Sneaky roaming charges (1 Viewer)

[dawsey]

Most will know already that most of the mobile phone network operators in the UK have taken the opportunity to reintroduce roaming charges in Europe with the UK, having left the EU, no longer subject to the EU ban on such charges.

For our multi-month French sojourn I was careful to select an operator who continue to proudly advertise that they are the only major operator still with no roaming charge - O2.

However - on querying a couple of ‘extra charges’ pushing the monthly bill above £100 I found that O2 have also reintroduced the roaming charges, but in a bit of a sneaky way.

Buried in the ‘fair use’ T&C’s is a clause stating that if you stay more than 63 days consecutively outside UK you will be charged for data used, even if you are within your roaming data limit - so for those who plan to use the max 90days we are now allowed to stay on the continent as a tourist, watch out for this sting in the tail if you are on O2.

 

[125BEER]

Sneaky B'stards........although as you say in T&C's.

Cheers

 

[Googlebot]

Cancelled all my Three contracts today, the person I spoke to said they were losing loads of customers due to EU roaming charges.

Oh well…..

Hello RWG.

 

[BikerGraham]

Vodafone even worse.

Renewed two business contracts last October to include EU roaming. Or so I thought.
But when away in December they stick £2 a day on both contracts.
Got it sorted eventually when back home in January and charges refunded.
Also confirmed the inclusive EU roaming.or so I thought.
Got off the tunnel last week and received text About the £2.25 per day charge on both phones.

It’s going to be another discussion when I get back to work.

Vodafone’s agents are just a bunch of untrustworthy so and so’s

 

[Red Sonja]

Cancelled all my Three contracts today, the person I spoke to said they were losing loads of customers due to EU roaming charges.

Oh well…..

Hello RWG.

Cancelled my 3 contact for sane reason. Went to Smarty which is owned by 3 and I get 12gig roaming which is enough for me.

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[GMLS]

Just renewed my 2 plans with EE.Got passed to their retentions team and got EU roaming included for no extra cost with a more tailored deal.There are cheaper deals but I like their speed and coverage.I suspect the others would take a similar view.

 

[Corbygeordie]

Our solution when in France for an extended period is to get a payg sim from Free.fr. They offer 210 gb of data, unlimited calls in France and same for text, all for 19.99 Euros per month. You can suspend when you like, however they cancel it after a period of time. I use WhatsApp or Messenger for calls, and a Firestick to stream tv. Hope this helps?

 

[Verteuil Man]

Popit have not got any roaming charges yet. Also all the data you buy you can use.

 

[Bessy765]

Trouble I have found with Popit is when returning home after 90 days in France, they insist you use in my case at least 5GB in the UK before they will allow you to cancel

 

[Verteuil Man]

Trouble I have found with Popit is when returning home after 90 days in France, they insist you use in my case at least 5GB in the UK before they will allow you to cancel

I have never wanted to cancel so I have not come across that.

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[ChrisL]

Tesco on O2 still allow all your data with no roaming charges for this year, fair usage is two months in every four however they don’t appear to be too strict on that, I spent 2 1/2 months away with no messages or extra charges and i'm pretty sure another member used his for the whole 90 days with no extra charges, but they do expect you to use it in the UK as well.

 

[Bessy765]

The reason I used Popit was just for a data sim, we have really good mobile phone contracts with another provider.

 

[ChrisL]

The reason I used Popit was just for a data sim, we have really good mobile phone contracts with another provider.

The Tesco sim is in my mifi and it's an unlimited data one, I was using 500gb a month whilst away with no issues.

 

[dunnah01]

Tesco on O2 still allow all your data with no roaming charges for this year, fair usage is two months in every four however they don’t appear to be too strict on that, I spent 2 1/2 months away with no messages or extra charges and i'm pretty sure another member used his for the whole 90 days with no extra charges, but they do expect you to use it in the UK as well.

I thought that was only for those with a contract prior June 2022 and not newer contracts?

 

[sueandjohn]

Most will know already that most of the mobile phone network operators in the UK have taken the opportunity to reintroduce roaming charges in Europe with the UK, having left the EU, no longer subject to the EU ban on such charges.

For our multi-month French sojourn I was careful to select an operator who continue to proudly advertise that they are the only major operator still with no roaming charge - O2.

However - on querying a couple of ‘extra charges’ pushing the monthly bill above £100 I found that O2 have also reintroduced the roaming charges, but in a bit of a sneaky way.

Buried in the ‘fair use’ T&C’s is a clause stating that if you stay more than 63 days consecutively outside UK you will be charged for data used, even if you are within your roaming data limit - so for those who plan to use the max 90days we are now allowed to stay on the continent as a tourist, watch out for this sting in the tail if you are on O2.

Wow thanks for that . I never spotted it

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[ChrisL]

I thought that was only for those with a contract prior June 2022 and not newer contracts?

Tesco have decided no roaming charges for the remainder of this year and have not confirmed what the situation will be next year yet, last year they said they would start charging from January this year for contracts taken out after June last year but then changed their mind and extended the free roaming until the end of this year.

