[CABINET]

I wonder if their are any Virgin mobile customers who might be able to help me.

I will be visiting the US and have no plans to use my mobile phone there at all except in dire emergency.

I will be topping up my phone so that I have about £50 worth of credit on it.

I am struggling to understand the potential call charges. They say on their website that to make a call costs £1.40 and to receive one costs 80p. That's all they say except that calls are charged by the second. Am I to pay £1.40 a second or is that the charge for a minute and the second charge 2.33p?

I tried ringing but their automated service just says that all the information I require is on the website. I was not offered a real person to speak to.

I could make a trip into town and visit one of their shops but wondered if anybody might know the answer.

[grumpyoldbat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CABINET

I wonder if their are any Virgin mobile customers who might be able to help me.

I will be visiting the US and have no plans to use my mobile phone there at all except in dire emergency.

I will be topping up my phone so that I have about £50 worth of credit on it.

I am struggling to understand the potential call charges. They say on their website that to make a call costs £1.40 and to receive one costs 80p. That's all they say except that calls are charged by the second. Am I to pay £1.40 a second or is that the charge for a minute and the second charge 2.33p?

I tried ringing but their automated service just says that all the information I require is on the website. I was not offered a real person to speak to.

I could make a trip into town and visit one of their shops but wondered if anybody might know the answer.

What it means is that you are charged £1.40 per minute, but that you're being calculated by the second. You need to clarify if that means that they break down £1.40 into 2.33p, or if it means that every time you go over a minute, you'll be charged another £1.40. I would interpret it meaning that you're being charged the 2.33p increment for each second you use.

Only Virgin Mobile can verify this.

[CABINET]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grumpyoldbat

What it means is that you are charged £1.40 per minute, but that you're being calculated by the second. You need to clarify if that means that they break down £1.40 into 2.33p, or if it means that every time you go over a minute, you'll be charged another £1.40. I would interpret it meaning that you're being charged the 2.33p increment for each second you use.

Only Virgin Mobile can verify this.

Thanks I only wish they would. It makes me laugh that they claim that the information on the website is clear because it certainly isn't to me.

I'll pop into one of their stores next time I'm in town I think.

[Orbitalzone]

And remember, if you have a smartphone you need to turn off Data roaming to make sure your phone isn't checking for Facebook, Twitter, email updates every few mins as the roaming data costs are even more outrageous than the voice call charges!

An alternative is to get a Three PAYG SIM and use their 'feel at home' service where calls, text and data is charged at local UK costs such as 1p per MB of data, 2p per text an 3p per minute voice call in 11 countires including the USA. That way a top up of say £15 means you can actually use the smartphone for data and voice calls without any huge bill.... maybe leave a voicemail message on the virgin number to give out your temp travel (Three PAYG) number?

[CABINET]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orbitalzone

And remember, if you have a smartphone you need to turn off Data roaming to make sure your phone isn't checking for Facebook, Twitter, email updates every few mins as the roaming data costs are even more outrageous than the voice call charges!

An alternative is to get a Three PAYG SIM and use their 'feel at home' service where calls, text and data is charged at local UK costs such as 1p per MB of data, 2p per text an 3p per minute voice call in 11 countires including the USA. That way a top up of say £15 means you can actually use the smartphone for data and voice calls without any huge bill.... maybe leave a voicemail message on the virgin number to give out your temp travel (Three PAYG) number?

Thanks so much for your advice. I have turned off roaming and, as I say, have no intention of using the phone at all - only if my OH and I are separated and need to contact each other. He will check his phone regularly for messages from home and we will use free wi-fi to download emails each day when we check into hotels etc.

We will make it clear to everybody here that we will be out of touch sometimes.

It's just that if Virgin are charging £1.40 per second (!) even a very short call would eat up my £50.

[Orbitalzone]

It's not super clear but has to be £1.40 per minute....with one minute minimum charge as it says:

"The rest of the world
A one minute minimum charge applies to all calls.

Calls are billed by the second."


Probably worth turning voicemail off while there otherwise people might leave voicemail and it'll cost you £1.40 (I'm guessing) per min to listen to it.

http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/callC...ymentPlan=PAYG

[c4rv]

Don't know if it helps but if you are a virgin media landline customer as well as mobile then they have a VoIP app (similar to skype) that you can use with WiFi or 3G to make calls to the UK and get charged at the same rate as your UK landline.

[qasdfdsaq]

That's not exactly how it works.

The VOIP app only allows you to make free calls and even then only if they are unlimited in your package.

If you don't get an unlimited allowance for a certain type of call, you can't make that call using the app.

[c4rv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

That's not exactly how it works.

The VOIP app only allows you to make free calls and even then only if they are unlimited in your package.

If you don't get an unlimited allowance for a certain type of call, you can't make that call using the app.

never noticed that, got anytime package on my landline so been using the app any time of the day.

[qasdfdsaq]

Yeah, anytime packages are basically the only ones that can make use of it properly. Even then you can't make premium rate calls or other chargeable calls.

[CABINET]

Thanks all.