[bikerlad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdenson

Looking more closely at my bill, it was actually 2 occasions (outbound and inbound) £3.33 each time. That makes a bit more sense, sounds like I was automatically put on some sort of Europass.

So you've been abroad twice and not once? You only get charged once per day for Europass. Any use will trigger the charge. An outgoing text, a incoming or outgoing call, or any data use.

Is europass listed as an add on in myee?

[Blofeld]

I used to have Vodafone EuroTraveller activated but when it charges £3 per day even if I send 1 text or make 1 call then it's a bit steep now that the prices have come down, so I've deactivated it. If I leave the EU now I just buy a local sim card in the country and throw it into my other phone and use that as a mobile hotspot.

That aside, I do think that if you don't have any packs activated then you should be capped at the price of the pack anyway and if you have one activated but only send 1 text then they shouldn't charge you the full amount, but refund some of it otherwise it seems a bit unfair.

One thing that should be sorted is the roaming in places such as the Channel Islands and Isle of Mann, they are exempt from the EU caps and it is actually quite expensive to use a phone there even though they are British territory.

[tdenson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

You need to opt in BUT once you have, you're on it until you opt out - even if your next travel abroad is many weeks or months in the future.

This is the same problem when people opted out of the €50 or whatever the exact amount warning texts. Do it once, never get warned again on future roaming travel.

That explains it, I probably opted in previously.

[ihatemarmite]

BT just notified us they've lowered their roaming charges, but no calls/texts/data are being kept within your UK allowance, so they don't work out the best.

[Mark C]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blofeld

One thing that should be sorted is the roaming in places such as the Channel Islands and Isle of Mann, they are exempt from the EU caps and it is actually quite expensive to use a phone there even though they are British territory.

They are indeed British, but they are NOT in the EU, therefore they can ( and do) charge what they want

[1manonthebog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

You need to opt in BUT once you have, you're on it until you opt out - even if your next travel abroad is many weeks or months in the future.

This is the same problem when people opted out of the €50 or whatever the exact amount warning texts. Do it once, never get warned again on future roaming travel.

Yes this is the problem, he didn't opt in I think so go charged the extortionate rates. The £3-£4 per day for 500mb EE charge is expensive yes but it gets even worse if you don't have that bolt on.

[jonmorris]

On EE, if you don't buy any add on or pass, you can't use data abroad a all (well, on some new plans you get 100MB a month).

The EU rates are capped to about 4p a meg for networks that don't block data when roaming by default.

[Mark C]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

On EE, if you don't buy any add on or pass, you can't use data abroad a all (well, on some new plans you get 100MB a month).

The EU rates are capped to about 4p a meg for networks that don't block data when roaming by default.

Yes. So it's actually comparatively expensive to now use EE in the EU for data.
I have a legacy package that gives me a 100 meg a day data allowance for 1.99UKP per day. It's still acceptable for me I suppose, as I typically consume 30-40 megs a day on a trip, so it's almost a break even situation.

For those paying 4, or 5 UKP and with similar low usage, it's starting to take the piss.

[jaffboy151]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blofeld

I used to have Vodafone EuroTraveller activated but when it charges £3 per day even if I send 1 text or make 1 call then it's a bit steep now that the prices have come down, so I've deactivated it. If I leave the EU now I just buy a local sim card in the country and throw it into my other phone and use that as a mobile hotspot.

Its true, I'm on my hols at the moment and although £3 isn't much, I'm here for 10 days so if I used it everyday the would be £30 (no flies on me maths wise!) but as I have WiFi in the apartment it will only get used for a few Facebook posts along with emails and Google maps when I get lost in the hire car yet again, that doesn't amount to much data so it works out expensive. Plus I get in the situation of not turning data on while out as it's not worth £3 for little things at that time and then if there's something I do need it for waiting and not using it as most of the day has past so won't get any value out the data charge anyway.
If I was somewhere on business or on a city break for a few days, the £3 europass for me is good value but on hols with just the 2 of us it's not worth it really.
Saying that if I had an army of little ones who wither up and die at the thought of going anywhere three is no data connection, it would be worth it.
Still think the new limited but free included European data amounts in new Vodafone packages are a better fit for most people.

[jonmorris]

I agree the new VF inclusive plan is better for most people, but couldn't we have had a choice?

And EE users can call up and ask for the hard cap to be lifted can't they? Then pay per megabyte.

Indeed, on Vodafone you can opt out of EuroTraveller too.

[bikerlad]

I called EE and had "International Travel Pass Opt Out" added to my account. Yesterday I popped to Madrid and Frankfurt and used under 8MB of data, and I have a 29p charge on my account. Data worked as soon as I enabled it. No add on page to bypass.

It helps to tell EE that you want International Travel Pass Opt Out added. Talking about being charged per MB and not using an add on just confuses them and they say it's not possible.

I removed europass before I did it though, not sure what happens if you try and have both on at once.

[heskethbang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ihatemarmite

I had that Tesco message too. Delighted. OH is with BT Mobile - they are expensive and so far haven't made any roaming concessions this year.
2017 is due to bring roaming as part of normal allowance as per the EU's new regulations (if we stay in the EU!).

You won't need to stay in the EU to benefit from this. Many networks already include non-EU European countries in their EU tariff.

[Daveoc64]

Quote:

Originally Posted by heskethbang

You won't need to stay in the EU to benefit from this. Many networks already include non-EU European countries in their EU tariff.

It's a far more complicated matter than that.

A core part of the EEA (NOT EU) roaming regulations is that the wholesale prices are regulated as well as the consumer price.

That wholesale regulation requires co-operation among states to work. I think that networks are only offering the same deals in non-EEA countries because they have a lot of bargaining power.

[Yossi]

Don't delude yourself. Just look at how expensive roaming in the Channel islands is.
If we brexit, our operators will try to milk us out of our money, and without a strong social framework like the EU implements, we'll be at the mercy of slavering businesses.

I've pretty much accepted the likely fact this nation will vote to leave, but just don't delude yourself into thinking it will be for the better.