I don’t think I know anyone that would consider travelling without their smartphone, tablet or laptop. We use them for so much, it’s become very difficult not to rely on them.

Before you travel with your tech, you should always make sure that you’ve enabled roaming, get in touch with your service provider to find out the details of using your phone abroad and even consider purchasing international calls or data.

However, even if you’ve done all that, there’s still room for something to go wrong.

Some of your apps might not work!

We’ve put together a list of the apps that you might want to use while you travel, to help you prepare for the ones that might cause issues.

Mobile Banking & Financial Apps

Using certain financial apps could cause your bank to freeze your account, since it’ll pick up on foreign activity and attempt to keep your account secure.

This can be a nightmare, since you’re effectively stuck with no access to your funds or any ability to make payments or transfers.

To avoid this, make sure all your payments are set up before you go on holiday. Also,make contact with your bank. Let them know where you’re going and how long for, so that your login from a different country isn’t unexpected.

Video Streaming Apps

What could be better than settling into your hotel room at night and watching the next episode of your favourite show?

Not much. So it’s annoying when your video streaming apps don’t work properly.

Some video apps, like BBC iPlayer, will only work in certain geographical areas (the UK). Netflix might work as normal but offer different content depending on your location.

However, you can trick your device into thinking you’re back at home by using a VPN – a Virtual Private Network.

Before using these, it’s important to know that each VPN can be better or worse depending on the area it’s mimicking. For example AVG is great for the USA, but not so much for Europe.

News Apps

I’m sure that everyone has at some point seen the content not available in your region message pop up on their screen when they’ve been trying to find out something. With news apps, it’s usually down to the rights of the video footage – so annoying!

It’s really frustrating but there is a way round it. Just like with the video streaming apps, a VPN will work nicely to get news apps working. Again, make sure you do your research to find out which VPN will be best for you.

Apps That Work But Require Large Amounts Of Data!

This is a sneakier problem and one that you might not notice until you get back from your holiday!

Some apps will work perfectly while you travel. The problem only appears when you get your phone bill for the month and realise that your apps have been munching through your data.

If this happens while you’re abroad, it can be extremely costly!

A recent example of this came in the form of a Nintendo app. Players were outraged that the Super Mario Run game was constantly using data while they played.

Make sure that you don’t allow your apps to run in the background, since this is one thing that will drive your bill sky high.