What calling abroad costs when it isn’t in your plan

Calling a restaurant from abroad sounds like it should cost a few cents. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it costs more than the dinner. It depends on where your plan is from, where you are, and who you’re calling.

Prices change often and differ by plan, so treat every number here as an example we checked on 30 October 2026, not a quote. Your operator’s roaming page is the final word.

In the EU: roam like at home

With an EU phone plan, calls, texts and data in other EU countries are billed at your home prices. The same applies in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and since 1 January 2026 in Ukraine and Moldova too.

There are limits. Operators can apply a fair-use policy and check your roaming over a four-month period: it’s meant for travelling, not for living abroad on a foreign plan. And it no longer covers the UK. The European Commission says that since the UK left the EU, roam like at home doesn’t apply there, although some operators still offer something similar. Outside the EU and the countries above, it doesn’t apply at all.

Outside it, prices jump

With a Swiss plan, or on a trip to Japan or Thailand, it’s a different story. Two Swiss examples:

• Swisscom’s blue Mobile S plan charges CHF 0.40 a minute for calls in the EU and UK, and CHF 2.00 a minute in its World 1 zone, which includes the USA, Japan and Thailand. The rates apply to incoming calls too. A 60-minute voice pack for World 1 costs CHF 29.90.
• Salt PrePay charges CHF 1.70 a minute for local calls in its Travel zone, which includes Japan and Thailand, CHF 3.70 a minute for calls back to Switzerland, and CHF 1.30 a minute to receive a call.

So on Salt PrePay, a ten-minute call to a restaurant in Tokyo would be CHF 17, and if they ring you back to confirm, you pay for that too.

Travel eSIMs are usually data only

Travel eSIMs are a great way to get cheap mobile data. Most don’t come with a phone number. Airalo, one of the biggest, says it plainly: “‘Data Only’ plans do not include calls and texts.” It suggests WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal instead. That’s fine for friends, less so for a restaurant that only has a landline.

Local SIMs differ by country. In Thailand, AIS’s tourist SIMs include calls: the one-day plan charges 1.07 baht a minute to any network, and the longer ones include free calls within AIS plus credit for other networks. In Japan, SoftBank’s prepaid SIM for travellers is data only; its page says “voice calling is not available.”

Wi-Fi calling isn’t a loophole

Wi-Fi calling sends your normal calls over Wi-Fi, which helps in a hotel room with no signal. Whether it works abroad depends on your operator. Apple’s guide starts by telling you to check that your carrier offers it at all. Vodafone UK’s terms say that using Wi-Fi Calling while roaming “is prohibited and is not supported”, and that calls to numbers in the country you’re visiting are charged at international rates.

Emergency calls are a separate case. Apple says your iPhone uses the mobile network for emergency calls when it’s available. Vodafone UK warns that if a 999 call goes over Wi-Fi, the emergency services can’t find your location automatically.

Ways to keep it cheap

• Check your operator’s roaming page before you go, and buy a pack if you’ll call more than once or twice.
• Staying a while and calling a lot? Get a local SIM that includes calls.
• Use messaging apps where the other side uses them.
• Or let a service make the call from its own line. Alfred works that way: the call doesn’t use your plan’s minutes, though you still pay per minute, so compare.