Taking phone abroad - how to avoid massive bill

prowla

Turn off data roaming.

I'm not sure if capping rules apply outside of the EU.

Mobeer

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

That won't work as switching on airplane mode automatically disables Wi-Fi on all phones.

Hence my ordering of events. Switch on airplane mode first (which switches off wifi) and then switch on wifi. Don't know about all phones, but this works just fine on the Nexus 4 that I have.

scottishminnie

Thanks to all who have responded.


I will only use for incoming/outgoing text. Do not use to phone while abroad and certainly won't be web surfing or anything other than text so couldn't really understand why Vodafone said I couldn't just make it behave like a basic phone.


I'll follow the instructions given for turning of the roaming and use as I had planned for text.


Giraffe -like you I fail to understand why I shouldn't be allowed to turn it off. I'm afraid my response to this statement was a pretty petulant "so what are you going to do about it if I do turn the updates off".
I didn't even get a reply - he simply moved on to the next customer waiting behind me. So I'll simply do what I want!


Thanks again

terra_ferma

Buzby wrote: »

Really? How do you cap a service that is billed retrospectively? If you use, you pay. The home network has no idea of what your usage is until it is told, and as this is up to the foreign network to tell it, you are at the mercy of how quickly it is done - some can settle in real time, others go through roaming consolidators and this can add 3 or more days.

They're advice is sound - and for those that do offer 'caps' read the small print. It is an aspiration, if a glitch prevents the cap operating you are still liable. NALOPKT.

This is what Tesco say:

Pay monthly Capped customers who joined on or after 8 August 2013
You can use your phone abroad straight away. Remember, any usage abroad isn’t included as part of your monthly minutes, texts or data, so you’ll be charged at standard rates. These charges will come out of your safety buffer. Rest assured, we won’t let you go over your bill cap. If you reach your bill cap, you’ll only be able to use your phone if you make a one-off payment on your account or change your safety buffer.

I didn't find anything in their t&c that contradicts this, but you sound so much more informed than I am perhaps you can point to the right information?

This is what o2 say:

How does O2 Travel work?

You'll only be charged £1.99 for the days that you use data in Europe.

• There's a daily allowance of 15MB and if you reach this, the service will stop.
• If you want to use more you can simply text MOREDATA to 23336 to reset your allowance for another £1.99 / 15MB. If you don't, your allowance will be automatically reset at midnight.

When you make or receive calls between countries in Europe, there's a connection charge of 50p, then it's free to talk for up to 60 minutes.
Texts sent to the UK and Europe - 7p (free to receive).

t&c state:

Data notifications will be sent to you when you have reached 80 and 100 percent of your allowance at which point you will be able to reset your daily allowance by texting moredata to 23336 for a further charge of £1.99 and you will receive a further 15MB for use in the selected destinations. Texts to 23336 cost 7p. .

When you reach your daily allowance of 15MB and do not reset your allowance we will stop your data service until your allowance refreshes the following day when you will receive a further 15MB for £1.99.

the information above applies to EU countries, which is what I was looking at, this is what o2 says about the US:

If you're a Pay Monthly customer and travelling outside of Europe then we will cap your internet use at £40. You can raise this cap to £120 by calling customer services. So you can relax knowing you will never pay over a specified amount.

Again maybe you can point to the correct information if you think I'm wrong.

Vodafone

Hi scottishminnie,

Thanks for making me aware of your recent experience.

It's good to see that other users have clarified that you can disable data roaming via your phone's settings.

If you'd like me to get things addressed with the store in question, could you email me with your details via the link in our profile here?

All you need to do is copy and paste the link into your web browser and it'll take you to the Contact us form on our website. To make sure it reaches me could you also quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line?

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. So I can make sure I've got it could you update the thread with this and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations

Vodafone UK

barmonkey

What you need id a Three sim

http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.DLL?Command=New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=Article,varset_cat=roaming,varset_subcat=4157,Case=obj(8216)

missile

I hired a portable Wifi hotspot for 4€ day whilst in Spain. I am sure you will be able to do similar in USofA