Photo by Rahul Chakraborty on Unsplash
Picture this… Entebbe Airport, October 2026, I was changing planes to travel onwards to Zimbabwe. Knowing I had to WhatsApp my transfer driver when I landed, I checked the EE mobile phone app (EE are my phone service provider in the UK) and discovered that Zimbabwe was in *shudder* EE’s Zone 4.
If you’ve never met EE’s roaming zones, think of them as concentric rings of financial pain. Circles of poverty hell that would have made Dante proud. EE seem to figure that if you’ve got spare coin to travel to somewhere exotic, that money is clearly burning a hole in your pocket, in my case to the tune of £16 a day. Travel can be painful, and now is clearly the tine you need to start paying (to misquote Fame).
EE’ delightfully generous offer of relieving my bank account of any spare money, was a roaming pass that allowed me to use my UK data plan, and that would come in at around £128 for seven days. Outging calls and texts would be obviously be charged separately, at rates I’d describe as “eye-watering” if my eyes weren’t already watering.
So I didn’t buy it. Instead I bought a Saily eSIM, with 10GB on a pay-as-you-go. On paper this would be a bargain, provided I did one thing: use Wi-Fi wherever I could and treat mobile data like a rare vintage. (“Aaaaand there it is. We’re right back into wine references. You have a problem, clearly”)
I learned this the hard way.
Table of Contents
The bit where I confess now I burned 10GB in 24 hours
Here is the full list of my crimes, in rough order of shame:
- I left Facebook and Instagram open in the background. Both apps are designed to eat data (autoplaying video, constant refreshing). Given that I run the blog’s pages on both (and am a doomscrolling addict), I can only call this professional negligence.
- I made a couple of WhatsApp calls to local businesses. Probably the least guilty party on my phone, but at the time it felt like a data-heavy thing to do at the time.
- I left Mail open. It quietly fetched things all day. Like, EVERYTHING. Each and every mailing list and newsletter, with images and everything. Chomp chomp chomp through my data it went
- I checked Apple News. One innocent flick through the headlines. Apple News repaid my curiosity by loading every image and video it could find, and cacheing it for offline browsing.
Result: 10GB gone in less thank 24 hours.
Then came the real insult. My Saily eSim data ran out mid-drive, right when I needed my trusty Google Maps to tell me where to go.
Cue mild panic by the side of the road and a hurried attempt to repurchase another slab of data. And because I hadn’t switched on auto top-up, with no data I couldn’t even go online to buy more.
That’s the catch-22 with a pay-as-you-go eSIM: when the data runs out, you can’t top up the data. (“Until recently, didn’t you earn a living as a project manager? How did you not think this through, dumbo? Maybe less wine in future…?”)
So is buying a travel eSim cheaper than paying for data roaming on EE?
Honest answer: it depends how badly you behave.
If you keep your usage down, a travel eSIM is much cheaper than a Zone 4 roaming pass from EE. MUCH cheaper.
But if you leave your phone to its own devices, like you would at home, the saving shrinks quickly. The eSIM isn’t the clever bit. The discipline is.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash
The tips I should have followed when using my iPhone
I’m on an iPhone, so these are iPhone settings. I. honestly have no idea what to do on an Andriod phone – and I mean that in every sense. Here be dragons.
Note that menu names can shift slightly between iOS versions, so if yours looks different, search the Settings app.
1. Use free safe Wi-Fi wherever you can
Hotel, café, airport, restaurant. Make Wi-Fi your default and your eSIM the emergency backup. Do your heavy stuff (downloads, updates, photos, video calls) on Wi-Fi only. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have a reliable VPN on your device, to encrypt your data and keep you safe as possible.
2. Check the Wi-Fi is actually available (and working) in your destination
Before you book a hotel or AirBnB, check the listing mentions Wi-Fi. Better still, message the property and ask. When you arrive, test it straight away: does it cover your room or just the lobby, and does it survive a power cut? Reliable power isn’t always guaranteed when you’re travelling to more exotic locations, and then it goes down, so will your Wi-Fi. Mine did a couple of times, albeit for just a few minutes each time
3. Turn off background apps (properly)
Swiping apps closed isn’t enough. Go to Settings, then General, then Background App Refresh and switch it off, or turn it off for everything except what you really need. Then check Settings, then Mobile Data and toggle off every app that doesn’t need to use data away from Wi-Fi. Facebook, Instagram, Mail and Apple News were the four horsemen of my personal data apocalypse, so from now on they’re the first to go.
4. Switch on Low Data Mode
Go to Settings, then Mobile Data, choose your eSIM line, and turn on Low Data Mode. It pauses background tasks and automatic updates over mobile data.
5. Check Wi-Fi Assist
At the bottom of the Mobile Data screen is Wi-Fi Assist, which switches you to mobile data when the Wi-Fi is weak. In places with patchy Wi-Fi it can quietly spend your eSIM data. Luckily I had turned this off before landing, or things could have got even more pricey for me.
6. Switch off data roaming on your UK SIM
If your UK SIM stays active, go to Settings, then Mobile Data, choose your UK line, and turn Data Roaming off. That’s the safeguard against an accidental roaming bill. Keep the UK line on for incoming texts and verification codes if you need them.
7. Download things before you need them
When you’re connected to Wi-i, download offline Google Maps for the area you’re driving in (I’d have saved myself a stressful drive if I’d done this). Then all off your boarding passes (or add them to your Apple Wallet if you can), any playlists or podcasts you want to listen to, as well as any episodes of Judy Judy/Love Island/Bake Off that you might need to watch while abroad.
8. Fix Mail and WhatsApp
Set Mail to fetch manually or less often (Settings, then Mail, then Accounts, then Fetch New Data). In WhatsApp, go to Settings, then Storage and Data and turn on Use Less Data for Calls.
9. Check your usage regularly
Look at Settings, then Mobile Data for the per-app list. If you reset the statistics at the start of your trip, you can see exactly which app is guilty.
10. Think carefully before turning on auto top-up
Auto top-up solves the problem I had (running out and being unable to buy more), but it spends money without asking you. If a background app goes rogue, it can spend money before you notice. A safer approach: turn on the alerts, keep the safeguards above, and top up manually on Wi-Fi.
What I’d do differently next time
- I’d follow my own advice in this post. (“You’re hilarious. No really, sooooo funny!)
- But that aside, I would have researched eSim v EE data roaming in more detail.
- When I got on the plane in London, I would have immediately gone through my phone and changed all my setting to optimise and preserve my precious streaming data.
I’m now also considering configuring and then packing my old iPhone (the one that now has no regular sim), and loaded it up with my travel eSim. I can then turn off all data roaming on my regular phone, forcing it only Wi-Fi only, and use my old phone as my data-phone for when I’m travelling.
I’m going to try this on my next trip, and will report back.