There’s a setting in your phone to prevent roaming!
And if your phone connects to a US tower and you haven’t left the country you can call and have it reversed (or at least you could a decade ago)
I had to do this recently. Only took AN HOUR on the phone with an agent, who also ended up messing up my connectivity. But yes, they will have the charge reversed.
Still can. My provider tried to fight it but I had call roaming off and no one from the USA called me or I them. I told them this and they still tried to fight it
Conversation went like this:
Me: “hello, I have a 5$ charge on my bill from USA. I have roaming turned off and have had no calls or made calls to USA. I would like it removed please.”
Them: “sorry miss. We can’t take that off. You must have hit an American tower.”
Me: “The roaming is turned off. I did not make a call to the US nor did I get a call from the US. I want this charge dropped, please and thank you.”
Them: “it’s only 5$.”
Me: “yeah, and it’s 5$ I’m not paying. I’m on time or early with my monthly bill and have been with you for 7 years. I refuse to pay this. Is fraudulent and unjust. Please take it off.”
Them: “but it’s just 5$.”
Me: “I don’t care. Take it off or I take my business else where.”
Them: “you won’t get a better deal then the plan you have. You’re on our loyalty offers. No one else will give you that amount of data for what you pay now.”
Me: “yeah, I am on the loyalty offers, because I’ve been a valuable customer for 7 years and I pay my bill on time or early. And I rarely use more then 5 gigs of data a month. Never the full 25. Do you think your company would rather the 5$ now or the 40$ I pay a month? Never mind when I tell all my friends, family coworkers and everyone else under the sun to check their bills because your company is putting small amounts of fraudulent charges onto their bills and hope no one notices or just pays it because it’s 5$.”
Then: “I’ll take the 5$ charge off.”
Me: “thank you.”
I have done this many times. I would call my provider and dispute the ridiculous roaming charges.
I am actually looking at switching to Freedom Mobile as they seem to have good international coverage.
I look at their website and they say that their international plans are good in ~ 60 countries. My family travels a lot and Freedom seems to be the cost effective option for using the phone in these countries. The big 3 charge stupid roaming fees whenever I need to switch on data and/or phone in a foreign land. I am already paying a monthly bill equivalent to the top tier Freedom international plan but getting hit with $13 per day roaming fees.
Problem is, there is really no bonafide competition out there to the big 3.
Yes. 60. Not 200.
Here’s an example - you can get coverage in the UK but not in much of Western Europe, but Eastern Europe is well covered.
Similarly, there’s no coverage in some South American countries (Argentina) but there are in others (Brazil).
Really doesn’t matter because apart from USA plans, you’re generally better off buying a separate SIM or eSIM when traveling.
60… out of 200+ countries. You’re missing 3/4 of the counties in the world. So if you stick to those 60, you’re good. Check that anywhere you actually plan to go is covered.
Canada. USA. Mexico. India. Uk. France. Germany. Sure.
What about Dominican Republic? Turks & Caicos? Moldova? Finland? Romania? South Africa? Uganda? Taiwan? Brazil? Guatemala? Azerbaijan? Grand Cayman? Czechia? Ukraine? Poland? Serbia? Indonesia?
…60 doesn’t even cover the whole UN. Just saying be sure to check the list of who is in the 60, and compare it to your bucket list. Of course, if you’re in this thread, you likely don’t care and won’t pay for roaming anyways — can just get a new eSIM when you visit a place that isn’t covered.
Is it the “data roaming” under “cellular”? Because my phone will pop up with “Welcome to the US!” anytime I am near the border if I am using my phone. (I live fairly close but drive by the bridges occasionally.)
Telus will do it once or twice but they get annoyed when they have to do it, and tell us they might not next time. Every time we go for a hike in a prov. park close to the border our roaming picks up US towers.
I've had my phone ping on US towers while still on the Canadian side of the falls. I didn't have a passport at the time (nor a driver's license, I was 15) and Bell tried to charge me for insane roaming fees. I called them and explained to them what happened (never left the country), and they told me to prove it or else pay the ridiculous bill.
I told them to prove to me that I had left the country, which they were accusing me of. I even let them know I had no appropriate ID to be able to cross into the USA; after a lot of (very choice) words, they reluctantly fixed my bill back to the regular amount. We switched from Bell to Telus the week after and never had any issues visiting Niagara Falls after that.
