Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

RishiC

My fiance and I went to India this month for 10 days, and she was sure she turned off the wifi on her iPhone. She had not used it for any internet services what so ever and only really used it for listening to music and a handful of very short calls.

We got back on Saturday and today her phone got cut. When she rang t-mobile to find out why, to her horror they said she has hit the £700 limit!!!

Is there anything we can do? Any advice - she didnt even use any data services, and surely there should be some limit or cap, even outside of Europe??? Any advice would be great.

mrcamp

She should have turned off data roaming/cellular data. Sould have been able to use WiFi, which should not be charged for by her provider. I suspect the phone was downloading data/making updates in the background. Ask her to plead innocence with the carrier politely, and see if they can reduce the bill.

RishiC wrote: »

My fiance and I went to India this month for 10 days, and she was sure she turned off the wifi on her iPhone. She had not used it for any internet services what so ever and only really used it for listening to music and a handful of very short calls.

We got back on Saturday and today her phone got cut. When she rang t-mobile to find out why, to her horror they said she has hit the £700 limit!!!

Is there anything we can do? Any advice - she didnt even use any data services, and surely there should be some limit or cap, even outside of Europe??? Any advice would be great.

lfish

This is an issue that really annoys me. Damn those ghastly phone companies.There's been some really useful advice on here though to ensure I never get stung again.

RishiC

mrcamp wrote: »

She should have turned off data roaming/cellular data. Sould have been able to use WiFi, which should not be charged for by her provider. I suspect the phone was downloading data/making updates in the background. Ask her to plead innocence with the carrier politely, and see if they can reduce the bill.

She was sure she did but now difficult to be sure as we are back in the UK. But even if she did accidently leave it on, she definitely did not use the web even once, so i cannot understand how it totals £700....

Absolutely ludicrous...

grumbler

If the data roaming is not switched off the phone uses internet without asking the owner.
At £7.50/Mb £700 is less than 100Mb of data.

iPhone is known to use the data even if data roaming is switched off: Complaints over erroneous iPhone data roaming charges

hongkong

So... I'm new to this smartphone thing. I have a pay mnthly plan with Virgin that includes 500MB per month. I rarely use more than 50MB each month in the UK. I don't dowloand or watch music/videos on my phone, I mostly use it to check news websites and for sat nav.

I don't really understnad how the phone works.

I'm going to Moroccoa next week. I don't plan to make any calls but I will send a few texts.

But mainly, will I pay to use data abroad? e.g. if i switch on the sat nav, or surf the web, is that included in my 500MB or does it cost extra abroad?

thanks very much in advance.

mrcamp

When you use it from abroad, you are roaming, it does not include your data allowance. So, it will be quite expensive. As for text cost while roaming, check your providers website. Receiving txt will be free.

hongkong wrote: »

So... I'm new to this smartphone thing. I have a pay mnthly plan with Virgin that includes 500MB per month. I rarely use more than 50MB each month in the UK. I don't dowloand or watch music/videos on my phone, I mostly use it to check news websites and for sat nav.

I don't really understnad how the phone works.

I'm going to Moroccoa next week. I don't plan to make any calls but I will send a few texts.

But mainly, will I pay to use data abroad? e.g. if i switch on the sat nav, or surf the web, is that included in my 500MB or does it cost extra abroad?

thanks very much in advance.

grumbler

hongkong wrote: »

But mainly, will I pay to use data abroad? e.g. if i switch on the sat nav, or surf the web, is that included in my 500MB or does it cost extra abroad?

Switch data roaming off. Otherwise your phone will use data in background without asking you and we'll have another horror story here.

Mobile Roaming

jago25_98

Anyone got any more callback providers for use with local simcards?

redux

jago25_98 wrote: »

Anyone got any more callback providers for use with local simcards?

Apart from the Betamax/Dellmont brands which I believe you're already aware of, there are dozens, maybe more

try Google

I can't recommend several, as I haven't used a lot, but I'd take a look around and compare rates, ease of payment, and variety of callback methods (ANI, SMS, web, etc)

I like the look of Call2, and set up an account, but I haven't actually used it yet. I used to use Voipfone, which was fine. Mywebcalls seems to have been taken over or rebranded, but I haven't tried it since.

There are loads of them