What US roaming really costs, network by network
Every UK network will let you use your phone in the USA. Every UK network will also charge you daily for the privilege — at rates that turn a two-week Florida holiday into a £70–104 line on the bill, per phone, before anyone has streamed a thing. This page keeps all four networks' US charges in one honest table, updated with sources, so you can see the whole market at a glance.
The 2026 table: what each network charges in the USA
Rates checked July 2026 against each network's published pricing; follow the deep-dive links for the small print on each. Journalists and bloggers: you're welcome to reuse this table with a link to this page.
| Network | US roaming product | Daily cost | Fortnight | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EE | Travel Data Pass / Roam Abroad | from ~£6 | £84+ | UK-midnight billing days; Roam Abroad £25/month per line |
| O2 | O2 Travel Bolt On | ~£6 | £84 | Background data triggers the 24h charge; traffic management abroad |
| Vodafone | Global Roaming Plus | ~£7.39 | £103 | Priciest daily rate; multi-day passes must be bought before travel |
| Three | Go Roam Around the World | £5 | £70 | ~12GB fair-use cap even on unlimited plans; tethering limits |
| eSIM Florida (this site) | 15GB / 30 days, prepaid | — | £16.99 flat | Data-only — your UK SIM stays in for texts and your number |
Two things the table can't show. First, the charges are per line — a family of three roaming on EE pays £252 for a fortnight, not £84. Second, most passes unlock your UK allowance rather than add data, with fair-use rules abroad, so "unlimited" plans usually aren't once they cross the Atlantic.
What happens if you do nothing at all
Landing with data roaming on and no pass puts older tariffs onto out-of-bundle rates, billed per megabyte — the mechanism behind every four-figure holiday bill story in the tabloids. Landing with data roaming on and a pass-based plan simply auto-charges the daily rate from your first background sync. There is no configuration where doing nothing is free. The two safe states: data roaming off entirely, or data roaming off on the UK line while a prepaid US eSIM carries the holiday.
The eSIM maths, for completeness
Our 15GB / 30-day plan is £16.99 — one payment, full-speed data on major US networks, no daily meter, no fair-use asterisk. Against the table above that's a saving of £53 (vs Three) to £86 (vs Vodafone) per phone per fortnight, and a family of three pays £44.99 total with the automatic bundle. Your UK SIM stays in the phone with roaming off — number, WhatsApp and bank texts all keep working. Setup takes two minutes at home: the full walkthrough is here, and the honest comparison against Airalo, Holafly and the rest is here.
Quick answers
Do UK networks still have free EU-style roaming in the USA? No — the EU roaming rules never covered America. Every UK network charges for US use, and Brexit changed nothing either way here.
Are incoming texts charged in the USA? No — receiving texts is free on all four networks, which is why the keep-your-SIM-in, data-off approach preserves bank security codes at no cost.
Which UK network is cheapest for US roaming? Three, at £5/day (£70/fortnight) — but with the tightest fair-use data caps. Cheapest of an expensive field is still four times the price of a prepaid eSIM.
When was this page last updated? July 2026, with per-network sources on each linked deep-dive. If a rate changes, this table changes.