Telus Easy Roam is a daily roaming service that allows customers to use their existing phone plan while travelling in the U.S. or internationally.
Easy Roam costs $12 per day in the U.S. and $15 per day for over 200 international destinations. Telus says “you only pay for the days you use data, talk or send someone a text while travelling.”
But ahead of spring break in March, when people will be travelling during school holidays, a price increase is coming to Easy Roam.
Easy Roam U.S. is increasing from $12 to $14 per day, while Easy Roam International is going up from $15 to $16 per day. These are price increases of 17% and 7% respectively.
The Telus Easy Roam website recently added a note to indicate these price increases are kicking in on March 8, 2023.
Currently, $12 per day Easy Roam US is capped at $240 per billing cycle. The International Easy Roam fee of $15 per day is capped at $300 per bill cycle. Once caps are reached, Easy Roam can remain being used at no extra cost, says Telus.
Back in April 2022, Telus subsidiary Koodo increased the price of its equivalent Easy Roam features, to $12 for U.S. and $15 for International roaming. Keep an eye out for Koodo to possibly match this Telus price increase for Easy Roam.
Both Rogers and Bell still have their equivalent daily roaming options priced at $12 for the U.S. and $15 for International. There is a possibility these Telus rivals will similarly increase their rates as well.
Telus Easy Roam launched back in the summer of 2015, priced at $7 per day for U.S. travel.
It’s unclear why Telus is increasing the price of Easy Roam, but it could be one way to funnel customers toward Canada/U.S. monthly plans. Telus has the Unlimited CAN-US 60 5G+ plan for $105 per month with 60GB of data, plus a similar 100GB plan for $125 per month. Both of these plans allow for unlimited talk, text and data while in Canada and the USA.
In July 2022, Telus also changed how Easy Roam was activated, changing it from once activated to be valid for 24 hours, to “valid until 11:59pm in the time zone you are travelling.” This negatively affects those travelling into time zones far ahead, such as going to Asia, reducing the time Easy Roam is available for the first day.
Here’s the before and after text from the Telus website…
Before:
Easy Roam will only activate if you use data, send a text, make or answer a call. Once activated it will be valid for 24 hours. If you don’t want to use Easy Roam on the next day, avoid any of those actions and turn data roaming off to ensure you won’t be charged.
After:
Easy Roam will only activate if you use data, send a text, make or answer a call. Once activated it will be valid until 11:59pm in the time zone you are travelling. If you don’t want to use Easy Roam on the next day, avoid any of those actions and turn data roaming off to ensure you won’t be charged. Easy Roam is a pay-per-use feature subject to change without notice, including coverages, rates and usage guidelines.
If your phone supports eSIM, looking into options such as Airalo (use promo code IPHONEINCANADA to save 10% off until December 31, 2023) or Keepgo (get 3GB free) to add roaming data to your existing phone plan while abroad is best.
Did you notice recent plan changes or price increases on your bill? Send us an email to ti**@************da.ca.
Thanks YT
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Rogers will follow with a price increase next!!
Rogers is already $15 per day
Great news. So happy I switched to Videotron . Us included
I used to use Fido’s roaming when it was still cheap but it stopped making sense a while back. The best way to go now is an eSim. I juggle between two apps – Airalo for the US and Nomad for Mexico and Europe. That gets you data only, so there are downsides: no phone calls, no texts except iMessage (though I think one of those companies has added an SMS package you can buy), and Nomad doesn’t alert you when you’re about to run out of data – your phone just stops working and then you need data to buy a top up (you can check your usage in the app though). Also when you turn off your regular phone line it will unregister your number from iMessage, so in order for people to iMessage you they need to send it to your email address instead (whatsapp is great too).
All that said, the pros far outweigh the cons:
-Way, way cheaper – Airalo has 10gb of data for 30 days for $26 US for example – I can make that last a whole vacation or trip, vs spending much more on Fido roam
-install it easily from the app before leaving for the trip (make sure to have good internet while you’re installing, either wifi or cellular, and be patient while it says ‘activating’, just let it stay on that screen until done)
-….did I mention way cheaper. It’s a huge cost savings.
If you’re on the fence, try it! It’s not a big deal to set it up. Make sure to turn your regular phone line off in cellular settings so it doesn’t connect and charge you when you cross the border.
Roaming prices should be going down, not up. For Canadian businesses to be competitive, they need to have roaming prices comparable to competition, and at the moment, it is not. USA and Mexico should be included in all of the high end plans. If the Americans can do it, the Canadians can.
If you are reading this. don’t easy roam with Telus!
There are so many new options for you, that only require an eSIM (meaning they can be setup instantly before your travel and you can remove you Telus / Rogers / Bell SIM’s).
* Airalo
* FlexiRoam
* Holafly
Much cheaper!
The telcos know how they can easily charge you for the day because you got one text message even with roaming turned off. It’s a pain if you need 2FA via text messages where an auth app is not available.