 12 days. If you only need your phone on a couple of days, the daily charge or WiFi calling through another service costs less.

Which countries are included in EE's EU roaming?

EE's Europe zone includes every EU country apart from Ireland, plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, as of October 2026. Ireland is treated separately, and Northern Cyprus is excluded. The full list is on EE's roaming packages page.

EE Roaming Charges 2026: Daily Charge, Passes and Calls Home