It seems like every week you read about someone traveling to other countries and using their iPhones, only to return home to their dismay as they get a fat bill that month from all the data roaming they have accumulated. Here in the US of A iPhone owners enjoy unlimited data from AT&T bundled into their already high monthly plans, but beware. When you go abroad those plans go out the window and you can fall victim to international rates and overages. There are ways to avoid this however, you can simply not bring your iPhone with you (aww no Tetris?!) or you can just not use your iPhone for date and calls when you travel. To disable the cash eating date roaming function it just takes a few extra steps.

When going abroad with your iPhone follow these tips to be sure you aren’t hit with some hefty roaming and date charges. First of all, go to “Settings,” then “General,” then “Network” and shut off “Data Roaming.” You can still make phone calls but you won’t be using data in the country you are currently in. Date roaming is where a majority of the cost come from when using your iPhone in other mobile networks. To take it a step further be sure turn off the “fetch” setting within your e-mail settings. Go to “Settings,” then “Mail, Contacts, Calendars,” then turn off “Fetch New Data.” These preventive steps will help you save some cash when traveling internationally with your iPhone.

Now if you really have to use your iPhone while overseas, for business use or you’re just really balling, you can get short-term international calling plans. These usually have a $5 fee to start and will lower your per-minute rate from 99 to 59 cents. If you plan on using date for emails, apps etc. You buy them at about $25 per 20 megabytes, sure that may seem pricey, but it’s a lot cheaper than what you would be spending if you happened to leave data roaming on.