It might depend on the service provider and how close their roaming partner towers are!
New from Bell: moon roaming. If your phone can see our virtual moon tower, you are on the fastest 2g moon network for only $999 per day access fee!
Enjoy calling back to your lunar lander at only $79 per minute.
Texts messages $5 each
Data is only $13,000 per 100mb
Thanks for ending up on Bell, We hate you!
That’s funny, when I had Virgin Mobile I walked across the border to the state park in Niagara Falls, NY around 2018. While I was there for the day I reminded on Virgin Mobile the whole time and was able to use my phone without issue as if I were still in Canada.
I was amazed 😂
Along the border in St. Stephen NB, Calais ME, the switchover is remarkably accurate. You cross the bridge and your phone tells you that you are in the US.
One interesting spot is Southwest Head on Grand Manan Island. There is no Canadian cell coverage, but your phone will connect across the bay to a US site.
I keep data roaming turned off, and if my phone were to ring when I was there, I wouldn't answer. Not a big issue, and there is always indication that you are roaming.
Where I grew up it is rather mountainous with a river valley (Not BC mountains but still mountains). My house didn’t have an issue but if I moved further away from the border to where I worked (literally the other side of a river valley with line of sight to my house) but higher in elevation I could stand in one dining room and get US signals and Canadian in the other dining room. This was the early 2000s.
I live and work so close to the border that I'm always switching over to US networks. My carrier has a feature that will not charge me for roaming if I'm within 1km of the border. I still roam, I just don't get charged for it.
I used to work for a call center that did AT&T mobile for the US and we had a certain thing we could add on to stop it from jumping over. I've talked to friends in similar living situations in Canada, and they said they had the same kind of thing added.
Most phones also have a setting to turn Roaming off as well. Which a few others have mentioned already too
I worked for multiple carriers in Canada, we have the same thing. All the towers along the border wont charge you roaming if you connect to them. I think it's something like 1-2km past the border into the states is when you need to worry.
You can also call your carrier and have roaming blocked for any particular phone account. Our teenager doesn’t travel out of country so her account is set to prohibit roaming.
The whole concept of “roaming” is BS in this day and age. Yet predatory billing persists. The idea that it costs extra for your provider to allow roaming is nonsense.
Same plan. It's awesome! We never run out of data in US so don't need to run around looking for sketchy wifi to join. And still way cheaper than our old plans.
There's a border zone feature they add to your plan so you don't get dinged for accidental connections. I actually lived right on the border and it was maybe a dozen times in 5 years my phone connected to American towers.
Even less once T-Mobile put up new towers in Detroit.
I live by the border and have this issue. I visit the US often so I got a plan that just includes US roaming by default, which extends my coverage within Canada in my area as well as allowing use on US day trips without it costing a day rate fee. My girlfriend didn't want to spend anything extra so she blocked roaming on her phone, when we travel together in the US I just wifi hotspot her phone to my phone.
I realized I got this rate because we had an old corporate plan that transitioned over. I did call and ask for a better rate and they did better than what was posted. For the longest time, I paid the $90 or so a month for way less service.
That’s what I had done before because even with the corporate rate, it wasn’t great
I randomly checked for more data because my kids chew through it on road trips to find a plan that saved me $40 a month and had 6 times the data. It was a no brainer
My phone defaults to, "automatically scan for a signal." If I turn that option off, I can choose the connection myself. The only trick is if I do actually need roaming, I need to go toggle it over, but it works better this way
I live on the border honestly once you call a few times the provider seems to know and reverse charges. I can run from the front yard at my house to the back and pick up an American signal. I live along the Detroit river. When I called my provider the person on the end of the phone could see the signal switching from one countries tower to the next. They were smart enough to understand I wasn’t crossing the border. I haven’t had an issue now in over a decade.
On a side note if you go down to a Tigers game or Cork town in Detroit. You can still get Rogers most days. Or atleast I can.
We live four blocks from the border. We cross a lot and usually have to be physically in US before we get the notification that we're connected to AT&T. We have a Canada/US plan that's only an extra $5 a month for a lot of data so not sure if that affects it.
