Travel eSIM vs Spark, One NZ and 2degrees Roaming: What's Cheaper Overseas?

Every Kiwi carrier will happily let you leave roaming switched on overseas - no setup, nothing to buy in advance, and a bill that lands however many weeks later with whatever it adds up to. A travel eSIM is the opposite trade: a few minutes of setup before you fly, for a fixed price you know before you leave home. Here's exactly what Spark, One NZ and 2degrees charge for roaming right now, and where a fixed-price eSIM actually comes out ahead.

What Spark, One NZ and 2degrees actually charge

Rates below are current as of writing and checked against each carrier's own roaming page - carriers do change these without much notice, so it's worth a quick check on their site before you fly if the exact number matters to you.

Sources: Spark roaming rates, One NZ Daily Roaming, 2degrees International Roaming.

One footnote: 2degrees Business plans get NZ rates in Australia at no extra charge - that's a Business plan benefit specifically, not the standard personal Daily Roaming rate above, so it doesn't change the Australia numbers below unless that's the plan you're on.

Common roaming scenarios

• A weekend across the ditch to Australia - roaming's daily rate is genuinely reasonable for 2-3 days, though it's still a per-day charge on top of whatever your plan already costs, not included in it.
• A 2-3 week OE stopover or Europe trip - this is where daily roaming stops looking reasonable. 14-21 days of $8-10/day is $112-210 before you've used a single GB, on top of your normal plan.
• A family trip to the US - multiple phones each racking up their own daily roaming charge multiplies the cost fast; an eSIM per phone at a fixed price is usually far more predictable to budget for.
• A short business trip to one city - if it's genuinely a day or two and you need calls on your own number, roaming's simplicity can be worth the premium - see below.

When roaming still makes sense

To be fair to it, roaming has real advantages in a few specific cases:

• A trip measured in hours or a single day - a same-day border hop where a $8-10 daily charge is genuinely trivial next to the hassle of installing anything.
• You need your number to work for calls and texts with zero setup - useful in a pinch, though a SweetAsSIM eSIM alongside your regular SIM covers this too (see below).
• Somewhere with genuinely patchy coverage - it's worth checking a destination's network options either way before you fly, roaming included.

How to avoid an accidental roaming charge

The classic surprise bill happens when data roaming is left on out of habit, not by choice. If you're travelling with a SweetAsSIM eSIM installed as your data line:

• Turn off data roaming on your regular SIM before you fly, not after you land - your phone can auto-connect to a roaming partner the moment it finds a signal, sometimes before you've even opened it.
• Once you're in the air or landed, set the eSIM as your data line, not your regular SIM - see the setup guide for exactly where that toggle lives on iOS and Android.
• Keep calls and texts on your regular line, with just its data roaming off - your carrier can't charge you for data roaming it never connects to, but calls/texts on your own number still work normally.
• Use WhatsApp or Messenger over the eSIM's data instead of your regular line's calls and texts - your normal SIM's calls and texts still run on its own international/roaming rates even with data roaming off, so routing chat and calls through the eSIM's data is usually the cheaper way to actually talk to people while you're away.
• Double-check at the gate, not after landing - a quick look at your phone's roaming settings before you board costs nothing and rules out the whole problem.

Trip-cost examples

Using the daily roaming rates above against real eSIM plan prices at three common sizes - here's what each option actually costs for a real trip length. "Not offered" means that destination doesn't currently sell that exact size for a trip this long - see that destination's own plan page for every size it does offer.

eSIM prices are pulled live from our current catalogue, so they're accurate as of today; roaming rates are the same ones sourced above and can change without notice - always confirm current rates directly with your carrier before you fly.

Every one of those roaming totals is before you've used a single megabyte - it's a per-day charge for the option to connect, not a data allowance. An eSIM plan is the reverse: one price for a fixed amount of data, known before you buy, that you can size with how much data you actually need.

The bit people forget: you keep your own number

A SweetAsSIM eSIM is a second, data-only line alongside your regular SIM, not a replacement for it. Your normal number keeps working for calls and texts the whole trip - you're just routing data through the travel eSIM instead of paying a carrier's roaming rate for it. Nothing about your existing line changes, and you're not choosing between the two.

A quick way to decide

Under a day or two somewhere, roaming's fine - the numbers above show why it's not worth the hassle of switching for such a short stretch. Anything longer, or anywhere you'll actually be relying on data for maps, messaging or work, a fixed-price eSIM comes out cheaper in almost every scenario above, and you'll know the exact cost before you leave home. If you're weighing it against a physical local SIM instead of roaming, see eSIM vs physical SIM next.

Roaming vs travel eSIM: common questions