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AT&T customer gets $19,500 roaming bill for two days of accidental data use [1]

['Ellsworth Toohey']

Date: 2026-01-07  

An AT&T customer traveling internationally racked up $19,500 in data charges over two days — roughly $110 per minute, or $6,500 per hour. According to a post on Reddit's r/ATT forum, the customer had removed AT&T's $12-per-day International Day Pass before the trip, planning to use local SIMs and wifi instead. But they left their AT&T eSIM active for the first day after landing. By the time they noticed, one line had hit $18,600, and the other was suspended after crossing $1,000.

AT&T charges $2,000 per gigabyte for international data without the Day Pass. The customer calculated they were billed $900 for every eight minutes of use. "Is there any service in the world as expensive as $6,500+ per hour?" they asked. "Isn't $19,600+ more than what someone on Federal minimum wage earns in a year?"

The customer tried everything: customer support, managers, the back office, Twitter, the loyalty team, a local store, and the billing department. Everyone said the charges were legitimate. AT&T refused to retroactively apply the Day Pass. The customer has been with AT&T for seven years and has more than ten lines on their account — loyalty that apparently counts for nothing when five figures are on the table.

One commenter noted that AT&T's actual cost for providing the roaming data was almost certainly under $100, making the charges "punitive and retaliatory for opting out of their IDP." The customer is now planning to file complaints with the FCC and BBB.

Previously:

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/01/07/att-customer-gets-19500-roaming-bill-for-two-days-of-accidental-data-use.html

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