If you spend more than about a week a year in the United States, stop buying roaming add-ons and switch to a plan that includes the US in the price. A Canada-US-Mexico plan from Public Mobile or Freedom Mobile runs $40/mo, and that is the entire bill, not an add-on, while a daily roaming charge from Rogers, Telus, Fido or Koodo is $16 per day on top of what you already pay. Two weeks of daily roaming costs more than three months of the cheaper plan.
The 30-second version
- $16/day is the US roaming rate at Rogers, Fido, Telus and Koodo. Bell is $13/day and stops billing after 20 days in a cycle.
- A plan that includes the US costs $40–$75/month, all in. Public Mobile, Freedom and Virgin Plus sit at $40–$55 and include Mexico too. Videotron and the Big Three’s 100GB tiers also include the States.
- For a one- or two-week trip, a travel eSIM (about $25–46 USD) or a 7–14 day travel pass is usually cheapest, and you don’t have to change plans.
- For a four-to-six month snowbird stay, neither roaming nor passes make sense. Either move to a Canada-US plan or buy a US prepaid line and keep a cheap Canadian number alongside it.
- Nobody’s roaming add-on is designed for a five-month winter. See the warning further down before you assume you can just roam until April.
Plans that already include the United States
Every plan below uses your regular data and minutes in the States at no extra charge. Read the Network column for Mexico: Can-US-Mex includes it, plain Can-US does not. Any plan elsewhere on this site marked only 4G or 5G does not include the US, however much data it has.
| Carrier | Data | Network | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Mobileon Telus | 70 GB | Telus 5G (Can-US-Mex) | $40/mo |
| Freedom Mobileon Freedom | 70 GB | Freedom 5G (Can-US-Mex) | $40/moConditions apply |
| Public Mobileon Telus | 125 GB | Telus 5G (Can-US-Mex) | $45/mo |
| Public Mobileon Telus | 175 GB | Telus 5G (Can-US-Mex) | $50/mo |
| Virgin Pluson Bell | 60 GB | Bell 5G (Can-US-Mex) | $55/moAuto-pay required |
| Rogers | 100 GB | Rogers 5G+ (Can-US) | $75/mo$60/mo with Internet or TV service and Auto-PayMultiservice discount required · Auto-pay required · Bring your own phone · New customers onlyConditions apply |
| Bell | 100 GB | Bell 5G+ (Can-US) | $75/mo$60/mo with the Internet, Autopay and promotional creditsMultiservice discount required · Auto-pay required · Bring your own phone |
| Telus | 100 GB | Telus 5G+ (Can-US) | $75/mo$60/mo with the Home Services creditMultiservice discount required · Bring your own phoneAuto-pay required |
Two things that table doesn’t say out loud:
Public Mobile is the cheapest route into the US on a Big Three network. Its Canada-US-Mexico tiers start at $40/mo for 70GB, on Telus 5G, and that is the one most snowbirds should look at. Until October 2026 the same money bought 75GB and a $35 tier sat below it. Both were back-to-school offers and both are gone, so the price held and the data shrank. The catch is real, though: Public Mobile is self-serve only (no phone support, no stores), and if something breaks while you’re in Florida, you’re fixing it through a web form and a community forum. For a lot of people that alone is worth paying Koodo or Fido more.
Freedom’s $40/mo† is the other value pick, and in Alberta and Manitoba the same $40 buys more data. But Freedom’s home network is the weak one. Outside major centres you’re on a roaming agreement with a Big Three network, with its own data limits. If you live rurally in Canada, Freedom solves your US problem and creates a Canadian one.
Above that, Virgin Plus at $55/mo† for 60GB buys you Bell’s network plus actual customer service, and the Big Three’s 100GB tiers at $75/mo† include the US but not Mexico. In Quebec the same Big Three tiers are dramatically cheaper ($55/mo† at Telus), and Videotron sells Can-US tiers nobody else matches. If you’re a Quebec snowbird, see our Quebec plans guide before anything here.
