Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

slinger_2

elliottkiki wrote: »

I have just received my mobile phone bill for £449.51 !!! as I used it whilst on a 2 week holiday in Turkey! Yes, I expected my bill to be large, even though i wasn't using it that much , honest, but i didn't expect it to be so HUGE. I have spoke to my provider (orange) and they're not budging! I have been with them for 13 years and spend about £50 per month ... is there anything i can do??? :mad: or does this hideous bill stand!

I've just received my bill today from Orange, we were in Turkey 2 weeks ago for a week and I made 4 short phone calls whilst there. My bill........... £135!!!! They have charged me £1.30 a time for each unanswered phone call I made (which was quite a few), I didnt know that they charged for unanswered calls. It will certainly teach me to read things in future, but one thing is for certain I will never take a mobile phone abroad with me ever again! :mad:

inmypocketnottheirs

savings4me wrote: »

Does anyone know how long it wll take to receive either a storytelecom or sim4travel card?

Thanks

Sim4Travel generally arrive next day.

hillendale

Keep a look out for 'truphone local ' when it comes out, looks a good option for roaming

redux

hillendale wrote: »

Keep a look out for 'truphone local ' when it comes out, looks a good option for roaming

It was announced in February as coming later this year.

In January, they had changed quite a lot of rates on Sim4travel, reducing the number of countries with free incoming calls to about half of Europe plus a handful of others, and increasing outgoing rates in many countries e.g. Australia Egypt from 25p to 49p a minute.

Are there any more details yet for Truphone Local, and will rates drop to match rates of local SIM cards, some of which are in single figures?

deano27_2

slinger wrote: »

I've just received my bill today from Orange, we were in Turkey 2 weeks ago for a week and I made 4 short phone calls whilst there. My bill........... £135!!!! They have charged me £1.30 a time for each unanswered phone call I made (which was quite a few), I didnt know that they charged for unanswered calls. It will certainly teach me to read things in future, but one thing is for certain I will never take a mobile phone abroad with me ever again! :mad:

Is this your voicemail service? When someone leaves a message when you are connected to a non uk network you get what is called tromboning,,,turn it off in future. It is terrible how they get away with it, but it happens!!

Outbound roamers want to stay in touch and continue to use their voicemail, or alternate call forwarding, when they cannot answer a call. If the roamer is either unavailable, busy or simply chooses not to answer, the visited network routes the call back to the home voicemail system (default setting). This inefficient international tromboning negatively impacts the subscriber and caller experience, as well as forcing either the subscribers or operators to pay international tariffs for voicemail deposits and alternate forwarding.

justice4all_2

:eek:

redux wrote: »

You need to make sure your phones are tri- or quadband, as America uses the different frequencies of 850 and 1900 MHz.

Get two (or more if necessary) local SIM cards, available at plenty of stores. Calls will cost between 10 and maybe 20 cents, for both incoming and outgoing calls.

The main networks are AT&T Cingular and T-mobile, with some virtual brands as well (like Virgin on T-mobile here). You can get details, including tariffs and links to network's websites

As you'll see, some only seem to have a kit including a phone, and the tariffs on some depend on the top-up value chosen.

If you're happy looking on eBay, I'm told there are often T-mobile and Cingular SIMs available at a discount to the remaining credit. Myself, I'd just go to a shop.

If you will also make calls back to the UK after all, then Tuyo looks interesting as it's only a couple of cents more than local calls. Or find a calling card method (there are hundreds though) with one of the other SIMs. If people want to call you, then recommend a search of the MSE Callchecker to reach you for from 0.5p/min

:eek:DONT TOUCH TUYO Its a company from hell, they wont let you use a U.K. credit card, to load before you go, then the accounts department shuts at Friday teatime till Monday morning, so even if you find a shop to reload on a sat, you wont get credit till Monday, then they use the excuse of activation, go back to shop, you might be miles away , the stores in NEW YORK are not all there, they have shut down, list needs updating, The Company is based in the panama canal area:mad:

mrcamp

Not Tuyo's fault. Same thing with the UK carriers. You cannot topup with a US issued credit card. You can buy tuyo topups online or even register online and topup online. You can also topup from your phone. My brother in the UL used his UK issued American Express to topup is tuyo a couple of years ago. Tuyo customer service that handles topups is open 24/7.

http://www.tuyo.com/recharge/default.aspx?lang=en

justice4all wrote: »

:eek:
:eek:DONT TOUCH TUYO Its a company from hell, they wont let you use a U.K. credit card, to load before you go, then the accounts department shuts at Friday teatime till Monday morning, so even if you find a shop to reload on a sat, you wont get credit till Monday, then they use the excuse of activation, go back to shop, you might be miles away , the stores in NEW YORK are not all there, they have shut down, list needs updating, The Company is based in the panama canal area:mad:

Raven

Going to lanzarote in a few days. . . .

We have 3 contract phones and also Vodafon payg - whats the best options for us at the moment?





Raven

davidoftheshire

Hi,

My question relates specifically to texting from overseas.

My mother in law is going on a trip to Hong Kong, New Zealand, Hawaii and San Francisco (a 2 month holiday).

She has an Orange PAYG SIM and has asked me what would be the best deal for texting from these places. Not really interested in voice calls.

I had a look at the Orange web site which says that PAYG sims should already be set-up for overseas use and looking at the costs to send from the countries above, seems to be about 45p - 50p per text.

Now, is there a better deal to be had? Would it be worth her buying another networks PAYG sim to use when travelling that has cheaper texts?

Whatever we choose, it has to be simple - no different from her texting as she does today on Orange.

Any info would be useful.

Thanks.

mrcamp

I can only speak for her San Francisco trip. With a 2 month stay in San Fran, she would be better off with a tmobile sim. As posted in the other threads, it costs $0.10 to send texts within the US or international. She can get the sim in any of the local stores walmart, target, bestbuy, etc. Another option is ebay.

davidoftheshire wrote: »

Hi,

My question relates specifically to texting from overseas.

My mother in law is going on a trip to Hong Kong, New Zealand, Hawaii and San Francisco (a 2 month holiday).

She has an Orange PAYG SIM and has asked me what would be the best deal for texting from these places. Not really interested in voice calls.

I had a look at the Orange web site which says that PAYG sims should already be set-up for overseas use and looking at the costs to send from the countries above, seems to be about 45p - 50p per text.

Now, is there a better deal to be had? Would it be worth her buying another networks PAYG sim to use when travelling that has cheaper texts?

Whatever we choose, it has to be simple - no different from her texting as she does today on Orange.

Any info would be useful.

Thanks.