Travelling with Easy Roam

[Dimo-X]

With Easy Roam, you can utilize your current rate plan's data & minutes and stay connected while traveling. Below are some steps on how to add Easy Roam as well as important points to consider when using it.

Adding Easy Roam:

From the App:

1. Go to Usage
2. Tap on Easy Roam
3. Enable the feature.

Via Text Message:

1. Text TRAVEL to 7626
2. You will receive an SMS with instructions, reply with EASY. 

Some considerations:

When am I billed?

• The Easy Roam rate will be billed until 11:59 PM of the day you activated the feature. This would be considered 1 day's usage.

What if I don’t want Easy Roam?

• If you don't want the Easy Roam feature to be active the following day, we recommend you disable Data Roaming, and turn on Airplane Mode.

How do I call back to Canada?

• It depends which country you’re in. To place a call, check out this helpful site for dialing instructions: www.howtocallabroad.com
• To send a text to contacts in Canada while travelling, follow the same number format as if placing a call.

Is there a cap on how much I can incur on Easy Roam?

• The Easy Roam fees are capped. For the US Easy Roam the cap is at $350 per bill cycle. The International Easy Roam is capped at $400 per bill cycle.

Is there anything I need to do when I return home?

• When you return from your trip, you do not need to disable the Easy Roam feature as you will not be billed for it when in Canada.

[xray]

• The Easy Roam rate will be billed until 11:59 PM of the day you activated the feature. This would be considered 1 day's usage.

When I fly to Hawaii the arrival times are usually after 9:30 PM and sometimes close to midnight. If I land at 11:30 PM for instance that means if I will be charged a full day of roaming for just a few minutes of use. There should be a grace period for activation of roaming where it rolls into the next day's billing period.

• If you don't want the Easy Roam feature to be active the following day, we recommend you disable Data Roaming, and turn on Airplane Mode.

Glad to see the mention of turning on Airplane Mode. It's the only reliable way to avoid triggering roaming. My wife's phone always trickles some data usage when we land even though she always has Data Roaming disabled. My phone does it sometimes as well but Data Roaming is usually on so it's hard to tell. I see many posts in the neighborhood from others reporting this problem. Not sure if the issue is with the phones or the network or perhaps an interaction between both. 

[Dimo-X]

Good morning xray!

Totally get it and regarding the grace period it's definitely a good idea! I'll definitely pass on the feedback. It's like, I want to be connected but do I want to pay a full days worth for just an hour or two... also I miss Hawaii (particularly the big island!) 🙂

Thanks and definitely agree, it's not uncommon to see some cases come in where some get dinged for roaming despite having data roaming disabled... quite often it's answering calls and sending texts that does it... but as you mentioned there is this oddity where some cases of roaming charges can still pop up for those that don't actually send texts or answer calls and have data roaming disabled. Puzzling for sure. So I often recommend turning on Airplane mode for a more fool-proof solution... and in very very rare cases removing the sim card entirely! lol 

[xray]

Removing Easy Roam using text message

Using the TELUS mobile device that you want to remove Easy Roam from, text REMOVE to 7626.

To confirm the applicable pay-per-use rates when travelling without Easy Roam, search your travel destination at telus.com/travel.

Removing Easy Roam in My TELUS

Oddly I couldn't see the Remove button in My TELUS (both App and Browser) until I texted REMOVE to remove Easy Roam and then added Easy Roam back.

[JimCran]

The costly dangers of Telus EasyRoam

Telus advertises a package for roaming outside Canada, for example3 $14/day in the US. Conversely you can use pay as you go with the following rates: Airtime: $1.60/minute,Messaging: $0.75/message (incoming SMS is free) and Data: $5/MB (very expensive).

I found out the hard way just how expensive EasyRoam can be on recent trip to the US. I got charged $126 for 9 days (plus tax) when for most of the days I only sent one or two texts.

If you plan to use a lot of data and airtime EasyRoam might make sense but beware of the realities. Assuming that you are satisfied using WIFI for data  then EasyRoam will be very expensive. For example if you receive one text on any given day and respond, instead of paying 75 cents you pay $14. Similarly if you answer a call for less than 1 minute its $14 instead of $1.60.

The Telus agent informed me that any day that your use Telus services (phone, text or data-on celluar) using EasyRoam its $14 even for one text or phone call. He suggested turning on Airplane mode to avoid these very expensive charges from happening – but of course this blocks any incoming texts or calls, hardly practical in todays world.

The only way to prevent such charges is to remove EasyRoam from you account and only turn it on each day that you really need it.