Survey Claims Brits Stung by £539m of Unexpected Mobile Roaming Charges
A new Opinium survey of 2,000 UK adults, which was commissioned by Uswitch, has claimed that British people have had to fork out approximately £539m in “unexpected roaming” costs over the past 12 months since most mobile operators reintroduced EU roaming charges.
The survey noted that 32% of respondents are planning to use their mobiles abroad, yet some 83% remain unaware that a compulsory £45 cost cap, which was imposed to protect consumers from unexpected BILL SHOCKs due to roaming charges, has now expired.
While some networks, such as Sky Mobile, giffgaff, O2 and Three UK have kept this cost cap voluntarily (unless you choose to change it), others, such as Tesco Mobile, are said to have already scrapped it. But even where data roaming caps are still in place, it’s important to note these caps don’t extend to calls and texts, which can still rack up hefty bills.
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Admittedly, some mobile operators do offer special add-ons to help keep roaming charges under control (usually costing c.£2-£3 per day), but others do not and this is often only available to certain countries (not all). Naturally, if you can get a roaming add-on from your operator for the country you’re visiting, then that’s often the best option.
Failing that, there are plenty of world travel SIM (usually using eSIM technology) providers around. But picking a hotel or AirBnb with good quality WiFi would also become more important.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Pretty nasty that’s was. Maybe they can sued Boris Johnson for lying Brexit!
I work in uae how can I roam in london with du services 300gb plan?
Everybody is using Brexit or Covid as an excuse to increase prices.
Some of the other major operators around the world provide international roaming as part of their plan and yet the the UK one’s don’t.
Blame it Brexit?
“blame it on Brexit”.
I’ll spell it out for you in simple terms:
UK part of EU = UK mobile operators had no choice but to offer free inclusive roaming as standard due to EU legislation. No ifs, no buts it was clear.
UK no longer part of EU = EU legislation no longer applies & UK mobile operator are free to do as they please wrt EU roaming.
and of course many EU operators do voluntarily continue to allow no cost roaming in the UK, so any underlying roaming agreements do permit that
aside from those UK networks and MVNOs that do continue to offer EU roaming at no additional cost, EE seems to be the next-cheapest at £15 per month (free on some tariffs) and that includes countries outside the EU too. I found it interesting that my EE SIM worked in Switzerland but the Lebara one did not (eyewatering per MB costs applied)
I don’t get it, the main networks in the U.K run the networks in most E.U countries, so there should be no extra charge for roaming as people are still using the same network. It is a money making scam.
i also blame people for not checking, the best thing is to get a sim in the country you are in, this is why I don’t agree with Esims.
That’s an odd comment. If anything, eSIM makes it significantly easier to get hold of a local SIM card – there’s no need to even find one in a shop, just download the app, sign up and install an eSIM. I’m not aware of any practical limits on the number that a device can hold, many can have two active at once, and when you’re done just delete it with no plastic, cardboard or electronic waste required.
I don’t think you can place all the blame on the operators, the customer has to take some responsibility for high charges.
Pre brexit I flew into Ercan in the northern half of Cyprus of an organised tour. Most peoples mobiles when switched on roamed to a southern Cypus network and up popped a message ‘Roam like at home’ however once on the coach, the phones roamed to a Turkish network and people were blissfully un-aware of the charges they were racking up. A little bit of research on the part of the user could have saved them from these high charges.
Me, I bought a Turkish Vodaphone SIM at the first opportunity.
I was in Cyprus last year, we took a tour over to Northern Cyprus, the operators were very clear to spell out the roaming costs.
This year in Greece I saw a sneaky trick that caught a few people on the plane. Rhodes airport faces Turkey, the networks deliberately have cells that face the airport so if you turn your phone on before leaving the plane there is a good chance you connect and they can claim charges to the other networks and hence end users.
I was in Eastbourne recently, and from time to time my phone would connect to French networks. Didn’t look like a useable signal, but my phone was choosing to try a network 100km away somewhere around Le Touquet in preference to our domestic MNO’s best efforts, which doesn’t say a lot for them.
I think the operators have a lot to make better. My kid has a plan that allows roaming that he didn’t have turned on – and he can’t turn it on because he cant receive text while roaming to enter the account and change it…. Sliders that don’t say “on or off” just a slider – poor design (how hard is it to say On or Off).
We also have Three and O2 (Volt) and both of those allow free roaming (Three Contract is OLD and we didn’t change it because we wanted to lock in the Roam-at-Home), the O2 (Volt) one allows roaming but it’s not clear at first (and you can even pay to add roaming on top).
All of the providers we have give you pages to check call, text, and data charges while roaming but it will say something like “If your on Plan A, B, C, X, or G, before dates xx or yy, but not if it was plan AA with ad-on C or G or F unless purchsed betwen the days of yy and zz”. I am logged into the customer service pages for my account – Their own system can’t just give me the cost?
We haven’t been stung, but I can see how a lot of non-savvy, or short attention span, people will be.
I rather go abroad holiday without mobile phone (best way to enjoy holidaying)
But problem is I can’t afford holiday! Sad life!
We used to manage before mobile phones were around, I can afford to go abroad, just don’t want to, the only place I would like to go to is Egypt, but that is never going to happen with the problems in that area. some people can’t do without their phones for a bit. I went out for the day on Sunday and I turned mine off, only turning it back on when we sat in the pub before going home.
Ad47uk: “I would like to go to is Egypt, but that is never going to happen with the problems in that area.”
Why not? Sinai peninsula is as stable as it’s ever been, Nile cruises are very safe, as are organised visits to the pyramids and Egyptian Museum et al. A holiday you’ll never forget, especially if you visit Mt Sinai, St Catherines, and shoot across to Aquaba and spend a night or two at Petra, head up to Aswan temples et al. The public toilets at Aquaba port should be a world heritage site in their own right – you’ll never forget them (I certainly haven’t).
Of course, if you’re planning on Lonely Planet style hippy backpacking through the alleys of Abu Tig, then that’s not so good, although would be equally memorable in the wrong way. But no different to taking the wrong turn in The Smoke, Manc, or Glasgow.
I’m with O2 and have free EU roaming but when I went yachting in the Med I assumed I would latch on to the nearest EU network. Turns out I connected to some satellite service and racked up a bill for £2000 for chuff all service. Not a happy bunny.
“global maratime” providers. yes they charge an arm, two legs, and a kidney.
If your plan allows roaming you should put a £0 spend cap in place.
The Text Messages you received should have given you big warnings.
It’s the user’s responsibility to know their costs. They can look on their Network app, sign into their online account, look at a price guide on their Operator’s site or call customer services. Ok there’s not much getting away from the costs but I don’t fully accept, UNEXPECTED.
2000 people aren’t much & I don’t see the point of U switch publishing this based on such few numbers.
My mother went to Greece last month & with mobile data off, she just lived on WiFi when in the hotel & public spaces with instant messaging apps & Google Meet [or any video call apps] for calls.
I am mystified how people are able to find roaming costs unexpected but it does explain where some of the votes to leave the EU came from.
ID mobile is still offering free roaming with a fair use policy and cheap data and calls when you go over.
I can’t understand why everyone traveling isn’t with them ♂️