Travel guide

How to Avoid Roaming Charges From Your Israeli Carrier Abroad

Noa Regev9 min read

Turn off data roaming on your home SIM, leave it turned on for your travel eSIM, and handle voice and SMS separately. That's the fix in one sentence. It matters more for Israeli travelers than most: unlike EU citizens, an Israeli SIM from Pelephone, Cellcom, or Partner gets no regulatory price cap anywhere it roams, including inside Europe. The rest of this guide covers exactly where to tap on iPhone and Android, why phone-side settings alone aren't fully reliable, and the one extra step (calling your carrier) that closes the gap.

Key Takeaways

• Data roaming has two switches on a dual-SIM phone: turn it OFF for your home line, ON for your eSIM's own line.
• Turning off data roaming does not stop your home line from making calls or sending texts abroad, and that can still cost real money per minute or per message.
• Israel isn't in the EU, so Israeli carriers aren't bound by the EU's "roam like home" price caps, even when you're traveling inside Europe. Your Pelephone, Cellcom, or Partner line sets its own roaming rates everywhere, from Athens to Bangkok.
• The most reliable fix is calling your carrier before you fly and asking them to block international roaming on the account, since phone settings can get silently reset.
• Background apps, not active browsing, cause the worst bills. Cloud backup, streaming, and map apps keep pulling data even while the phone sits in your pocket.

Why Your Phone Still Talks to Two Networks at Once

A phone with an eSIM and a physical SIM is running two separate cellular lines, and each line has its own roaming setting. Installing a travel eSIM doesn't disable your home SIM (check your phone's eSIM support first if you're not sure it can run both). It just adds a second line alongside it. Unless you tell the phone otherwise, the home line stays active in the background, ready to connect to any tower it can find, including foreign ones.

This is the root cause of nearly every "I used an eSIM and still got a shock charge" story. The eSIM did its job and handled the destination data. The home SIM, still switched on, quietly did its own thing at the same time, whether that meant background app updates pulling data or the phone briefly registering on a local network for calls.

Step-by-Step: Turning Off Roaming on iPhone

Go to Settings, then Cellular, then tap your home line (not the eSIM line). Open Cellular Data Options and switch Data Roaming to OFF for that home SIM. Leave Data Roaming ON for the eSIM line, since that's the line meant to connect abroad (Apple Support: About cellular data roaming options).

There's a second setting worth checking: Allow Cellular Data Switching. In the Cellular menu, turn this off. When it's left on, iOS can silently fall back to the home line if the eSIM's signal is weak, which defeats the point of turning off the home line's roaming in the first place (Apple Support: Using Dual SIM with an eSIM; Apple Support: Use eSIM while traveling internationally).

Step-by-Step: Turning Off Roaming on Android

On a Pixel or similar Android phone, go to Settings, then Network & Internet, then SIMs. Select your home SIM and toggle both Mobile Data and Roaming to OFF. Then select the eSIM or travel line and toggle Data Roaming ON for that one instead (Google: How to use dual SIMs).

One caveat for Android users: manufacturer skins vary. Samsung, Xiaomi, and other brands sometimes bury this setting in a different menu path, and on some devices the roaming toggle applies phone-wide rather than per-SIM. If you don't see a per-SIM roaming option, check your specific phone's settings app search function (usually a magnifying glass icon) and search "roaming" directly.

The Part Everyone Forgets: Voice and SMS

Turning off data roaming stops your home line from using mobile data abroad. It does nothing to stop that same line from making or receiving calls, or sending and receiving texts, on a foreign network. The home SIM will still register with a local carrier for voice and SMS unless you separately disable that too.

This is where Israeli travelers have less protection than they might expect. EU citizens get "roam like home" pricing when they travel inside the EU: calls capped at €0.019 per minute and SMS at €0.003, the same as domestic rates (European Commission: Roaming). That regulation applies to EU-issued SIM cards. An Israeli SIM from Pelephone, Cellcom, or Partner isn't covered by it, even on a trip to Paris or Athens. Israeli carriers set their own international roaming rates for voice and SMS wherever you land, EU or not.

In practice, that means a traveler from Israel heading to Europe, the US, most of Asia, or anywhere else can be charged normal, often steep, per-minute and per-SMS rates on their home line, even with data roaming fully switched off. If you don't need to be reachable on your home number, the cleanest option is to fully disable the home line's voice and SMS while abroad, or ask your carrier to bar it before you leave. See how eSIM pricing compares to your carrier's roaming pass if you want the numbers side by side.

