data roaming charges in uk rip off??

jamiecox

hi, firstly if this is in the wrong place, apologies, please advise me where it should be posted?

ok, ive been with orange for 4 years, always been kind of happy with service and have gone over my contracted bill a handfull of times due to to much talktime or usage, all which have been justified by bills and my own usage. however since upgrading to a iphone 4s 3 months ago and downgrading my monthly contract but not getting less msgs, talktime or internet usage, every bill i have received has been way over my usual bills. i have rang orange and they told me to turn off data roaming in settings which i have so i will see if that makes a difference but what puzzles me is that i havent been abroad at all and i havent used my phone any more in the past 3 months than i have in the past 4 years so why the sudden increase in bills?

when i signed up to the phone upgrade the person from orange advising me told me that i had more than enough internet allowance and i will never go over, but by all accounts its my data charges that are taking my bill from £26.50 a month to nearly £80 some months??? please help, because if it keeps happening il be canceling the direct debit and then hiding from the debt collectors!!

thanks. jamie

kai666

Switching off data roaming won't do a thing unless you go abroad. Useless piece of advice.

How much data do you get each month?

albionsarah

I always used to go over my data allowance too.
Things that helped were:

downloading an app called Onavo Extend (not entirely sure how it works but saved me loads!)

turning off push notifications for everything

turning off location services

using wi-fi (if you have it) at home and when out and about. I work for Argos and all customers can come in and use our free wifi now.

Hope some of this is helpful

grumbler

jamiecox wrote: »

...however since upgrading to a iphone 4s 3 months ago and downgrading my monthly contract but not getting less msgs, talktime or internet usage,

What do you mean by downgrading then?

every bill i have received has been way over my usual bills. i have rang orange and they told me to turn off data roaming in settings which i have so i will see if that makes a difference but what puzzles me is that i havent been abroad at all and i havent used my phone any more in the past 3 months than i have in the past 4 years so why the sudden increase in bills?

iPhones are notorious for consuming more data than most other phones.

when i signed up to the phone upgrade the person from orange advising me told me that i had more than enough internet allowance and i will never go over,

Never believe in anything salespeople tell you.

jamiecox

i get 750 mb data a month.

when i said downgrading the contract i meant the monthly cost was less but my minutes, msgs and data stayed the same.

grumbler

Disable all automatic upgrades and do them manually via wifi only. This is the most likely reason of all unexpected excessive data charges.

Frozen_up_north

jamiecox wrote: »

when i signed up to the phone upgrade the person from orange advising me told me that i had more than enough internet allowance and i will never go over, but by all accounts its my data charges that are taking my bill from £26.50 a month to nearly £80 some months??? please help, because if it keeps happening il be canceling the direct debit and then hiding from the debt collectors!!

thanks. jamie

I never fail to be amazed at how phone sales people lie to customers about data use, a friend foolishly took out an O2 SIM only contract for 12 months and said it was for an iPhone 4S... It was their Simplicity £8 per month deal, which only has 100 MB of data, they had to upgrade to a more expensive option -you couldn't make it up.

Any "smart phone" (not just an iPhone) has all sorts of lovely Apps to eat up data. My other half often watches Youtube videos and listens to internet radio at work, she uses between 3 and 5 GB per month without really trying. Just as well it's on unlimited data on the Three "One Plan".

You need to swap your plan (or network) when your contract ends, in the mean time turn off Cellular Data when you don't need it. It's in Settings/General/Cellular/Cellular Data. Also, reset your usage at the start of your charging period so you can keep an eye on it (Settings/General/Usage).

Do not cancel your direct debit, you can end up with a bad credit rating for years to come...

gjchester

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

Any "smart phone" (not just an iPhone) has all sorts of lovely Apps to eat up data. My other half often watches Youtube videos and listens to internet radio at work, she uses between 3 and 5 GB per month without really trying.

To be fair that's not down to an App doing updates or the fact it's a smart phone, it's down to the way the device is used.

This may actually be a root cause, it's not the device is using a lot more data through anything "it" does, more the user uses the device more when not on WiFi and so consumes more data.

jamiecox

if i was to ring orange and explain to them i dont fully understand why my bills are so high, and when i upgraded i dont feel the salesman was honest do you think i have any kind of rights? ive been with orange for four years so its not as if i just took the contract out with no intention of paying it just to get the iphone?

on another note, if i was just to stop paying the monthly subscription and let the debt collectors get involved, would it go to court and then i could argue my case with more hope of it being dealt with someone more fairer than the mobile company??

grumbler

jamiecox wrote: »

if i was to ring orange and explain to them i dont fully understand why my bills are so high, and when i upgraded i dont feel the salesman was honest do you think i have any kind of rights? ive been with orange for four years so its not as if i just took the contract out with no intention of paying it just to get the iphone?

With correct settings 750Mb is an adequate allowance if you don't stream videos/music and don't do updates via mobile data.

on another note, if i was just to stop paying the monthly subscription and let the debt collectors get involved, would it go to court and then i could argue my case with more hope of it being dealt with someone more fairer than the mobile company??

Court is unlikely, but a trashed credit history will stop you from getting any credit, including mobile contracts, in the next 6 years.