Aldi Mobile international roaming guide

Getting overseas with a SIM-only mobile plan is generally pretty straightforward thanks to international roaming add-ons. But international roaming with prepaid plans can be a bit trickier because certain mobile providers offer add-ons while others stick to a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) approach that can cost a lot if you aren’t careful with overseas usage. For Aldi Mobile, it’s somewhere between the two for international roaming.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of international roaming with Aldi Mobile, check out the most popular mobile plans from our comparison engine.

All Aldi Mobile prepaid plans support international roaming. Aldi Mobile prepaid plans operate on a 30-day recharge cycle, plus they include unlimited talk and text in Australia.

For comparison, here’s a snapshot of today’s most popular prepaid mobile plans in our database.

At first glance, Aldi Mobile does things differently when it comes to international roaming. Instead of offering dozens of options, Aldi Mobile international roaming is seemingly relegated to the 10 most popular countries (as per Australian Bureau of Statistics 2019 data): namely, Indonesia, New Zealand, United States of America, United Kingdom (including Isle of Man and Channel Islands), Thailand, Fiji, China, Singapore, Italy and Canada.

For those 10 countries, the Aldi Mobile international roaming rates are $1 per minute to make and receive voice calls, 50 cents per sent SMS, and data cost 50 cents per megabyte. The phrasing suggests it’s free to receive SMSes, and also notes that data is depleted in 1KB blocks. While not mentioned in the main documentation, digging into additional Aldi Mobile documentation suggests there are 39 other international destinations that support identically priced roaming.

There are also 10 other international destinations that cost double for Aldi Mobile roaming charges: Brazil, East Timor, Egypt, Israel, Malta, Mexico, Nigeria, Qatar, South Africa and United Arab Emirates. For those pricier roaming destinations, it costs $2 per minute to make and receive voice calls, $1 per sent SMS, and $1 per megabyte of data. Note there are also data charges for downloading an MMS while roaming.

Activate international roaming with an Aldi Mobile prepaid plan by logging into your My Aldi Mobile account. From there, go to ‘Manage Account’, then ‘International Roaming’. There’s an option to enable or disable international roaming. Toggle it on or off, then hit the ‘Update’ button. Note that Aldi Mobile advises its prepaid users to enable international roaming at least one week before departure. It may also take up to 48 hours for daily usage records to be updated in the My Aldi Mobile account.

Below is a full breakdown of the 62 Aldi Mobile international roaming destinations in terms of the cheaper zones and the pricier ones.

First up, here’s a list of the 52 cheaper PAYG international roaming destinations for Aldi Mobile prepaid plans:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Cambodia
• Canada
• China
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Fiji
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Guernsey
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• India
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Italy
• Japan
• Jersey
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Macedonia
• Malaysia
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Papau New Guinea
• Philippines
• Poland
• Portugal
• Russia
• Samoa
• Singapore
• Slovak Republic
• South Korea
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Tonga
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• Vanuatu

And here are the 10 pricier Aldi Mobile international roaming destinations:

• Brazil
• East Timor
• Egypt
• Israel
• Malta
• Mexico
• Nigeria
• Qatar
• South Africa
• United Arab Emirates