SMARTY roaming: the EU data limit, EU Data Pass and out-of-plan add-ons

Information verified on 24 October 2026 at the official sources listed below. This is not financial advice; check card settings, fees and limits with your bank before you pay. How we check information.

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SMARTY roaming charges fall into two parts: a plan allowance in the EU and prepaid per-megabyte rates elsewhere. You may not need an eSIM. If your trip is in SMARTY’s EU list, runs under 60 days and stays under 12GB, your plan already covers it. Ireland has no 12GB limit at all. An eSIM only helps above the limit or outside the zone.

Does SMARTY include EU roaming, and what is the limit?

Yes: SMARTY’s Roaming EU band lists 45 destinations, and your data comes out of your plan allowance up to 12GB, for up to 60 consecutive days (checked on 24 October 2026, SMARTY price guide). Ireland is the exception: you can use your “full monthly data allowance” there.

SMARTY gives the reason for the Irish rule in its own words: “to avoid the risk of being charged for inadvertent roaming on the Northern Ireland border”. Ofcom’s General Condition C3.17 asks networks to give clear information on accidental roaming and the measures that limit it (Ofcom: using your mobile abroad).

The 60 days are a hard line. SMARTY’s help page says that after 60 consecutive days abroad it has “the right to suspend all services on your account”, that days outside the EU count too, and that it sends an alert two weeks before (SMARTY help: roaming and international).

SMARTY roaming countries in Roaming EU go beyond the EU, and the 12GB EU fair use limit applies to all of them except Ireland. The price guide puts these in it:

Two places catch people. Switzerland and Liechtenstein are not in Roaming EU; they sit in Roaming 1A (below). Andorra is not in it either: SMARTY puts Andorra in Roaming 4, at £5 a megabyte.

Turkey and Cyprus need care. Cyprus is in Roaming EU, but the north of the island is listed as “Cyprus, North (Turkey)” in Roaming 1. Near the north, or on the Greek islands facing Turkey, a phone can pick up a Turkish network without warning. SMARTY’s help page suggests manual network selection or data roaming off near a border, and SMARTY can bar data roaming if you ask (data roaming settings).

The 12GB figure matters most to anyone on a bigger plan. SMARTY’s limit applies to your allowance in the EU whatever the plan size. The next section shows what lifts it.

What is the SMARTY EU Data Pass?

The EU Roaming Data Pass lifts the 12GB limit on plans bigger than 12GB: £3 for 1 day or £7 for 3 days (checked on 24 October 2026, SMARTY price guide). It uses your own plan data, so there is nothing extra to download.

The pass only matters if you would go past 12GB, and SMARTY shows it only on plans above 12GB. SMARTY’s guide defines a pass day as “24 hours from time of activation”, so a pass bought at 21:00 runs to 21:00 the next day. The table is our arithmetic from SMARTY’s two prices, buying the smallest mix of 1-day and 3-day passes.

Source: SMARTY price guide V42, checked on 24 October 2026. The pass prices are SMARTY’s; the totals are ours.

On a plan of 12GB or less you get the whole allowance anyway. For more, SMARTY’s data add-ons work in the UK and the EU and do not expire while you stay with SMARTY, from 1GB for £1 to 15GB for £14 (checked on 24 October 2026, SMARTY price guide).

For a week in Spain on a 12GB-or-smaller plan, SMARTY costs nothing extra, and 1GB more is £1. Our Europe plan is £2.99 for 1 GB over 7 days, data only; it is a different product, with its own data and no calls on your number. Roaming in Europe lists the same countries for every network.

On VAT, SMARTY’s guide prints “Add-on price includes VAT” beside its passes and data add-ons. It says nothing on VAT beside the per-MB roaming rates, so neither do we.

Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man: SMARTY Roaming 1A

SMARTY charges 2p a megabyte for data and 10p a minute for calls to the UK in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, taken from your prepaid out-of-plan add-ons (checked on 24 October 2026, SMARTY price guide). Roaming 1A also holds Liechtenstein and Switzerland, and without add-ons data and calls there do not work.

