Idiot's Guide to Data Roaming with Tesco

albionrovers

Hi
My 14yo daughter is going on a school trip to Normandy soon and I am just looking for a very brief guide to the basics to avoid a high bill when she returns. I've read the Tesco T+Cs and they seem a bit basic. She has an Iphone contract with Tesco. Anyone with similar had a foreign trip and found any pitfalls? Info. re. calls/txts and data all welcome. Many thanks.

No snipers please re. 14yo and Iphone. And no, she can't take a cheap handset away instead, reason being that she's 14. Ta.

grumbler

The briefest ever guide: switch the !!!!ing mobile data off altogether and use it on free wifi only. If you don't do this, the result will be the same regardless after iPhone swallows first 80Mb that will cost you £40.

The rest depends on on what she and you really need.
For calls/texts see http://phone-shop.tesco.com/tesco-mobile/help-and-support/country-selector.aspx.

If you are not happy with paying these prices and the phone is not locked use a cheaper provider, e.g. Toggle Mobile:

NFH wrote: »

The best option would be Toggle Mobile on a prepaid basis. Outgoing calls are 3p/min from the UK or France. Incoming calls are free in both countries. He can also have both a UK and French mobile number simultaneously on the same SIM card. They have UK data for £5/500MB/month, but it's 15p/MB in France.

And if it's Tesco, cap the tariff and/or make sure that both the phone and the sim are protected with PIN/pattern.

tyllwyd

My 14 year old DD went to Paris a few weeks ago, and I'm afraid I did send her with a cheap android handset and a PAYG sim. She didn't moan too much - it was better than no phone at all.

They discovered that the hotel has free WiFi though, which helped.

She was on orange, and she got a text to say how much mobile data would cost - I think it was about 59p per MB. I thought about buying her a bundle but the cost would have been stupid (Tesco's website says "If you’re in the EU, this means you’ll be able to use up to 80MB for £40.")

Are they going to Paris at all? Because my DD said that they had a lot of hassle on the metro from random men, and a few attempts at pickpocketing phones, so tell her to be careful.

Toxteth_OGrady

If she's on a pay monthly contract, capped tariff then she won't be allowed to use data abroad unless you pay for additional top-ups.

Using your phone abroad
As you’ve capped your contract, you’ve got complete control over how much you spend while you’re abroad – you can only spend as much as you top-up, so you won’t get any unexpected charges on your bill.

What do I need to do?
You’ll need to top-up your phone if you want to use it abroad. Just call 4444 free of charge from your handset or to find out more click here.

Quoted from http://phone-shop.tesco.com/tesco-mobile/help-and-support/going-abroad.aspx

I am a Tesco Mobile capped, pay monthly customer and have used the phone abroad (both inside and outside EU) so I can confirm this is how it works.

NiftyDigits

albionrovers wrote: »

Hi
My 14yo daughter is going on a school trip to Normandy soon and I am just looking for a very brief guide to the basics to avoid a high bill when she returns. I've read the Tesco T+Cs and they seem a bit basic. She has an Iphone contract with Tesco. Anyone with similar had a foreign trip and found any pitfalls? Info. re. calls/txts and data all welcome. Many thanks.

No snipers please re. 14yo and Iphone. And no, she can't take a cheap handset away instead, reason being that she's 14. Ta.

What I would do is to try an O2 PAYG SIM in the iPhone.

Relax, when in France,
you're on O2 Travel
It costs just £1.99 for a day's worth of data
(up to 25MB).

Pay & Go customers will be charged 28p per
minute to make calls and 7p per minute to
receive calls
Text messages cost 8p per message
(It's always free to receive texts)

In order to benefit you must be registered for O2 Travel.
You can opt in to O2 Travel by sending TRAVELON to 21300 or by calling 2202 which is free from your O2 mobile.
If you opt in, O2 Travel may take up to 24 hours to be applied to your account.

It's the network that Tesco uses, so it might(probably will) work without the phone being unlocked. Though you can also call O2 to unlock the phone for you in the meantime.
If the O2 SIM works, then top it up with at least £2 for every day that she is away plus a decent buffer of, say £10. Personally I would put £10 and give her a £10 voucher to take with her. That way if perchance she uses too much data and accidentally uses up her credit, then she'll be able to top up on the spot. Do read the terms & conditions.

If she uses the Tesco contract SIM and uses data whilst away, she probably get cut off after a day or two of using Facebook.
So, try an O2 PAYG SIM in the first instance.
The same amount of data would cost you £17.25 per day on Tesco Mobile and she'll be cut off from using data on day three at the latest.

19lottie82

Turn the data roaming off (ALL of the time). Simple.

albionrovers

Thanks guys, all very useful.
She is very disciplined but I fear the worst.
Strangely, she isn't too fussed about Facebook but, being away from (some of) her pals, that'll no doubt change for the duration.

A PAYG SIM is a great idea and is currently favourite.

albionrovers

Toggle offer 3 kinds of SIM - Normal/Marco/Nano. I am guessing the an Iphone 4S that uses a micro-sim would be "Marco" - process of elimination? Anyone know? Thanks.

albionrovers

And if it's Tesco, cap the tariff and/or make sure that both the phone and the sim are protected with PIN/pattern.[/QUOTE]

Both apply already, thanks.

grumbler

albionrovers wrote: »

Toggle offer 3 kinds of SIM - Normal/Marco/Nano. I am guessing the an Iphone 4S that uses a micro-sim would be "Marco" - process of elimination? Anyone know? Thanks.

I can only guess that this is a typo.

redux

I'm not a iPhone user, so can't advise specifically to that, but set up the various applications to manual update only, and emails to headers only if possible and just read a couple and leave the rest until later.

Opera Mini browser with images turned off, on mobile specific sites, can use very modest amounts of data, like 5 or 10 kilobytes a page (including Gmail).