MSE News: Data charges slashed as mobile roaming costs cut across EU

Former_MSE_Helen

Using your mobile abroad in the European Union becomes cheaper from today ...

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Data charges slashed as mobile roaming costs cut across EU




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ballyblack

SLASHED ??

don't think so, only about 25% on some tariffs

but thanks anyway, every little helps!



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boatman

It's very sneaky of the mobile networks to always opt you out of the 50 euro restriction when you take a data bundle, OFCOM should stop them doing this, surely that is the whole point in bringing in a restriction.
It means if someone takes a data bundle for going abroad, which to most people would seem the sensible thing to do, they are leaving themselves wide open to a big bill as there is no safety net/warning for them until they get their bill..

bubieyehyeh

The bizarre part is on many payg sims it costs less to call and text a UK number when roaming in Europe, than when your at home.

NFH

The price caps are specified in EUR without VAT in Articles 8(2), 10(2) and 13(2) of Regulation (EU) No 31/2012, and in order to convert the price caps to GBP, the EUR/GBP exchange rate is calculated in accordance with Article 1(7) by taking the average of the exchange rates published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 1st March 2014, 1st April 2014 and 1st May 2014, which is 0.82581. Consequently the price caps are now £0.1569/min for outgoing calls, £0.0413 for incoming calls, £0.0495 for outgoing SMS and £0.1652/MB for data. UK VAT of 20% is then added when roaming inside the EU VAT area, but not when roaming in parts of the European Union or wider European Economic Area that are outside the EU VAT area, specifically Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Gibraltar, the Åland Islands, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, RÉunion, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, in accordance with Article 19 of the Value Added Tax (Place of Supply of Services) Order 1992. This is because the United Kingdom opted to exempt non-EU VAT area roaming from UK VAT under Article 9(3)(a) of Council Directive 77/388 (“the Sixth VAT Directive”) so that it could charge UK VAT on services used in the UK but billed outside the UK (e.g. US-based services marketed to UK residents).

Make sure that your network doesn't breach the new price caps by adding an additional 20% (incorrectly representing VAT) when roaming in the Canary Islands or Norway for example. Most networks get this right, but some don’t.

matelodave

They do use colourful language - data rates "slashed", electricity prices "hiked". Must be from the Daily Star or Sun school of journalism

Roger1

'... the new caps apply across the 28 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway ...'

- so not Switzerland. Most UK operators seem to regard Switzerland as beyond the moon, though some offer Switzerland at EU rates.

Does anybody know of a site that compares UK operators' rates in Switzerland? I'm aware of Three's Feels Like Home and Toggle.

Thanks.

olliebears

ASDA mobile sent me a text saying new charge of 19p a min in the EU so I emailed saying ....not legal as it is only 15p ex VAT by law. they thanked me and said they would update their site......we'll see.

Former_MSE_Nick

matelodave wrote: »

They do use colourful language - data rates "slashed", electricity prices "hiked". Must be from the Daily Star or Sun school of journalism

Don't you think a near-55% cut constitutes a slashing? It's still pricey, but it's quite a reduction.

redux

MSE_Nick wrote: »

Don't you think a near-55% cut constitutes a slashing? It's still pricey, but it's quite a reduction.

It's still overworked to the point of cliche, like the even more prevalent "sparked a fuel price war".