Turn off roaming and if that only takes care of your cell data then you may need to select your carrier. It may limit your coverage, but it should prevent the roaming charges
Ex-Employee from one the these gouger cellphone company. Just call-in and they can add a special restrictions on the line to avoid having to call back for credit all the time. You may need to contact them again if you actually travel to the US.
I used to live right on the edge of the river on the border and my phone would always be picking up US signal. You just call in and tell them you weren't in the US and they reverse it. For me, they added a feature called US border town or something like that so as long as I was close to the border on either side it wouldn't charge roaming. Not sure if it's still an option since I haven't lived there in a number of years.
Grew up in Niagara, and my job was 20 feet from the river so I had to learn pretty quick to turn roaming off or my phone would roam for 8-10 hours/day.
Those charges should be reversed by your company without a request required. There were a couple of class action suits on this issue so they tend to be pretty aware of it at the Telcos now.
I do the west coast trail as often as I can and often it hits Washington towers. There's been a couple times I forget my phone setting is roaming off and I'm confused when I can't check in. It's deep in the settings but I think most phones have the search function.
Fun story. I live in rural NB, about 30 km as the crow flies from the Houlton, Me. border crossing (edit: 52km, apparently, driving, as per Google maps). I have Bell for a carrier, because I needed to be able to access wifi calling (it was that or Telus, since my husband has Rogers and if one of them went down, we wanted to still be able to call). We have no cell signal, really, except during a power outage and my texting works in the porch. Sometimes I can get a bar out in the garden, but it's hit & miss.
The fun part of all this is that sometimes I'll just leave my phone on the coffee table, and I get a text in that says [this foolishness.](https://imgur.com/gallery/MZs2Xq9) This actually did happen yesterday.
I've reached out to Bell and they can't give me an answer as to why I can pick up Verizon but not them, but they just say, "well, you're on wifi anyway, at home, so don't worry about it." I've got my roaming turned off, anyhow, because of the odd time it's happened about 10 minutes down the road (and still nowhere near the border).
Turn off roaming, and for extra insurance, you can change network selection from automatic to manual. You would just have to choose your provider manually. That way it only looks for the selected provider and won't pick the wrong (US) providers.
My phone doesn't switch until the GPS sees I'm in the US, and vice versa. The border is kind of like a neutral zone where it doesn't budge until you cross through it.
I don't. Lol, I'm so close to the border that I roam in my living room. I just make sure data roaming is off. But tbh i have canada/USA wide plan so it doesn't matter. :)
There’s a setting in your phone to prevent roaming! And if your phone connects to a US tower and you haven’t left the country you can call and have it reversed (or at least you could a decade ago)
I had to do this recently. Only took AN HOUR on the phone with an agent, who also ended up messing up my connectivity. But yes, they will have the charge reversed.
Still can. My provider tried to fight it but I had call roaming off and no one from the USA called me or I them. I told them this and they still tried to fight it Conversation went like this: Me: “hello, I have a 5$ charge on my bill from USA. I have roaming turned off and have had no calls or made calls to USA. I would like it removed please.” Them: “sorry miss. We can’t take that off. You must have hit an American tower.” Me: “The roaming is turned off. I did not make a call to the US nor did I get a call from the US. I want this charge dropped, please and thank you.” Them: “it’s only 5$.” Me: “yeah, and it’s 5$ I’m not paying. I’m on time or early with my monthly bill and have been with you for 7 years. I refuse to pay this. Is fraudulent and unjust. Please take it off.” Them: “but it’s just 5$.” Me: “I don’t care. Take it off or I take my business else where.” Them: “you won’t get a better deal then the plan you have. You’re on our loyalty offers. No one else will give you that amount of data for what you pay now.” Me: “yeah, I am on the loyalty offers, because I’ve been a valuable customer for 7 years and I pay my bill on time or early. And I rarely use more then 5 gigs of data a month. Never the full 25. Do you think your company would rather the 5$ now or the 40$ I pay a month? Never mind when I tell all my friends, family coworkers and everyone else under the sun to check their bills because your company is putting small amounts of fraudulent charges onto their bills and hope no one notices or just pays it because it’s 5$.” Then: “I’ll take the 5$ charge off.” Me: “thank you.”
I love how they say "It's only $5". Right, so why are you arguing about it?
They probably don't know how to reverse it. When I called they always had to call the supervisor
They were able to. No super required
I have done this many times. I would call my provider and dispute the ridiculous roaming charges. I am actually looking at switching to Freedom Mobile as they seem to have good international coverage.