 

[h1ghway1]

I'm with Tesco and spent just under 90 days in Europe with no issues or extra charges.

 

[Lenny HB]

Plusnet which use EE, no roaming charges, fair use limit 15 GB but they don't appear to police it.

 

[suavecarve]

Virgin £9 per month each 20GB and they roll over 4GB so we go away with 48GB.
We dont use telly. Only MHF, bit of facebook, bit of video messaging and watch highlights of Newcastle on Youtube.
I use close to 20 GB in 28 days wife uses about 6GB

 

[Lenny HB]

Virgin £9 per month each 20GB and they roll over 4GB so we go away with 48GB.
We dont use telly. Only MHF, bit of facebook, bit of video messaging and watch highlights of Newcastle on Youtube.
I use close to 20 GB in 28 days wife uses about 6GB

Sounded good so I had look, they are about to all their contracts over to O2.

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[suavecarve]

Sounded good so I had look, they are about to all their contracts over to O2.

I have verbally been told that this will have no effect on us and FiL has just taken out a virgin but put onto O2 with similar roaming who has similarly been told the European data continues.

So to the best of my knowledge and belief, all is good in the world.

And for the likes of you and me, you can set your limit to paying no extra fees whatsoever so if you do run out you just dont get any data, which works perfectly if you manage your usage

 

[Bramidan]

I went with Popit, it worked for me throughout Europe (apart from Serbia).
Tethered the ipad to the phone as a personal hotspot.
Wife wasn’t happy because although her ipad was tethered to her phone she could not access her Facebook. I tried to be sympathetic.
Anybody know why she couldn’t access Facebook? Does it require too much data?

 

[Lenny HB]

Anybody know why she couldn’t access Facebook? Does it require too much data?

You need to get parental control turned off.

 

[Barryh]

Plusnet which use EE, no roaming charges, fair use limit 15 GB but they don't appear to police it.

You can’t get a Plusnet sim only deal anymore. It’s been absorbed into EE. I was told my Plusnet deal was ending and was offered an EE deal with less data for more money with daily charges for EU roaming. I went with O2 in the end with a 25gb monthly contract, all of it useable in the EU but subject to the 63 Day rule.

 

[Lenny HB]

You can’t get a Plusnet sim only deal anymore. It’s been absorbed into EE. I was told my Plusnet deal was ending and was offered an EE deal with less data for more money with daily charges for EU roaming. I went with O2 in the end with a 25gb monthly contract, all of it useable in the EU but subject to the 63 Day rule.

Looks like the big boys are getting rid of their piggyback sellers.
I wonder if Popit & RWG will go the same way.

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[dawsey]

You can’t get a Plusnet sim only deal anymore. It’s been absorbed into EE. I was told my Plusnet deal was ending and was offered an EE deal with less data for more money with daily charges for EU roaming. I went with O2 in the end with a 25gb monthly contract, all of it useable in the EU but subject to the 63 Day rule.

I think you may find the roaming monthly limit with O2 is 20Gb.

 

[Barryh]

I think you may find the roaming monthly limit with O2 is 20Gb.

Definitely 25gb. It’s the fair use maximum.

 

[kev54]

Trouble I have found with Popit is when returning home after 90 days in France, they insist you use in my case at least 5GB in the UK before they will allow you to cancel

I decided to not renew Lebara for the next month as we’re returning to UK after 90 days in EU. ‘Coincidentally’ they decided to discover their fair use clause that says after 60 days of not using it as much in UK as in EU, they will apply extra charges to ALL use (not a cap). Their published ‘fair use’ says it’s whatever they decide ‘from time to time’. I wonder if they would have decided that, if I hadn’t cancelled the renewal? Will never know now!

 

[nickq]

I use smarty unlimited £18/month. This has a 12GB EU limit but for £7 you can buy a 3 day pass.
Not great if you are away a long time, but for me it becomes a cost of the holiday, ~£35 add-on will get me unlimited EU for the holiday.
Extra benefit is there's no contract, so you can pause the monthly charge when you get home as long as you pay for a month at least once every 180 days.

So if you were away for 60 days it would cost £176 for unlimited data EU. But if this was a sim you use only for van data then that's equivalent to <£15/month if you were on a 12 month contract just for this. So can make sense.

 

[SpeedyDux]

Tesco on O2 still allow all your data with no roaming charges for this year, fair usage is two months in every four however they don’t appear to be too strict on that, I spent 2 1/2 months away with no messages or extra charges and i'm pretty sure another member used his for the whole 90 days with no extra charges, but they do expect you to use it in the UK as well.

I have just switched to Tesco mobile from Sky mobile. Both are piggybacking the O2 network. Sky having introduced a £2 per day roaming charge that for me is unacceptable.

Tesco's zero charge for roaming may end after 2023 from what I was told.

The UK networks are behaving like a cartel. Will OFCOM who acts both as regulator and competition authority for mobile networks stop this abuse? I'm not going to hold my breath. In 2024 we will probably need to get a local SIM card after crossing the Channel.

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