Maybe the people complaining (especially the one who works for the airline) should switch to another network that offers free roaming in more places. Like 3 for example?

Well, I consider myself a fairly frequent flyer travelling to several different countries a year. Personally, I'm on 3 pay as you go, however, I'm of a generation that isn't tied to a mobile phone like it's my last kidney. On leaving the ground in the UK, I switch off mobile roaming altogether and put my iphone in airplane mode just to make sure there's no accidental receiving calls or texts from home on arrival at my destination and then as much as humanly possible, I make use of free wifi, either at the airport or at the hotel or burger bars or at shopping malls.

Concerning the flight attendant's story, I've sat with flight attendant staff at hotels in the Caribbean and in the Far East who do exactly the same thing, connected to the hotel wifi only and just about everyone uses whatsapp/facetime to make calls anyway.

I make it perfectly clear to everyone that knows me prior to me departing the UK, that they ain't gonna get hold of me by phoning me while I'm away, it's email or whatsapp or nothing. I even make sure I leave a message to that effect on my personal profile on each of my bank accounts prior to departure.

That being said, there are times, especially when I go to places like South Africa, I will buy a local SIM card from Vodacom prior to arrival, which I pick up at the Vodacom shop at the arrivals terminal. I'll then text that number home and people can call me on that if they need to. This isn't rocket science, it's really quite easy. Obviously, helpful if you have an unlocked phone, or carry a spare unlocked phone as I frequently do.

Perhaps if people just used their initiative a bit more, and switched operator if they're not happy, then these sorts of stories would be irrelevant.

I went mental at Vodafone a couple of months ago when they brought this in. I made an official complaint & threatened to leave (which I have now done). This made no difference, they would not budge. All they kept saying was that they had brought in free roaming in Europe. Do they think I was born yesterday. I may have politely!! mentioned that it had nothing to do with them, it was an EU ruling.
Shortly after I was in USA working on ships and twice they charged me they £5 and then half hour later they charged me the maritime rate. When I stated that they couldn't have it both ways, they told me it was because I had sent one in the US and one at sea, which is absolute cobblers and I could prove it.
They refunded £5 as a gesture of goodwill !!!!
I told them where they could put their goodwill and left.
A customer of more than 25 years gone and the wifes phone will follow at end of contract.
I am now with 3 due to their roam free package. Wouldn't touch Vodafone again with a barge pole

Asked Vodafone to opt-out of this charge and they said there was no option to do so. Told them there was, left them completely. Luckily I was out of contract.

Shame on Vodafone, Not a customer focused company ! I received got a £10 refund but will now look into leaving asap.

Does the £5 charge apply if you are a Vodaphone customer in the UK and are REPLYING to a txt from the USA?

I'm going to attempt to answer my own question to some extent, by saying I suppose it depends on the contracts for the mobiles at BOTH ends of the comms link. To try and expalin further: son currently on holiday in USA. He bought a "3" Pay As You Go Roam-free (including USA) SIM for a month before heading off. That SIM is registered in the UK and is also usable in the UK. I use a contract Vodaphone SIM.

He has so far txted me twice from the USA; and I have replied both times. So......

Will I get charged for sending a txt to the USA using a Vodaphone SIM no matter what; or

Will I not/get charged because I am using a UK-based SIM from within the UK even though it's to the USA; or

Will I not/get charged because I am sending a txt between 2 SIMS that are both registered in the UK; or

Will I not/get charged because the Vodaphone network is intelligent enough to know that, even though both SIMs are UK-based, the txt is actually traversing its network from the UK to the USA?

Simple, really innit!!

You won't be charged since it's from the UK to a UK number.

Our daughter has gone to Mississippi USA for the first 10 days of September.

On her arrival she sent 3 text and we got charged £5.00.

On the 2nd day she sent 1 text and used 0.49mb of Data and we were charged another £5.00.

On the 3rd Day she used 0.51mb of data and was charged another £5.00.

