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EU roaming: what changed, and what did not
Roam-like-at-home still applies inside the union. Everything around its edges — the Balkans, the UK, Switzerland — is where the bills come from.
Photo: Fred Romero, CC BY 2.0
Inside the EU, using your home plan costs what it costs at home. That has been true since 2017 and has not changed. What people keep getting caught by is the edge cases.
Where it does not apply
- The United Kingdom — outside the arrangement since Brexit. Several operators reintroduced daily charges.
- Switzerland — never part of it.
- Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania — a separate regional agreement covers travel between them, not travel to the EU.
There is also the fair-use limit. Your home operator can cap the data you use abroad even inside the EU, and the cap is usually far below what your plan gives you at home.
Roam-like-at-home was written for holidays, not for living abroad.
Stay in one country long enough and your operator is allowed to notice. Most will send a warning first, then start charging.
None of this is a reason to panic — it is a reason to check before you go, and to know what a travel eSIM costs so you can compare against it.
