Earlier this week, we posted a blog on the way in which people react to the availability of Wi-Fi internet access whilst away from home, so a follow-up on roaming charges that you might incur overseas seemed to be a logical next step.
Using your phone whilst abroad can be a somewhat costly business, with plenty of horror stories of people returning home to be greeted with bills running into the hundreds – or in some cases thousands – of pounds for services they have made use of overseas.
Luckily, a change in EU regulations - which came into play last month - has reduced the cost of using your phone in EU nations. Accessing data services is down by around 75% whilst the cost of making a call has reduced by a similar amount.
Text messages are also much cheaper, with the promise of further savings in June next year when roaming charges will be abolished and domestic pricing will apply across the EU.
There are still ways in which you can minimise the costs involved however, with the first thing to do being to limit your usage to when you need it. Disabling roaming services before departure and only accessing them when required should help avoid any surprises whilst it would also be advisable to avoid any data heavy services – like video streaming – unless connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Wi-Fi can also be used to keep costs down by providing access to services like Facebook, Skype and Whatsapp to keep in touch with people back home.
You should also avoid calling any non-geographic numbers whilst overseas – not that you should really be ringing them anyway during your holiday.
The four main network providers offer a wide range of deals for customers heading overseas who want to make use of their phones, so we thought we’d pull together the key information you may need before heading off on your holidays.
O2:
O2 offers a special package for those heading overseas through O2 Travel – which allows access to a your data services whilst abroad. Pay Monthly customers can add O2 Travel to their account free of charge and are then billed £1.99 for each day they use it whilst abroad.
The service is triggered by using data, sending a text or making a call, with an inclusive allowance of 120 minutes, 120 texts and unlimited data – albeit at varying speeds – then applying.
It should be noted however that the daily charge and allowance runs from midnight to midnight UK time – so be aware of any time differences. UK charges apply when it comes to picture or video messages.
Should you elect not to make use of the O2 Travel service, calls will set you back 3.6p per minute with a text message costing 1.2p. Data costs 4.3p/MB and will be capped at £43.
Pay As You Go customers can pay £1.99 for 100mb of data to be used in Europe each day, which lasts until midnight UK time and can’t be carried over to the following day. Calls back to the UK from within Europe cost 4p per minute, with texts costing 1p. Media messages are the same price as within the UK.
If not making use of O2 Travel, you can expect to pay 4p per minute on calls, with text messages at 1p and data at 4p/MB.
A full list of countries covered by O2 Travel can be found on O2’s website.
Additional charges apply for those heading outside Europe or to countries not covered by O2 Travel, with the costs being dependent on the individual country.
Three:
Three make a big point of the fact that customers can make us of their all inclusive package whilst away from home, with no roaming charges in a selection of countries – both within Europe and beyond.
Feel At Home means users can make calls to home, send text messages and use their data package free of charge as long as they remain within their allowance, with the only exception being those on ‘all you can eat’ data – who will find data limited to 12GB.
Text messages are limited to 5,000 and minutes to 3,000.
Feel At Home is also available to Pay As You Go customers.
Again using Spain as an example, anyone going over their allowance will incur charges of 4.3p a minute on calls, 1.8p per text and 4.3p/MB of data. The same charges apply to Pay As You Go customers.
If you are travelling within the EU to a non Feel At Home county, a Euro Internet Pass is available for £5 a day and runs to midnight UK time – although it should be noted that they can only be used in certain countries.
Vodafone:
Vodafone has a special roaming package for those heading abroad, with anyone who bought a new 12/24 month pay monthly phone or a SIM only Red Bundle after May 5 this year benefitting from inclusive roaming.
That means that in 40 European countries you’ll benefit from unlimited minutes, texts and picture messages and as well as4GB of data in a monthly allowance to use overseas.
In 30 of those countries, you’ll also be able to make use of a 4G connection.
For those who took out their pay monthly contract prior to May 5, Vodafone offers the EuroTraveller. Working in a similar fashion to O2 Travel, the EuroTraveller operates on a daily basis with users paying £3 to take their UK minutes, texts and data with them overseas.
Pay as you go customers can take their minutes and texts with them for the same price, with 100MB of data for each day a device is used within the relevant countries.
Anyone picking up the standard charges and not benefitting from a deal can expect to pay around 4.3p a minute for calls and 1.6p a text within the main European countries, with picture messages at 4.3p each and data coming in at 4.3p/MB.
Additional charges apply outside Europe or to countries not covered by the EuroTraveller – although Vodafone does offer deals to people travelling to more areas of the globe through its WorldTraveller, which is available on certain tariffs.
EE:
EE provides travellers with a range of different options when heading overseas, with the package available being largely down to the phone contract in place.
Using Spain as an example, customers on Orange or T-Mobile contracts can benefit from unlimited calls and texts for £2 per day, which runs on UK time and kicks in as soon as a call is made or a text message sent in selected countries.
Data can be added in a separate package, ranging from 75MB to be used in 24 hours for £3 up to 600MB to be used across seven days for £20.
Outside that, calls will cost 4.4p per minute with text messages back home coming in at 1.8p each. Data and photo messages are only available with the additional data packages.
Customers on 4GEE plans pay the same outside their daily Euro Pass package, which offers unlimited calls and texts on a daily basis alongside 500MB of data on a daily basis – including 4G where available. The plain call and text offer for £2 per day is also applicable, with a Euro Data Pass providing 500MB of data for £3.
Roaming Data add-ons aren’t applicable to Orange or T-Mobile plan holders.
All costs correct at the time of writing. This article is written as a guide focused on travel within EU countries, and it should be noted that different charges will apply elsewhere. Check with your network provider for a full run down of charges that will apply for both making and receiving calls/text messages and accessing data services whilst overseas.