Rogers $5 Roam Like Home plan lets you roam freely in the U.S.

By Tara Donnelly

Last updated 11 November 2014

Rogers Wireless has responded to Canadians’ fear of data roaming fees by launching a new U.S. roaming plan, Roam Like Home, for customers heading across the border.

Under the new roaming offer, customers on Share Everything plans can use their plan’s voice minutes, texts and data allowance while roaming in the U.S. for an extra $5 per day. All of your plan’s features are included, with no additional charges to call or use data outside of the $5 daily fee.

The $5 add-on can be used for a maximum of 10 days per billing cycle, and any additional use each month is free – so you’ll never pay more than $50 per bill to roam in the U.S. Customers who go over their plan allowance will only be charged the same overage amounts as they would within Canada.

The fine print

The downside is that Roam Like Home is only available to customers on Rogers’ Share Everything plans. The feature will be automatically turned on for all new customers who sign up to a Share Everything plan after November 10. Existing customers can switch it on manually by texting ‘travel’ to 222 and following the prompts.

The roaming deal isn’t a bad option for Share Everything customers who’d prefer not to switch phones or SIM cards when visiting the States, but still want to avoid hefty roaming charges. The $5 fee only applies to days you use your phone within the U.S., so it’s a good back-up for Rogers users who only plan on using their mobile occasionally when traveling.

According to Mobile Syrup, Rogers may extend the offer to outside North America – particularly Europe –in the future. The carrier already offers several international roaming add-ons in addition to Roam Like Home, such as its $7.99 per day data roaming package which gives customers 50MB of daily data.