Receiving a text message abroad on your Israeli number is usually free and doesn't require buying a travel package. Sending a text, or replying to one, is different: that costs money at your carrier's rates, or requires an active travel package.

Key rules for receiving and sending SMS abroad

• Receiving messages: usually completely free from every Israeli carrier, as long as you don't answer or return a call.
• Sending messages: costs money per incoming or outgoing message, or requires an active travel package.
• Using an eSIM: if you're using a travel eSIM for data, it's worth keeping your Israeli SIM active so you can still receive texts, like a bank verification code, while being careful not to trigger charges from browsing on the Israeli line by accident.

The Most Reliable Fix: Call Your Carrier Before You Fly

Phone settings are useful but not bulletproof. A software update, a factory reset, or simply forgetting to check before a connecting flight can silently re-enable roaming. The more durable fix sits on the carrier's side, not the phone's.

Call or message your carrier before you leave and ask them to block international roaming on your line, for data and, if you want, voice and SMS as well. Israeli providers like Pelephone, Cellcom, and Partner can generally do this on request. Don't assume it's already off. Ask explicitly, and get confirmation in writing, ideally an SMS or app message you can screenshot. This one call closes the gap that phone-side toggles can't fully cover. A network-level block stays in place regardless of what your phone does, and unlike the phone settings, it isn't affected by the EU-rules gap described above.

Regulators have leaned into this exact problem from the other direction. The FCC's "Bill Shock" initiative exists specifically because unanticipated roaming and data charges are a leading cause of sudden bill spikes for US travelers. The agency reports that 97% of US wireless customers are now covered by carrier-provided free automatic usage alerts, including for international roaming (FCC: Bill Shock; FCC: Bill Shock Wireless Usage Alerts). In the UK, Ofcom introduced rules in October 2024 requiring carriers to send an alert at 80% of a roaming data limit and automatically cut off service at 100%. That's a direct regulatory response to travelers ending up with unexpected roaming usage. None of these alert systems are guaranteed for an Israeli traveler on a Pelephone, Cellcom, or Partner line, which is exactly why the carrier-call step above matters more than waiting for an automatic warning.

Why Background Data Is the Real Risk, Not Browsing

Most people picture roaming bill shock as accidentally streaming a movie or video-calling from abroad. The bigger risk is usually invisible: apps running in the background while the phone sits untouched. Cloud photo backup, software updates, streaming app pre-caching, and navigation apps can all pull data continuously, and none of it requires you to open the app. If you're trying to work out how much data your eSIM plan actually needs for a trip, a data usage calculator is a faster way to check than guessing.

Cases like this show up regularly in consumer complaints to regulators. A traveler forgets to disable data roaming on their home SIM, and background app activity, cloud backup, streaming pre-caching, software updates, navigation, quietly runs up a bill far beyond anything a few days of active browsing would explain. It's the reason the FCC and Ofcom built automatic usage-alert systems in the first place (cited above): the problem isn't people knowingly streaming abroad, it's phones doing it unattended. Nothing about a bill like that requires the traveler to have opened an app on purpose.

Pre-Flight Checklist

• Turn off Data Roaming for your home SIM (iPhone: Settings > Cellular > [Home Line] > Cellular Data Options; Android: Settings > Network & Internet > SIMs > [Home Line]).
• Turn on Data Roaming for your travel eSIM's own line.
• On iPhone, turn off Allow Cellular Data Switching so the phone can't fall back to the home line.
• Decide whether you need voice/SMS on your home number abroad. If not, disable it or ask your carrier to bar it.
• Call or message your home carrier before departure and ask them to block international roaming on the account as a backup to the phone settings.
• Check background data settings for cloud backup, auto-updates, and streaming apps, and disable or restrict them to Wi-Fi only.
• Confirm your eSIM is installed and active before you land, not after.

Getting the eSIM Side Right Too

Everything above protects you from your home carrier. It doesn't set up your travel data. If you're installing a travel eSIM for the first time, most providers, including SimSIM, publish written and video walkthroughs for activation that are worth following step by step rather than guessing at the settings menu on arrival.

The Bottom Line

Two settings, one phone call. Turn off data roaming on your home SIM, leave it on for your travel eSIM, and separately confirm what happens to voice and SMS, since your Israeli carrier isn't price-capped anywhere, including in Europe. Then call your carrier before you fly and ask them to block international roaming as a backup, since that step doesn't depend on your phone's software staying exactly as you left it. If you haven't set up your travel data yet, see how to get a travel eSIM installed before you go.