Traveling the world with your Android can be a fun experience, and it usually is. But when you get back home and find out how much that brief hotel/gas station search cost you, you might be surprised. Fortunately, it's possible to control what services can access data from your Android while roaming, which can save you a ton of money.

 

Tutorial Notes

· On the home screen, tap the Menu button. Choose Settings, then select Wireless & Networks. Scroll all the way to the bottom of this list and tap Mobile networks.

· Here, there's a checkbox to turn Data roaming on or off. If you uncheck this box, your data connection will be completely disabled when your phone is roaming so you'll only be able to connect to data services via Wi-Fi.

· If you still need to use mobile data but want to control when your phone connects to data services, turn Data roaming on.

· Now, go back into Settings. Here, tap on Accounts & sync. Tap the checkbox to turn off Background data and deselect Auto-sync as well.

· With these two options turned off, your phone will only connect to data services if you actively open an application that uses data. That's applications like Gmail, Email, Facebook, Google+ and the like.

· When you're back on home turf, you can turn sync back on. Tap Menu, go into Settings, tap Accounts & sync and put checkmarks in the boxes beside Background data and Auto-sync.