Roaming Withdrawn Mid-Use

Saltrams

We all have to live glued to our mobiles now. Not for old fashioned phone calls (I never do that) but for one-time-passcodes and two-factor-authentication in order to get anything done or paid for.

So, sympathy please for this scenario in which I find myself:

I have an MSE blagged Lebara SIM; it’s great, very cheap, 4Gb data (which I never use, more of that later) and roaming in the EU “as I can in the UK” (or rather, NOT).

As I mentioned, I use very little of my 4Gb data allowance. I don’t feel the need to monitor my social media or watch videos of influencers on Snap-Tok. I occasionally check on a Website or two when outside my home, so I doubt I use even half a gigabyte per month. However, when I travel abroad, the mobile data roaming comes into its own. I’m abroad without home broadband so I use my phone for lots of the things I use my home broadband for in UK. Particularly true when I’m away in Italy for the summer, as I am now from late May to early September without a home Internet connection. I use the phone as a hotspot so I can use a Web browser; always mindful of my data allowance, I check & monitor my usage in my account section of the Lebara App.

This scenario was working normally until one day I received this message:

“Hello, your roaming usage exceeds fair usage policies because you are using your phone more in roaming than you do at home in the UK. 

As per EU regulation, an additional surcharge of 0.20p/MB for data, 0.01p/sec for incoming calls, 0.04p/sec for outgoing calls and 0.8p per SMS will start to apply after 15 days of this notification. To avoid this extra cost, please use your phone more within the UK than you do in the EU. To continue using the service in roaming with this additional surcharge, you will require top up credit. To get additional top up, visit [Lebara Website]. For more details on roaming visit [Lebara Website]”

!!!!!!??? I’m being penalised for NOT using much data in UK and then using it WHEN I ACTUALLY NEED IT? I rang Lebara of course, who disclaimed all responsibility or assistance, as it’s an EU regulation. I was nice & friendly and asked for this to be removed because I still have six weeks abroad and will be adrift without any connectivity but they said it happens automatically and they can’t change it. Of course they drew my attention to all this being in the Ts&Cs (which are there to read thoroughly & carefully before travelling because one has nothing better to do).

Of course, I have an Italian PAYG phone for random Internet browsing but I can’t get OTPs or MFA with a foreign number.

So now I’m stuck. And in the future, when I get back to UK, I shall have to diary an action for a couple of days before my monthly contract rollover to play streaming movies constantly to use up my data for the month and avoid this happening in the future!

How counter-productive, stupid, irrational, unhelpful and irritating is this? Oh, wait, “EU Regulation” just about sums that up doesn’t it?

southsidergs

If you're away that often why not pick up a local sim card? Hardly " counter-productive, stupid, irrational, unhelpful and irritating" you're using a UK sim card more overseas yet expect that to be ok?

flaneurs_lobster

Saltrams said:

How counter-productive, stupid, irrational, unhelpful and irritating is this? Oh, wait, “EU Regulation” just about sums that up doesn’t it?

If only there was an agreement between European countries such that their citizen's mobile phone use was harmonised and all mobiles would operate Europe-wide exactly as they do in your Home country.......

fiish

southsidergs said:

If you're away that often why not pick up a local sim card? Hardly " counter-productive, stupid, irrational, unhelpful and irritating" you're using a UK sim card more overseas yet expect that to be ok?

OP has mentioned having a local SIM card already. They have also mentioned the use of MFA and OTP, using a local SIM would defeat this use case, as it would have a different phone number, and without the data access required, they're effectively cut off from some services, e.g. online banking.

d123

fiish said:

southsidergs said:

If you're away that often why not pick up a local sim card? Hardly " counter-productive, stupid, irrational, unhelpful and irritating" you're using a UK sim card more overseas yet expect that to be ok?

OP has mentioned having a local SIM card already. They have also mentioned the use of MFA and OTP, using a local SIM would defeat this use case, as it would have a different phone number, and without the data access required, they're effectively cut off from some services, e.g. online banking.

Why would a large amount of data be required to receive OTP codes?

Roaming allowances were never intended to be used as a broadband alternative while in a roaming country for many months at a time, even prior to Brexit there was a period limitation of around 60 days iirc.

brook_heather

Do you have a dual sim phone?  There is no cost to receive the OTP codes so if you have both sims in your phone just turn off data on the Lebara sim.  Most providers will have similar "fair use" clauses for EU roaming.

Saltrams

brook_heather said:

Do you have a dual sim phone?  There is no cost to receive the OTP codes so if you have both sims in your phone just turn off data on the Lebara sim.  Most providers will have similar "fair use" clauses for EU roaming.

Alas no, but I have spare handsets. Are you saying that I will in fact receive OTP SMS messages for free & not pay the 0.8p SMS rate that Lebara quoted? Whilst not ideal, that would be very much more helpful.

brook_heather

Lebara clearly state the charge is for outgoing SMS:

https://mobile.lebara.com/gb/en/rates

1. This scheme is designed for customers who primarily live in the UK and ideal for short trips to other places in the EU. To safeguard against abuse, If your roaming usage is greater than usage in the UK over any continuous 120 day period, you will be subject to a surcharge of 0.20p/MB (equivalent to £2/GB) for data, 0.04p/sec (equivalent to 2.4p/min) for outgoing calls, 0.01p/sec (equivalent to 0.6p/min) for incoming calls and 0.8p for sending an SMS.

Saltrams

brook_heather said:

Lebara clearly state the charge is for outgoing SMS:

https://mobile.lebara.com/gb/en/rates

1. This scheme is designed for customers who primarily live in the UK and ideal for short trips to other places in the EU. To safeguard against abuse, If your roaming usage is greater than usage in the UK over any continuous 120 day period, you will be subject to a surcharge of 0.20p/MB (equivalent to £2/GB) for data, 0.04p/sec (equivalent to 2.4p/min) for outgoing calls, 0.01p/sec (equivalent to 0.6p/min) for incoming calls and 0.8p for sending an SMS.

Thanks for that. The message they sent me wasn’t so specific.
I’ll still be bumping my data usage up every month with rubbish once I’m back in Blighty; what a pointless palaver!

eDicky

A curious post in several ways. For one thing, it's the first time I've heard of a network giving notice that their fair usage EU roaming allowances are being exceeded. It would be interesting to see if Lebara do actually begin charging the roaming fees.

'According to EU regulations' is also a curious reason used by Lebara to justify their fair usage policy, which is doubtless already laid out in their terms of use.

Then there's the curious attitude of the OP...

wongataa

The EU Roaming feature is intended for holidays etc.  As you are abroad for four months this exceeds the usual roaming duration and will flag up to your mobile provider that you are breaching their terms.  For such long times abroad you will need to use a local SIM.  It is irrelevant how much data etc you use at home compared to abroad.

Even if you are living in an EU country and go to another one and come under the EU mandated free roaming you would still most likely have this issue as it not intended to have long durations to stop people living in one country and using a SIM from another.