Source: SMARTY price guide V42, checked on 24 October 2026.

Those Jersey and Guernsey charges are small per megabyte: 2p is £2 for 100MB (our arithmetic). They catch out anyone who expects Three’s terms. SMARTY uses the Three network at home (it says it is “powered by our friends at Three”, SMARTY: about us), yet Three itself puts Jersey and Guernsey in Go Roam in Europe. SMARTY’s roaming bands are its own; Three roaming has Three’s.

Our Europe plan does not cover Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man, though Gibraltar is in it. For every network side by side, see the Crown Dependencies guide.

What does SMARTY charge outside the EU?

Outside the EU, SMARTY roaming charges are per megabyte from out-of-plan add-ons: 10p in Roaming 1, 25p in Roaming 2, £1 in Roaming 3 and £5 in Roaming 4 (checked on 24 October 2026, SMARTY price guide). With no add-ons loaded, data and calls outside the EU do not work.

That last point is the usual “my data didn’t work in Turkey” cause. Nothing is broken: the plan allowance does not travel outside Roaming EU. Compare the band 1 and band 1A rates: 10p against 2p a megabyte.

Source: SMARTY price guide V42, checked on 24 October 2026.

Your prepaid balance abroad has a ceiling too. SMARTY sets “a worldwide data roaming limit of £45” on every account; at £45, data, outgoing calls and texts stop until the 1st of the month, even with credit left (SMARTY help: roaming and international). You can change the limit in a chat with SMARTY.

Unused out-of-plan credit does not expire while you stay with SMARTY, so topping up for one trip is not wasted if you travel again.

Ships are priced separately. SMARTY’s maritime networks cost £5 a megabyte for data and £2.50 a minute for calls, and £10 a minute for satellite numbers (SMARTY maritime networks). A phone can join a ship’s network without you noticing. Our eSIMs use land networks, so they work in port, not at sea; see the cruise page.

SMARTY add-ons or a travel eSIM for Turkey or Dubai?

SMARTY’s guide counts 1GB as 1024MB and charges “at each full MB level”. So 1GB in Turkey costs £102.40 at 10p a megabyte and 1GB in the UAE £1,024 at £1 (our arithmetic). Both are far above the £45 default limit: at that limit you get 450MB in Turkey and 45MB in the UAE. Our plans are data only and priced per bundle.

Read the table for what it is. SMARTY bills by the megabyte, so a few emails and a map cost pennies, but in Roaming 1 every 100MB is £10 (our arithmetic). Our plans fix the data and the days, and on most of them the validity starts on first connection abroad, not at purchase; check the activation rule shown on your plan. SMARTY keeps your number for calls; ours does not.

Pick SMARTY add-ons for a few megabytes of maps and messages. Pick a travel eSIM when you will use more than 450MB, the £45 limit in Roaming 1, or when the destination is in Roaming 3 or 4. Roaming or eSIM walks the decision through.

Turkey: buy and install your eSIM before you travel. eSIM shops, including ours, may not open on Turkish networks.

Run both lines on a dual SIM phone: SMARTY for calls and texts, the travel line for data, with data roaming off on the SMARTY line (data roaming settings, keeping your UK number).

eSIM on SMARTY: activation and transfer

SMARTY gives you an eSIM when you choose “eSIM” at ordering, or as a replacement from your dashboard (checked on 24 October 2026, SMARTY eSIM page).

The steps from SMARTY’s page:

1. In your dashboard, order a replacement SIM and choose eSIM.
2. Open the e-mail with the QR code and install it on the phone.
3. Enter the confirmation code from your dashboard when the phone asks for it.

To keep your number when you move to SMARTY, SMARTY says to use your PAC or STAC and “switch as normal”.

Phone menu paths differ by maker and software version. They are in how to transfer an eSIM, not on SMARTY’s page.

Frequently asked questions

Sources are linked in the text; reviewed by Nadezhda Semenova. For the terms of your own contract, check with SMARTY.

Unfamiliar term? See the eSIM glossary.