Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

the_positron

MSE_Becca wrote: »

Hi Positron, I've just had a quick look at the Ts&Cs of the Europe Traveller bundle, and it says that prices include VAT. I will double check this with Orange though to confirm.

Many thanks,
MSE Becca

Thanks for investigating this Becca and you're right the T & Cs do say including VAT. I've been charged VAT though. I've sent Orange a formal complaint by email about this 4 times. Each time it's bounced: "Whoops, sorry due to circumstances beyond our control...... we can't access your email" (or something like that: the irritatingly patronising tone of "Whoops" annoys me intensely but that's another matter). I've now written to them about it and await their reply with interest. I'll keep you informed when/if they reply.

Doc_N

the_positron wrote: »

Thanks for investigating this Becca and you're right the T & Cs do say including VAT. I've been charged VAT though. I've sent Orange a formal complaint by email about this 4 times. Each time it's bounced: "Whoops, sorry due to circumstances beyond our control...... we can't access your email" (or something like that: the irritatingly patronising tone of "Whoops" annoys me intensely but that's another matter). I've now written to them about it and await their reply with interest. I'll keep you informed when/if they reply.

Are you sure you've got that right?

I've used both of the European bundles and each of them has been charged at the VAT-inclusive rate shown on their website - £5.10 and £10.21.

For example, from a recent bill:

Europe Traveller for 30 days : 20 Jun £4.25
200 mins free to receive roaming calls
200 mins discounted roaming calls

1jim

Does the O2 travel deal click in when you reach your destination or do you need to click anything online to set it up?
Have just activated a sim card and topped up in anticipation of the trip so credit ready to be taken just wondered if I needed to actively do something or if the welcome to Ireland would be enough

buglawton

Thats exactly why I vote this the simlpest+cheapest SIM overall at the moment: I topped up the o2 SIM with £10 before departing UK. On arrival in Europe a text arrived stating £1.99 would be debited from my £10 balance for one day/25mb surfing. No other action to take. In the UK you should be able to top up via 4444 (not sure if you need to [re-register a credit card to it though). I am not certain if the 4444 method works from Europe.

spiro

buglawton wrote: »

Thats exactly why I vote this the simlpest+cheapest SIM overall at the moment: I topped up the o2 SIM with £10 before departing UK. On arrival in Europe a text arrived stating £1.99 would be debited from my £10 balance for one day/25mb surfing. No other action to take. In the UK you should be able to top up via 4444 (not sure if you need to [re-register a credit card to it though). I am not certain if the 4444 method works from Europe.

You need to be aware of 'per day' because with VF its based on UK time.

buglawton

Remember that Europe is generally 1 hour ahead of UK. So you get until 1 a.m. on this basis. Even better!

An o2 link confirming whether UK or local time is really in force would be handy.

osirisja

Hi all

I just wanted to share my findings with the Geosim global roaming service and hopefully give you some food for thought before considering using them.

I just returned from Turkey and took a Geosim with me. I also purchased an unlocked Geosim Nokia handset so I could be sure the sim worked properly. You are provided with an 0770 number which Geosim insist is a standard Mainland UK Mobile number.

The service basically requires you to call the number you want (in my case a UK number), you then get a message saying the call couldn't be connected, and the call is terminated. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Geosim is connecting the call. The service then calls your Geosim mobile number back. You answer it and the call is connected. The calls did work - some of the time, but I found the following:

1. The call quality back to the UK was poor to average at best,

2. while it was free to receive calls it cost my friends and family a fortune to call me as the number is in fact classed as a premium number from the UK network providers - Not a standard UK Mobile Number!

3. if you happen to use up your sim call credit the sim and number ceases to function completely - no inbound calls or messages are allowed,

4. Even with call credit available, friends and family reported that they could not connect to the number when they called it but they were still charged for the call

Because Geosim do not make these facts perfectly clear on their web site or subsequent communications, this service IMO is verging upon being seriously misleading! I am passing my findings over to Ofcom.

Rgrds

Andy

Chuffy73

Be aware that as of this date Orange are being decidedly sneaky in order to try and get you to 'opt out' of the EU rules on roaming charges.

I called up to get roaming enabled on my mobile for a trip to Ireland next month and I was offered the opportunity to buy a bundle and told that the standard data charge was £3 per Mb (this is the same figure quoted on their website and also texted to you when you enable roaming). Naturally I queried this, citing reports (apparently i'm not allowed to post links) on the new EU rules, I was left on hold while the rep went off to 'clarify' things and she eventually came back saying that their "systems hadn't been updated yet" and that the 56p figure was correct. She even went so far as to admit that the new charges had been in place since the beginning of the month and yet they were still quoting the £3 per Mb figure.

Obviously their £15 for 30Mb bundle is now considerably less attractive than it used to be, specially if you aren't sure you're going to use that much. Personally I will simply turn off all the data services that I won't be using (mail sync etc) and just keep my data useage as low as possible. I have no proof that this is a deliberate ploy by Orange, but it certainly leaves a pretty sour taste in the mouth.

mrcamp

Geosim and most of the other international sim providers that use callback (almost all of them do) route the call via the internet. So the call quality is usually questionable. Also, most of them give UK and other numbers (Isle of man, Estonia, etc.) that a considered premium by most providers, and some do not even connect to it.

Bottom line - make sure you have a backup if you are carrying any of these sim cards. I have experience with several. Majority of them are NOT reliable.

osirisja wrote: »

Hi all

I just wanted to share my findings with the Geosim global roaming service and hopefully give you some food for thought before considering using them.

I just returned from Turkey and took a Geosim with me. I also purchased an unlocked Geosim Nokia handset so I could be sure the sim worked properly. You are provided with an 0770 number which Geosim insist is a standard Mainland UK Mobile number.

The service basically requires you to call the number you want (in my case a UK number), you then get a message saying the call couldn't be connected, and the call is terminated. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Geosim is connecting the call. The service then calls your Geosim mobile number back. You answer it and the call is connected. The calls did work - some of the time, but I found the following:

1. The call quality back to the UK was poor to average at best,

2. while it was free to receive calls it cost my friends and family a fortune to call me as the number is in fact classed as a premium number from the UK network providers - Not a standard UK Mobile Number!

3. if you happen to use up your sim call credit the sim and number ceases to function completely - no inbound calls or messages are allowed,

4. Even with call credit available, friends and family reported that they could not connect to the number when they called it but they were still charged for the call

Because Geosim do not make these facts perfectly clear on their web site or subsequent communications, this service IMO is verging upon being seriously misleading! I am passing my findings over to Ofcom.

Rgrds

Andy

Aaron

eagleeye wrote: »

Vectone- receive calls in USA,Canada & India for 1p /minute.

I don't believe that any more. I brought a Vectone SIM with me to the USA. No service and I've tried lots of stuff (different Vectone Services settings, manual network selection...) in three cities, two of them among the biggest in the country. No reply from customer services. I'm glad I had more SIMs with me and wifi in the last city!