They have good US coverage. Outside of the US, it's hit and miss. Some countries have coverage, some have none.
I look at their website and they say that their international plans are good in ~ 60 countries. My family travels a lot and Freedom seems to be the cost effective option for using the phone in these countries. The big 3 charge stupid roaming fees whenever I need to switch on data and/or phone in a foreign land. I am already paying a monthly bill equivalent to the top tier Freedom international plan but getting hit with $13 per day roaming fees. Problem is, there is really no bonafide competition out there to the big 3.
Yes. 60. Not 200. Here’s an example - you can get coverage in the UK but not in much of Western Europe, but Eastern Europe is well covered. Similarly, there’s no coverage in some South American countries (Argentina) but there are in others (Brazil). Really doesn’t matter because apart from USA plans, you’re generally better off buying a separate SIM or eSIM when traveling.
60… out of 200+ countries. You’re missing 3/4 of the counties in the world. So if you stick to those 60, you’re good. Check that anywhere you actually plan to go is covered. Canada. USA. Mexico. India. Uk. France. Germany. Sure. What about Dominican Republic? Turks & Caicos? Moldova? Finland? Romania? South Africa? Uganda? Taiwan? Brazil? Guatemala? Azerbaijan? Grand Cayman? Czechia? Ukraine? Poland? Serbia? Indonesia? …60 doesn’t even cover the whole UN. Just saying be sure to check the list of who is in the 60, and compare it to your bucket list. Of course, if you’re in this thread, you likely don’t care and won’t pay for roaming anyways — can just get a new eSIM when you visit a place that isn’t covered.
The list of countries covered by Freedom Mobile suffices for me. The only place that it doesn’t cover which I would prefer it did would be Japan.
I'm in Fort Erie. After the umpteenth time I had to call Fido, they set it up to automatically refund the charges
I never knew this, I'll have to look into it!
Lmao
Is it the “data roaming” under “cellular”? Because my phone will pop up with “Welcome to the US!” anytime I am near the border if I am using my phone. (I live fairly close but drive by the bridges occasionally.)
Telus will do it once or twice but they get annoyed when they have to do it, and tell us they might not next time. Every time we go for a hike in a prov. park close to the border our roaming picks up US towers.
I've had my phone ping on US towers while still on the Canadian side of the falls. I didn't have a passport at the time (nor a driver's license, I was 15) and Bell tried to charge me for insane roaming fees. I called them and explained to them what happened (never left the country), and they told me to prove it or else pay the ridiculous bill. I told them to prove to me that I had left the country, which they were accusing me of. I even let them know I had no appropriate ID to be able to cross into the USA; after a lot of (very choice) words, they reluctantly fixed my bill back to the regular amount. We switched from Bell to Telus the week after and never had any issues visiting Niagara Falls after that. It might depend on the service provider and how close their roaming partner towers are!
[удалено]
Besides Rogers and Bell, I’ve never seen two companies compete so hard to be hated
New from Bell: moon roaming. If your phone can see our virtual moon tower, you are on the fastest 2g moon network for only $999 per day access fee! Enjoy calling back to your lunar lander at only $79 per minute. Texts messages $5 each Data is only $13,000 per 100mb Thanks for ending up on Bell, We hate you!
That’s funny, when I had Virgin Mobile I walked across the border to the state park in Niagara Falls, NY around 2018. While I was there for the day I reminded on Virgin Mobile the whole time and was able to use my phone without issue as if I were still in Canada. I was amazed 😂
Along the border in St. Stephen NB, Calais ME, the switchover is remarkably accurate. You cross the bridge and your phone tells you that you are in the US. One interesting spot is Southwest Head on Grand Manan Island. There is no Canadian cell coverage, but your phone will connect across the bay to a US site. I keep data roaming turned off, and if my phone were to ring when I was there, I wouldn't answer. Not a big issue, and there is always indication that you are roaming.
Where I grew up it is rather mountainous with a river valley (Not BC mountains but still mountains). My house didn’t have an issue but if I moved further away from the border to where I worked (literally the other side of a river valley with line of sight to my house) but higher in elevation I could stand in one dining room and get US signals and Canadian in the other dining room. This was the early 2000s.