I am absolutely furious and having read Martin's article I intend to end my contract with them as we will end up paying more as a result of the change and should be able to leave penalty-free. Under rules from regulator Ofcom, mobile providers must give customers one month's notice of contractual changes "likely to be of material detriment", and must then allow them to withdraw from their contract penalty-free. Should they refuse I will request a "Deadlock Letter".

Vodafone are going to lose so many customers as a result of this I can see their Share Price plunging. Eventually they will probably allow an opt out from this crazy scheme but by then they will have lost so many customers who will never return. I certainly will be one of those.

In the last 3 months my other daughter, my wife and I have all left Vodafone at the end of our contracts to take SIM only deals with Plusnet and in total are saving over £20 per month. When we switch the last phone to Plusnet we'll save a further £10 a month.

Vodafone in implementing these rigid charges clearly couldn't care less about their customers and have how their usage whilst abroad may vary. Also recently whilst on holiday in Europe where roaming is now free most of the time my wife was unable to make any calls with Vodafone and had to use my phone which was already on Plusnet.

If you check before travel you should know the charges and consider what they are before you use your phone. If you are not going to be able to take advantage of the package that Vodafone offer get a local sim, take another sim from home or use free wifi if possible. Beware does the charge change at midnight UK time or local time. If I can use my contract data, calls etc such as in Europe I do, if it is chargeable then I resist the urge and wait for an hour till in a hotel and use wifi,
As soon as you switch on your phone a sms usually arrives telling you what the local charges are and you can act accordingly, BEWARE THOUGH OF SMS STATING £5 A DAY FOR 25MB ETC this will then include a link to Vodafone's website giving you a breakdown of charges you could now find data is £0.50 per MB and the cost to receive and make calls is different to the sms received on arrival.
I noticed my charges increasing, talked online with Vodafone who told me the sms was incorrect and charges are as per the link. So it seems I am now responsible for the incorrect information Vodafone's sms gave me.
Vodafone are as we know not the most user friendly company to deal with. Their normal response seems to be wait for the bill, dispute it and we will ignore your point of view and take the money anyway.
Unfortunately unless you use a local sim Vodafone are usually very competitively priced around the world so changing provider isn't an option. Turkey is your UK minutes but not the case with EE other providers when I last checked.

Simple solution - go to the 3 website, apply for a FREE simcard

Calls cost 3p / min
Texts cost 2p
Data costs 1p mb

In over 60 countries around the World
http://www.three.co.uk/feel-at-home

I'm struggling to see why this is as big news as it sounds.

Surely Vodafone have had this flat rate fee for many years, £3 a day in Europe until recently, and £5 a day elsewhere. Although it might not have been actually compulsory, they almost made it sound as if it was, and probably most customers went along with it, through either complacency or ignorance.

I can remember about 10 years ago interrupting a friend about to do one brief website visit on his phone, and offering mine instead. It's only £3 a day, not too bad, he said, but I insisted. Using my German SIM it cost 6 or 7 cents. If I'd known better a different German SIM would have made it actually free. Nowadays with Three UK payg it would be under a penny.

Same for another visit with other friends. It's only £3 a day to use my allowance from home. Yes, but that adds up to £60 while we're here, and I expect to spend about £3 overall.

So, whilst some customers like the ones in the article will justifiably be very upset that the fee has been made mandatory, I wonder if some people won't be bothered by Vodafone's cynicism, and I also wonder if people who have tolerated this for years do after all suddenly start complaining would Vodafone then use the fact they've been quiet until now to deny the chance to cancel.

Or you can have the free 'Data Reward' SIM that gives you 200MB free per month in those 60+ countries, calls and texts at their PAYG rates. I used mine for example to call Germany from Singapore for 3p/min. They only give you a 2G connection here in Indonesia but my local SIM provides 14GB/60 days (inc.4G) plus some calls and texts, all for £3.73.