How to Beat Roaming Fees While Traveling Abroad

LAST week’s column suggested ways to save when calling home from abroad. This week I’ll tackle data roaming fees, which wireless providers charge when customers use their phones outside their service area. With travelers using smartphones and other wireless devices abroad in the same way as they do back home (to check e-mail, to update Facebook and Twitter and to pull up online maps), the skyrocketing fees are taking many by surprise.

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Francisco Caceres
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Jeff Gardner, the small-business owner I wrote about last week, was one such customer. Over four days in Jamaica he racked up an $11,000 Verizon bill after trying — unsuccessfully — to text with his cellphone and to check e-mail on his laptop using a wireless card. The biggest culprit: roaming fees.