Before you go

Check which way you pay

• Pay Monthly or pay by Direct Debit? You're welcome to use your phone in over 190 countries abroad. If you're new to Virgin Mobile you may need to have paid 3 monthly bills or add a deposit of £50 to your account. You can use your airtime deposit to pay for calls while you're abroad, then use the rest when you get home. Just give us a call on 789 to get set up before you go.
• Pay As You Go? Then you can get going right away.

Follow these simple steps:

Check coverage and the tariff

Before you get sand between your toes, check where you can use your phone abroad… and what it costs. Plus, you may be able to use your 3G phone to make a video call, too!
Check coverage and tariffs.

Check your phone

Most of our phones will work just about anywhere. But if you're jetting off to the USA, Canada or Latin America you'll need a triband phone.

For a few countries in the Caribbean, you'll need a quadband phone. Check out our coverage pages and you'll find all the facts there. Not sure what band your phone is? Have a flick through our online manuals.

Topping up and checking your balance

If you Pay As You Go, you can add airtime at home… or abroad. Plus, you can check your balance for free.

Spare vouchers – Like in the UK, you can top up by calling 789 or texting 789 111. It’s free , wherever you are in the world.

E-top up card – Going to Spain, Italy, Greece or Portugal? You can use your E-top up card wherever you see the international top-up logo. Pay in Euros in values of £10, £15 and £20 and you’re done! You’ll pay an extra €2 for each transaction, too.

Credit/debit card – Register your card online before you go then you can:

Top up online – simply visit Your Account.

Top up by phone – simply call 789 free

Top up by text – send a message for free to 789 222 containing:

• The amount you'd like to top up (between £5 - £50 in denominations of £5)
• Last 4 digits of your card number
• Last 3 security digits on the back (or 4 if you have an American Express card)

Leaving a space between each detail Eg: 98 7654 321

When you're all topped up, we'll text you back to let you know.

Check your balance – Simply text balance to 789 000. It’s free.

Pay Monthly or pay by Direct Debit? You can add airtime to your account, too. While you're away, it's not a good idea to rely on your credit limit. Calls made abroad take us a little longer to process - they're passed to us from our international partners.

Mobile Web at your fingertips

While you're abroad, you can check the internet on your phone too. Twitter from the beach, email by the pool, or check the Spanish for something on the go. Everything is set up and ready to go. Outside the UK, the price you pay to check the web is different. It costs £5 per megabyte, which is the equivalent of sending around 200 mails or viewing 10 web pages*. If you'd like to keep track of what you're spending, just visit Your Account.

*Usage amounts given as examples only. Actual usage will vary depending on size of emails and pages visited

Things to take with you

Save some space for:

• Travel adapter
• Your charger

Mini guide to the world

Its packed with useful bits of information for when you're out of the country.

• Pay As You Go
• Pay Monthly

Pay Monthly or pay by Direct Debit?

You'll need to do two extra things:

Do this before you travel, otherwise you won't be able to pick up your messages while you’re away.

Just dial into your voicemail as usual, then follow the instructions to set up your PIN.

When you call voicemail from abroad, you'll hear your own greeting - interrupt it by pressing # then enter your PIN.

When someone reaches your voicemail, you get charged the cost of sending the call to the country you're in, and then back to the UK even though they may not leave a message.

But you can get around this - just set your phone to 'divert all calls' to voicemail.

However, this does mean that you won't get any incoming calls.

Know what to do while you're away.