Posting smug holiday snaps on Instagram this summer has just become a lot cheaper: the European Commission has dropped EU roaming charges to record low levels and networks are knocking out great deals to compete for the traveller market.
Downloading data on your smartphone abroad is now capped at €0.05 per MB, reduced from €0.20 per MB last month. This equates to a charge of about 91p for browsing the internet on your phone for an hour. In 2012, mobile networks could charge up to €0.70 per MB — about £13.00 for an hour of surfing the web.
Calls are now also capped at €0.05 a minute, a big reduction since 2007, when it would cost you €0.49 a minute to phone a friend within the EU. You cannot now be charged more than €0.02 for texts.
“Our reader was charged £18,500 for using his phone in Moldova
Yesterday Vodafone announced that it would offer inclusive data roaming in 40 destinations for all new and upgrading pay-monthly customers with 12 and 24-month Red and Red Value bundles.
However, technology experts are warning holidaymakers not to become complacent. They continue to see many people caught out by unexpected charges for using social media, checking online maps or doing Google searches for the best restaurants while they are abroad.
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More than a quarter of Brits believe that it does not cost extra to use a mobile when travelling in the EU, research by uSwitch.com found, and people are still vulnerable to ‘bill shock’ until the European Commission abolishes EU roaming completely in June 2017.
The comparison site also found that 85 per cent of people who take their phone abroad are not sure how much it costs to use it. Many are being stung after forgetting that some popular destinations are not part of the EU — Turkey, Switzerland and Northern Cyprus, for example.
In February Times Money reported the case of Jonathan Butt from Surrey, who received a bill for £18,500 from Vodafone after accessing data on his phone and then accidentally leaving the app running while he was in Moldova on business for a day. He was shocked to be asked to pay the bill on the spot or else have his phone cut off, despite the fact the network offers international roaming for customers who pay just £5 a day extra for its “WorldTraveller” add-on.
Ernest Doku, of uSwitch.com, says: “These price drops are especially good news for Brits planning a summer trip to the continent and football fans heading to France for the European Championships, but until EU roaming charges are fully abolished, be aware of the pitfalls. A £40 cap is now applied by networks, designed to protect mobile users from bill shock, but you have to opt in and it only covers charges for data, and not calls or text messages.
“The fear of sky-high roaming bills certainly isn’t an irrational one. More than one in ten customers who have been outside the EU in the past year have received a higher than normal bill, averaging £103.”
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He believes that networks could do more to notify their customers when they are running up large bills, by offering real-time updates on “out of tariff” charges, for example. Most send notifications when you are using a lot of data but these are generally not immediate so cannot be relied upon to prevent you overspending.
While all networks allow customers to cap their tariffs, if you decide to opt out of this service, you will not be reminded that you have done so.
More mobile companies are offering competitive deals for those who rely on their phones overseas but be careful because they cover only a selected number of destinations, many of which are already covered by the EU caps.
In a special summer deal from May 23, all Tesco Mobile customers will be able to use their inclusive minutes, texts and data abroad until midnight on September 3.
“Using our phones to share selfies on social media, keep in contact with friends and family and navigate unknown territory has become part and parcel of what we expect from our holiday experience,” says Simon Groves, the chief marketing officer of Tesco Mobile.
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Tesco, which uses the O2 network, follows Three and the newcomer iD mobile from Carphone Warehouse, which offer similar permanent packages for those who travel frequently. Tesco’s Home from Home deal extends only to 31 European countries, however.
Three mobile’s Feel at Home tariff covers 18 countries, ten of which are outside the EU, including the USA, New Zealand and Hong Kong, and the network estimates that it saves each customer an average £360 a year in roaming bills.
ID mobile’s Sim-only TakeAway plans offer roaming in 29 countries, including the USA and Australia.
If you travel a lot outside the EU, you might prefer to take out a Vodafone contract and pay for its WorldTraveller add-on, which allows you to use your UK data and minutes in 58 destinations, including much of the Caribbean, South Africa, Japan, India and China for £5 a day.
Its new offering means that you can roam free without paying the £5 a day in 40 destinations, including the non-EU countries of Turkey, Switzerland and six Caribbean islands.