What roaming actually costs if you don’t switch
Verified September 25, 2026:
| Carrier | US daily rate | Cap on billable days | US travel passes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rogers (Roam Like Home) | $16/day | none published | 3d $25 · 7d $50 · 14d $60 · 30d $80 |
| Fido (Fido Roam) | $16/day | none published | 3d $25 · 7d $50 · 14d $60 · 30d $80 |
| Telus (Easy Roam) | $16/day | cost cap advertised, figure not published | 3d $25 · 7d $40 · 14d $60 |
| Koodo (Easy Roam) | $16/day | none published | 3d $25 · 7d $40 · 14d $60 |
| Bell (Roam Better) | $13/day | 20 days per billing period | Data Travel Passes discontinued March 19, 2026 |
Bell is the outlier and it is worth understanding. Bell charges $13 a day, but “you’ll only be charged for a maximum of 20 days per line within the same billing period.” After that you keep unlimited talk and text and keep using your plan’s data for free until the cycle turns over. That caps a Bell month in the US at $260. It’s the best of the daily-rate options and it is still a bad deal next to a $40 plan.
The 20-day cap applies to the US and to international separately. Twenty days in Florida and ten in Mexico in one cycle bills you for both.
Telus advertises a cost cap on its Easy Roam FAQ but does not publish the figure, so treat the Telus row’s cap as unconfirmed and ask before you rely on it. Virgin Plus does not publish its daily US rate either, so we could not verify it.
One inconsistency worth flagging: Rogers’ published Roam Like Home terms and conditions PDF still lists $12/day for the US, while the live Roam Like Home page says $16. The live page is the newer document and the one we’ve used, but if you’re billed $12 you’re on older terms. Don’t budget for it.
Doing the math for a real winter
Say you leave in early November and come home in mid-April, about five months.
- Daily roaming at $16/day: roughly $2,400. Not a serious option.
- Rogers or Fido 30-day US passes, $80 each: about $400 for the winter, on top of your existing bill. Better, but you’re paying twice.
- Bell at the 20-day cap: $260 per billing period, about $1,300. Still bad.
- A $40/month Canada-US-Mexico plan: $200 for the whole five months, and that is your phone bill. Nothing on top. Public Mobile’s $40 outlasted its back-to-school offer, which ended in October 2026 and took 5GB of data with it, not the price. Freedom’s $40 is not a limited-time offer either (it does need Freedom’s Digital Discount), and is sold in Ontario, BC, Alberta and Manitoba only.
The gap isn’t close. For anyone who goes south for a season, moving to a Canada-US plan for the year (or at least for the months you’re away) is the single biggest phone saving available to you, bigger than anything in our lower your phone bill guide.
Since June 12, 2026 there is no fee to change or cancel a plan with no subsidized device attached, so switching in October and switching back in May costs nothing but your time. The limits are in our CRTC fee ban explainer.
Short trips: a travel eSIM is usually cheaper
For a week in Phoenix or a long weekend in Buffalo, you don’t need to change plans at all. A travel eSIM installs in minutes, uses a second line on your phone, and leaves your Canadian number untouched.
Airalo’s United States packages, checked September 25, 2026: $25 USD for 7 days, $46 USD for 15 days, $68 USD for 30 days, all unlimited data on T-Mobile’s network. Compare that to $16/day: a week of daily roaming is $112 CAD against roughly $25 USD.
The trade-off is that these are data-only. You get no US phone number and no regular voice calls; calls go over WhatsApp, FaceTime or similar. For most short trips that’s fine. For a snowbird who needs a pharmacy, a contractor or a doctor’s office to call back, it isn’t.
Your phone needs to support eSIM and be unlocked. Almost every phone sold in
Canada since 2019 does. Dial *#06# and look for an EID. Our
eSIM explainer covers compatibility and the
per-carrier catches.
Long stays: consider a US prepaid line
If you’re in one place in the US for months, the cleanest answer is a local prepaid line. T-Mobile Prepaid, checked September 25, 2026, runs $40 USD/month for 15GB, $45 USD/month for unlimited with 50GB of premium data, or $60 USD/month for Unlimited Plus, all with autopay. You get a real US number, which matters more than people expect: US pharmacies, clinics, delivery apps and appointment systems all behave better with a local number.
In Canadian dollars that is not obviously cheaper than a $40 Canada-US plan. The exchange rate decides, and we’re not going to quote you an FX rate that will be wrong by the time you read this. Price it out on the day.