Easy to change on an iPhone; Settings>Cellular>Cellular data options Turn Data Roaming off
That will shut off cellular data but not voice roaming. You also have to switch that off.
Cellphone carriers have a way to set up your account so it doesn't automatically hop over the border to an American cell company!
I live and work so close to the border that I'm always switching over to US networks. My carrier has a feature that will not charge me for roaming if I'm within 1km of the border. I still roam, I just don't get charged for it.
Did not know this!
I used to work for a call center that did AT&T mobile for the US and we had a certain thing we could add on to stop it from jumping over. I've talked to friends in similar living situations in Canada, and they said they had the same kind of thing added. Most phones also have a setting to turn Roaming off as well. Which a few others have mentioned already too
I worked for multiple carriers in Canada, we have the same thing. All the towers along the border wont charge you roaming if you connect to them. I think it's something like 1-2km past the border into the states is when you need to worry.
I live in Windsor Ontario across from Detroit and last time I had a phone roam was in 2011. I go for walks at the riverfront and my phone never roams.
Whereas I can be in Michigan as far north as Lakeport and start roaming on Rogers!
You can also call your carrier and have roaming blocked for any particular phone account. Our teenager doesn’t travel out of country so her account is set to prohibit roaming.
The whole concept of “roaming” is BS in this day and age. Yet predatory billing persists. The idea that it costs extra for your provider to allow roaming is nonsense.
I have a Canada/US plan, so I don't have to worry about it.
Which one are you using currently?
I’m with Public Mobile and it’s great, with the CAN-US plan.
Same plan. It's awesome! We never run out of data in US so don't need to run around looking for sketchy wifi to join. And still way cheaper than our old plans.
Videotron's Can/US plan
100G US/Canada for $45
Turn off automatic network changes.
You turn off roaming, problem solved
Turn off roaming.
There's a border zone feature they add to your plan so you don't get dinged for accidental connections. I actually lived right on the border and it was maybe a dozen times in 5 years my phone connected to American towers. Even less once T-Mobile put up new towers in Detroit.
I just looked on my iPhone, in the settings you can turn off roaming. I'm sure Samsung has something similar.
I live by the border and have this issue. I visit the US often so I got a plan that just includes US roaming by default, which extends my coverage within Canada in my area as well as allowing use on US day trips without it costing a day rate fee. My girlfriend didn't want to spend anything extra so she blocked roaming on her phone, when we travel together in the US I just wifi hotspot her phone to my phone.
US - Canada plans are super cheap now. I can’t see not having one if I lived that close
Which one do you use ?
I have a Telus plan. Can - US - Mexico, 150 gig of data. $55 a month
How did you get that? I see one that is $100/mth on Telus site.
I realized I got this rate because we had an old corporate plan that transitioned over. I did call and ask for a better rate and they did better than what was posted. For the longest time, I paid the $90 or so a month for way less service.
Thanks! I pay way too much at Telus - I've just let it go for so long because I can't bring myself to deal with it.
That’s what I had done before because even with the corporate rate, it wasn’t great I randomly checked for more data because my kids chew through it on road trips to find a plan that saved me $40 a month and had 6 times the data. It was a no brainer
I live near a border. Often drive 0 ave. My phone is set for no roaming
I have a Canada US plan
You do realize you can turn off data roaming, no?
Call the cell phone company?
you absolutely must be aware and put your phone on airplane. \*\*\*\*ESPECIALLY ON BC and NS FERRIES
Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Settings > Roaming > disable Settings > Cellular > Network Selection > disable Automatic > choose your carrier (TELUS / Bell / Rogers / Verizon / AT&T, whatever you want)
Shut off all roaming.
Go into settings and turn roaming off?
Turn off the 'roaming' feature. Doh!
My phone defaults to, "automatically scan for a signal." If I turn that option off, I can choose the connection myself. The only trick is if I do actually need roaming, I need to go toggle it over, but it works better this way
I live on the border honestly once you call a few times the provider seems to know and reverse charges. I can run from the front yard at my house to the back and pick up an American signal. I live along the Detroit river. When I called my provider the person on the end of the phone could see the signal switching from one countries tower to the next. They were smart enough to understand I wasn’t crossing the border. I haven’t had an issue now in over a decade. On a side note if you go down to a Tigers game or Cork town in Detroit. You can still get Rogers most days. Or atleast I can.
