MSE News: EE, T-Mob, Orange, Virgin Mob & Tesco Mob charge when recieving VM abroad

trinidadone

Hello all,

Money Saving Expert reported recently:

EE
T-Mobile
Orange
Tesco Mobile
Virgin Mobile

Will now charge its customers who travel outside of Europe, roaming charges when calls are diverted to voice mail.

You could be charged up to £2.50 per minute to receive a call followed by a further up to £2.50 per minute, when diverted to your voice mail.

Charges vary, depending on which country out side of the EU your located in.

Might be better to switch off your voice mail when traveling outside of the EU, and not just switching off the handset.

Giffgaff, 02, Three, and vodaphone charge their customers outside of the EU, when listerning to their voice mail.

These are also additional charges for EE, Orange, T-mobile, Virgin Mobile and Tesco Mobile cusotmers, on top of someone actually leaving you a voice mail.

Remember to disable your voicemail, BEFORE travelling if possible

grumbler

I don't understand why this is a big "news"...

The warning always was in their long-standing guide Mobile Roaming

• - Voicemail can cost big

indesisiv

Still seems a bit of a cheek that they can charge you for someone else ringing you when you don't even answer it.
I understand charging you if you listen to your voicemail this makes sense, but for just someone else leaving a message seems wrong.

Anoneemoose

indesisiv wrote: »

Still seems a bit of a cheek that they can charge you for someone else ringing you when you don't even answer it.
I understand charging you if you listen to your voicemail this makes sense, but for just someone else leaving a message seems wrong.

It has always been this way, well at least from when I started working for Orange back in 2003.

It costs because when someone leaves a voicemail, you are having to use the foreign network so they usually charge the cost as if you were receiving a call.

There has always been the option of switching voicemail off before leaving and switching it back on when returning.

jb66

If someone leaves a voicemail, the recording stays in the UK at your mobile operators system. No roaming has occurred, I would fight this

d123

jb66 wrote: »

If someone leaves a voicemail, the recording stays in the UK at your mobile operators system. No roaming has occurred, I would fight this

It doesn't, the call has to go to the mobile and then when diverted (whether it rings out, is busy or no signal) is bounced back to the UK by the roaming network. There is an outbound call and then a second return call involved.

This has been the case since at least 2001.

simax

.... except for Orange. The way their call routing is set up means that the call only leaves the UK if a mobile phone answers. If it goes to VM then the call stays in the UK. This way there is no VM divert charges. EE and T-Mobile still charge however as their systems are different.