The strong setup for a long stay is both: a cheap Canadian line to hold your number (Public Mobile’s $22/mo 1GB tier is enough if you’re on US Wi-Fi and a US line for everything else), plus a US prepaid eSIM as the second line. Expect roughly $80–85/month in total, depending on the exchange rate, for genuinely better service than roaming, and your Canadian number stays alive for bank two-factor codes, CRA, your doctor’s office and your kids.
That two-factor point is the one people get wrong. If you let your Canadian number lapse, a surprising number of Canadian institutions become very hard to deal with from abroad. Keep the number.
The part nobody tells snowbirds
Roaming services are sold for travel, not for living somewhere else. Every Canadian carrier’s roaming service assumes your line is primarily used in Canada, and carriers reserve the right to act on lines that are used predominantly outside the country.
We looked for a published, specific day limit in the public terms for Public Mobile’s and Freedom’s Canada-US-Mexico plans and could not find one. That is an absence of a published limit, not a promise there is no limit. Before you commit to five months on a Canada-US plan, ask the carrier directly and get the answer in writing through their chat, where you’ll have a transcript. If your usage will be almost entirely American from November to April, the safer structure is the Canadian line plus US line combination above.
We’d rather tell you that now than have you discover it in February.
FAQ
What’s the cheapest plan for a Canadian snowbird? Public Mobile’s Canada-US-Mexico tiers, starting at $40/mo for 70GB. Freedom Mobile matches that price. Either is cheaper for a full month than two weeks of daily roaming.
Do I keep my Canadian phone number in the US? Yes, on any Canada-US plan or with any roaming add-on: your number, your voicemail, your texts. You only get a second number if you add a US prepaid line or a travel eSIM that includes voice.
Is $16 a day really the rate? Yes, at Rogers, Fido, Telus and Koodo as of September 25, 2026. Bell is $13/day and caps at 20 billed days per cycle. These rates have risen repeatedly (Fido was $12/day not long ago), so check before you travel rather than assuming.
Are travel passes better than the daily rate? For anything longer than a day, yes. A 3-day pass at $25 already beats two days at $16 ($32), and a 7-day US pass at $50 beats seven days at $16 ($112). A 30-day Rogers or Fido US pass at $80 beats 30 daily charges by a mile. But a 30-day pass every month for five months is still $400 against $200 for a plan that just includes the US.
Does my plan work in Mexico too? Only if the network column says Can-US-Mex. Public Mobile’s and Freedom’s Can-US-Mex tiers and Virgin Plus’s 60GB do. The Big Three’s 100GB tiers are Can-US only, so Mexico bills as international roaming at your carrier’s international rate. Check it before you cross the border.
What about cruises? Cruise-ship roaming is separate and much more expensive everywhere, so check your carrier’s cruise rates before you sail. No Canada-US plan covers a ship at sea. Assume you’re paying extra or going offline.
Should I just turn data roaming off and use Wi-Fi? It works, and for a frugal snowbird in a condo with Wi-Fi it’s viable. The risk is the day you need maps, a ride or a call from a parking lot. A $40 plan that includes the US removes the decision entirely.
Last verified
Roaming rates and passes verified September 25, 2026 from Rogers, Fido, Telus, Koodo and the Bell Roam Better FAQ. Travel eSIM pricing from Airalo’s United States page and US prepaid pricing from T-Mobile Prepaid, both the same date. The CRTC fee ban is Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2026-43, in force since June 12, 2026.
Three things on this page are not fully verified and are marked as such above: the Telus Easy Roam cost cap (advertised on Telus’s FAQ, figure not published), Virgin Plus’s daily US rate (not published), and whether Public Mobile or Freedom impose an unpublished limit on extended use outside Canada. Confirm all three with the carrier before you rely on them.
Plan prices in the table and in the prose render from our tracked dataset, each row carrying its own verification date, and can change without notice. Always confirm on the carrier’s own site before signing up.
CompareZone may earn a commission if you sign up through some of the links on this page. It never changes the price you pay, and it never decides what we recommend. Every plan here is ranked on the numbers above.
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