Daughter wants to take her phone to Egypt a couplt of q`s please

katies_mum

Hi,
Daughter has orange sim only deal `unlimited texts` and `200 minutes` a month. she wants to take her phone on holiday as she has made friends with another girl who will be at our hotel at the same time as us, please can I ask a couple of questions:
If they text each other or call each other both from the same hotel in Sharm, how do the charges work?
If she gets loads of texts from friends back in the UK when on holiday and she deletes them all without opening them - does this mean she won`t be charged?
I really don`t understand this `roaming` but don`t want her to end up costing us £££ extra whilst we are away, if it will cost then think she can leave the phone at home.

Many thanks

macman

None of the unlimited text or contract minutes can be used abroad, all these will be at roaming rates, you can find the relevant charges on the Orange site.
If they call each other locally then roaming rates still apply-but why would they do this when they are in the same hotel-wouldn't it be easier to use the hotel's internal phone system-or even (gasp) walk to the other room?

PS: texts are 50p each and calls £1.75 per minute in Egypt. At those prices it would be advisable to take the phone off her before you leave. Or they could both buy a local SIM card on arrival and use those instead, probably no more than £20 each.
Or buy her one of those cheapo radio walkie-talkie sets, they should work fine within a hotel complex, as the range should be at least a mile.

katies_mum

Thank you so much macman, thought it be costly.... going back to plan one `no phone`. They will have to do what I suggested and make arrangements to meet in a certain place on the day we arrive (the other girl arrives a week earlier than us).
Thanks again.

onetomany

how about some cheap walkie talkies?

katies_mum

That a great idea.

barjam_2

have you spoke to orange regarding this i am going to egypt too and i am on a o2 simplicity and i queried this too this is what i got back. (i never query via phone i always email so have a response in writing)

this is what o2 say

I can assure you that full international roaming is active on your account to use our services while abroad. You'll be able to use your Samsung E900 in Egypt.

You're on the Online 10 tariff. The voice calls that you make or receive while abroad aren't included in your free voice call allowance. You'll be glad to know that you can use your text message allowance for sending text messages while abroad to UK mobile or any other mobile. If you send a text message while abroad, four text messages will be deducted from your text message allowance. Once your free allowance of text messages is over, you'll be charged for sending text messages while abroad.

We offer the International Traveller Service (ITS) that gives you discounts on call and text message charges when you are abroad. The cost for this service is £2.54 excluding VAT (Value Added Tax) per month.

If you want us to add the International Traveller Service (ITS) to your account, please reply to this email 48 before you leave for Egypt and we'll add this service to your account.

ITS gives you discounts on call charges when you are:

1. calling abroad from the UK
2. calling back to the UK while abroad
3. calling 'in-country' while abroad
4. receiving calls while abroad.

For more information on the ITS service, please click on the link given below:

http://www.o2international.co.uk/callingfromoverseas/its.aspx

if orange dont do this why not get an o2 simplicity for 30 days


hope this helps

PS you dont get charged for recieving texts , but you will for calls

katies_mum

Thank you barjam, I appreciate you replying. Think it will make life easier if she does without phone for a week. I`m sure she will manage..only just!!!

Woby_Tide

if she does take it, please SIM lock and phone lock in case of the worst case scenario and it goes walkabouts

katies_mum

Would never have thought about that - didn`t know you could lock both. don`t think we will take it, but will it tell you in instruction book how to do this?

redux

Receiving texts will be free anyway, so no need to worry about that part

There are some services for sending cheap text messages. A mobile Java client sends an equivalent via the phone's data connection. Some are smsbug, Vyke and Fishtext, the last the cheapest at the moment, costing under 2 pence a message, and the network data cost is half a penny or so.

Something else to watch out for if you do take the phone after all is that an incoming call not answered and then going to voicemail can be charged incoming and outgoing roaming rate. So best to divert all calls to voicemail before actually leaving the UK, maybe even leaving a recording about being away for a bit and will call when you get home

If you do go for another SIM card, the phone might need network unlocking, and you could get either a local Egyptian one or one of a few special global roaming SIMs which have free incoming calls in many countries. Some of these could be diverted to from Orange inclusive minutes; but some have increased rates recently and would not be any cheaper for outgoing calls than a local SIM. As well as that, there are ways to use separate services to get cheaper rates using callback, which converts an incoming to an outgoing call ...

However, I suspect I can guess that you might decide that you and she don't need all that extra complication. So I reckon the simple option is sign up for a Fishtext account, recommend it to the friend as well, and divert all the incoming calls to voicemail before leaving the UK.

katies_mum

We have had voice mail taken off the phone, so can`t even use that in the UK. Am I understanding this.. if she gets a text from her friends in the UK then it is free and there is no extra to pay on top of the unlimited texts? so if she text the next room in the hotel would that be free? or am I getting very confused (which is very easy at my age!) thanks you need a lot of patience when explaining things to me.