I think what I cannot fathom out is that even though I am not using the phone I am still being charged for ‘roaming’
Maybe you left your mobile data turned on and exceeded your allowance? It’s not all about calls.
but look at the attachment - no usage at all
Are they charging you for “allowing” roaming?? in which case, perhaps you should switch the “roaming” facility OFF… 
You’ve got to ask them. One advantage of using a UK mobile is that their helplines speak English even when they’re located half way around the world.
I guess that is what they are doing Stella; but switching that off means I won’t receive calls either I guess - and it is a pain to do that every time I want to make a call.
David : this is another issue I have with giffgaff, just like SOSH and other new ‘providers’, their systems are fully AI and offer no way to contact them. Helplines, you must be joking. “ask our community” they propose, where they don’t employ anyone, they simply give out sweeties to other users who have nothing better to do than spend their time answering queries.
Sorry to rant on but this is the way it is going. I think I will switch to a real provider and pay a little more.
I actually have a UK mobile because I need it for my online banking every once in a blue moon. It’s a Tesco pay as you go and the credit lasts for ever. I don’t use it in the U.K. because it’s cheaper to use my French mobile there but I sometimes send SMS messages to U.K. phones. Only last week I used it to phone a friend who is on holiday in France because it would have been cheaper than an international mobile to mobile call on my French phone. My friend refused to answer, he is on holiday and when he saw the unknown U.K. number he feared it was a client and ignored it. He later told me that if it had been a French number he would have answered it. He’s coming to visit on Saturday, I hope that he doesn’t try phoning me on the UK number because, as usual, it’s switched off.
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Here’s mine…the £1.29 data roaming was when I was picking my daughter up from the airport so switched data roaming and mobile data to on in order to let her know I was going to be late…
I have auto topup switched off…
Data roaming always switched off
Mobile data always switched off
I do send texts to uk but they are taken from airtime credit…
My partner in uk calls me 3 or 4 times a day and I have no problem either receiving calls or making calls with everything switched to off…
Hope this helps…x 
I’ll double check my orange contract but I’ve got a feeling the French mobile gives me “free” calls to other French mobiles and the fixed landline gives me the “free” calls to French landlines and uk landlines…included in the €39.99 a month along with unlimited internet…I will check though…thanks for the suggestion…x
The only attachment you’ve shown is your bill summary - have you got the list of data usage. In my view the charge is for data whilst roaming but that should be confirmed by the itemised part of the bill.
I suppose the question to ask is - do you leave your data enabled when in France?
yes Simon, I attached the bill summary - which shows no data usage. Or am I missing something here?
cheers
geoff
Have you been in France “too long” for giffgaff… ??? I notice in their bumpf they talk about that situation arising from time to time… just a thought…
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@geoff_faulkner you’ve simply attached your bill summary. I don’t know anything about gaiffgaff but, in my experience, most mobile operators give you a full summary of your activity as part of your bill i.e. actual calls made and duration, connections to mobile data (internet) with download amounts and time, details of texts etc etc. Maybe you’ll get that info from your online account with giffgaff?
If you have friends and family in uk then they can top up your giffgaff number…either online or by buying a voucher in uk and giving you the voucher number…my partner in uk buys a voucher every 3 months…gives me the number and I call the automated top up number and it credits my mobile instantly…(I used to love the up north accent on the automated top up line but now the accent is British still but not quite so broad…) GiffGaff seem to be pro European now too…???
topping up is not the issue Helen - I can do that no problem. But - as they say in the movies - ‘they know where you are’ and if you are out of the UK for too long they know it and the goodybag goes out of the window.
With regard to them being more european - well when I signed up with them I read their offer and - I promise you I am being honest here - I read into their references to the EU as meaning the EU - which includes the UK. I really did.
Of course I now know that when they say EU they mean ‘not including UK’.
Their poor use of nomenclature imho !
cheers
g
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Not the answer you were looking for, but we have started using a GSM desk phone (although it hangs on the wall). It contains a £9 per month Three SIM card bought in the UK. Under Three’s policy, it gives us an unlimited monthly allowance of calls in the UK, and a generous allowance while in France (we take it to the UK with us and it will replace our BT landline as soon as we can escape from the BT contract!). Effectively a mobile phone, it looks like a traditional phone, but can be used to receive SMS messages, has a speaker and takes a headset. It gives us free calls to UK landlines and cheap ones to UK Mobiles, subject to their fair use policy. No line rental, so far no unsolicited calls, good sound quality. We only found out about these phones last year, and are delighted with it. I copied all our Contacts to it from my Mobile. Worth investigating if you make lots of UK calls, but you’d still need internet from an ISP so I’m not suggesting this provides what you want, just letting people know about something they may not have known about. We still have our Numericable fibre package including TV and internet, as we need good internet which Numericable provides (100MBs)
Three’s terms and conditions used to be very specific about their cards only being used for roaming by genuine visitors to a country not permanent residents. Have they changed?
thanks Diana for your input. I should have mentioned however that due to my concerns over health issues of EM radiation, I am trying to reduce my use of Wi-Fi and mobiles in particular ( difficult when we HAVE TO provide Wi-Fi for our b&b guests). I use a voip wired phone and being the unsociable batrd I am, I only really ever phone my mum in UK who has a land line, and our son in UK who hs a mobile. Hence my request for ‘free’ UK mobile calls.
thanks
geoff
I think you are correct Simon.
so if it is not about calls, texts or data what tf is it all about?
There was no activity - but there were charges -is that what you are suggesting?. - just for the ability to roam if I want to?
I suspect this is correct Simon - so without further ado - or is that adoo - I will be throwing that giffgaff sim as far as I can throw it : ( sorry - bad p.c. I mean I will be redycling the card in the apropriate way)
reagards
geoff
Yep I was always under the impression that uk is part of the EU too…x
I have to say I have never bought a goody bag since being here…just the £10 top up to my airtime credit every 3 months…
Hope you find a solution… x