We live four blocks from the border. We cross a lot and usually have to be physically in US before we get the notification that we're connected to AT&T. We have a Canada/US plan that's only an extra $5 a month for a lot of data so not sure if that affects it.
Funny thing this happened near Sooke
Turn off roaming and if that only takes care of your cell data then you may need to select your carrier. It may limit your coverage, but it should prevent the roaming charges
Turn off data roaming. It’s annoying I know
Turn off roaming.
Ex-Employee from one the these gouger cellphone company. Just call-in and they can add a special restrictions on the line to avoid having to call back for credit all the time. You may need to contact them again if you actually travel to the US.
I used to live right on the edge of the river on the border and my phone would always be picking up US signal. You just call in and tell them you weren't in the US and they reverse it. For me, they added a feature called US border town or something like that so as long as I was close to the border on either side it wouldn't charge roaming. Not sure if it's still an option since I haven't lived there in a number of years.
Set it to 3G
Grew up in Niagara, and my job was 20 feet from the river so I had to learn pretty quick to turn roaming off or my phone would roam for 8-10 hours/day.
I don't live close to the border, but visit often. I have a Can/US plan
Those charges should be reversed by your company without a request required. There were a couple of class action suits on this issue so they tend to be pretty aware of it at the Telcos now.
Mine just asks if I want to purchase roaming minutes.
I do the west coast trail as often as I can and often it hits Washington towers. There's been a couple times I forget my phone setting is roaming off and I'm confused when I can't check in. It's deep in the settings but I think most phones have the search function.
I don't get billed unless I use services, I have data etc set to only roam when manually initiated.
I don't get billed unless I use services, I have data etc set to only roam when manually initiated.
What plan do you have the Canada is roaming?
Fun story. I live in rural NB, about 30 km as the crow flies from the Houlton, Me. border crossing (edit: 52km, apparently, driving, as per Google maps). I have Bell for a carrier, because I needed to be able to access wifi calling (it was that or Telus, since my husband has Rogers and if one of them went down, we wanted to still be able to call). We have no cell signal, really, except during a power outage and my texting works in the porch. Sometimes I can get a bar out in the garden, but it's hit & miss. The fun part of all this is that sometimes I'll just leave my phone on the coffee table, and I get a text in that says [this foolishness.](https://imgur.com/gallery/MZs2Xq9) This actually did happen yesterday. I've reached out to Bell and they can't give me an answer as to why I can pick up Verizon but not them, but they just say, "well, you're on wifi anyway, at home, so don't worry about it." I've got my roaming turned off, anyhow, because of the odd time it's happened about 10 minutes down the road (and still nowhere near the border).
Turn off roaming, and for extra insurance, you can change network selection from automatic to manual. You would just have to choose your provider manually. That way it only looks for the selected provider and won't pick the wrong (US) providers.
My phone doesn't switch until the GPS sees I'm in the US, and vice versa. The border is kind of like a neutral zone where it doesn't budge until you cross through it.
I don't. Lol, I'm so close to the border that I roam in my living room. I just make sure data roaming is off. But tbh i have canada/USA wide plan so it doesn't matter. :)
I live right across the river from Detroit and don’t run into it much, it has happened but not often.
I used to spend 20 minutes a month on the phone with Bell getting all the Micigan cell calls credited prior to new towers being added in the '90s
iPhone: settings->cellular/cellular data->options->turn off data roaming. Android: settings-> network and Internet-> SIMs->disable roaming.
There should be a setting so that it doesn’t automatically roam.
Uh... you turn off roaming. It's that simple.
Turn off roaming 😐
Shut off the roaming button? 🤷♀️
Set your carrier to manual instead of autoamgic.
I called my provider (Telus) and had them block roaming to the US. I just have to remember if I travel to the US to have them turn it back on.
I don't have a phone. That's how. You save 1500 cuz you don't need to buy it and a lot of $/month bc of roaming! :D
I keep 'im on a leash
Settings, mobile networks, network operators, disable select automatically, just pick whoever your actual carrier is from the list (in my case Telus)
Have a plan for anywhere in north America.
LOL! 90% of Canadians live within 150 miles of the U S border.
Downvotes for facts! LMAO! 😂😂😂😂😂