EU Parliament votes for ban on mobile roaming charges

MSE_Michael wrote: »

"Travellers could soon be able to use their mobile phone in the EU without the fear of extortionate bills"

That's a rather hyperbolic choice of word isn't it?

There have been regulations progressively introduced for a number of years, and it was already almost impossible to be faced with an extortionate bill for roaming in the EU.

The cost of data roaming was already capped against bill shock, unless people voluntarily opted out, and call charges have been decreased several times.

It is certainly good that at last roaming fees will be phased out, but there is no need for MSE's headline to feature the word extortionate being applied to the current situation of incoming calls costing 7 pence a minute etc and being about to decrease again before this regulation happens in December next year

And here was the pre-existing discussion started by a forum member.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4938324

Maybe the threads could be merged.

Indeed. One is capped at €50 but it's still too much for EU data. I recall the days of my £15/month unlimited worldwide data tariff...

Gillor wrote: »

I am slightly confused (not difficult at my age). To quote from MSE's Official news article:

"The EU has legislated before to lower roaming costs and there are currently caps in place, which prevent consumers being charged more than the following prices while outside of their home country:

Outgoing calls: €0.24/min (20p)
Incoming calls: €0.07/min (6p)
Texts: €0.08/text (7p) "

So how come Orange and T-mobile are currently charging 24.5p, 7.1p and 8.1p while 3 Mobile are charging 24.5p, 7.1p and 7.8p?

You did not add VAT at 20% nor account for EURGBP flucations

m5rcc wrote: »

Indeed. One is capped at €50 but it's still too much for EU data. I recall the days of my £15/month unlimited worldwide data tariff...

Yes, but maybe it doesn't quite warrant the scare-mongering headline extortionate, which is more like an alarmist hark back to the days of hundreds or thousands

And even well before this comes in there are cheaper options, like 100 MB data roaming a day for 1 euro, or calls home from several countries at 3 pence a minute.

Rates will drop this July to about 19 p/min outgoing, possibly either 5p/min or free incoming*, texts 5 or 6p, data about 20p/MB (these rates including VAT)

* I've seen comments elsewhere that maybe incoming calls are going to be free ahead of next year's changes, this July according to a draft, but I haven't yet checked whether that definitely went through

- and for the moment MSE Michael's article doesn't tell us anything on that point. Maybe it could be expanded a little ...

m5rcc wrote: »

Well some networks are ahead of the game like 3, but others are lagging behind and resorting to the bare minimum. Given that I need at least 1Gb/day whilst roaming, the €50 cap a billing month is the best I can do for now...

1 GB a day? :eek: You don't need to watch TV

Get local SIMs if you're in one place for a few days.

Or for short visits cut it to 100 MB a day and get an Orange Spain SIM, Go Europe add-on €1 a day. Maybe get more than one of these.

http://movil.orange.es/tarifas/desde-el-extranjero/go-europe/