Roaming costs are back!

I still have a UK mobile as well as a french one. Mainly from pure laziness as just can’t be bothered to go through fuss of changing phone numbers everywhere. And it’s only a couple of ££ a month.

Last night I received a text from vodaphone that they are bringing in unfair roaming policy which will apply to phones that spend more time roaming than they do at home (ie UK).

Texts1p, calls 3p a minute, data £3/gb.

So they are sticking to letter of promise of not introducing roaming changes…

Ah well, time to look for a second french sim I guess. Is Free still the cheapest?

or Leclerc Reglo mobile sans contract

Free 2€ p.m. is nobbut free, yes.

I have been using my iD Mobile account for 3 1/2 years now, very largely in Spain. There has always been a ‘reasonable roaming use’ clause in their contract. I assume there’s some sort of yellow card/red card system that spots if one has exceeded what they consider ‘reasonable’ roaming use but it has never been triggered on my a/c. - and that has surprised me.

I used to have 250 mins p.m. voice call allowance and usually waited till the end of the billing period to chat to a pal in UK because we always rabbit on for <60 mins. What with that and all the other calls from SP to UK - just the T’s & Cs lecture by Scot Wids when making a withdrawal lasts a good 20 mins - I’ve never been pinged by the ‘reasonable roaming’ clause.

Now I’m on ‘unlimited calls’ & 4Gb data for £7 p.m. I’m wondering if their monitoring of roaming will increase or decrease. Maybe it’s 01/01/2021 that will make all the difference

This was already the official policy for several operators, just not enforced - are you sure this isn’t the case for Voda?

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I’ve just spoken to an advisor at Vodafone and they said they have no intention of re-introducing roaming charges following Brexit???

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No, they are not introducing roaming charges following Brexit and this is not formally a roaming charge.

However in the small print is that your roaming must be fair and that if you are outside your “home” territory for more than 60 days in 120 you will attract an unfair roaming penalty.

So it ends up the same as having a roaming charge. But they can still say they have not introduced one!

@anon88169868 This was already the official policy for several operators, just not enforced - are you sure this isn’t the case for Voda?. Yes it was but as you say never enforced. So yes I should have said activating their unfair roaming clause rather than bringing it is, as it was already there.

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No, it’s merely the thin end of a wedge - as Jane says most operators already had a clause to the effect that if you spend most of your time roaming they reserved the right to charge you - it’s just that most did not bother.

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Vodafone told us that when we had been in France for 6 months, our phones would stop working altogether and that we would either have to fly back to the UK with them or send for new sims that had been activated in a different phone…we’ve been here 12 months and it hasn’t happened!

Seems excessive - assuming that you have friends or family in the UK I am sure the same effect could be produced by posting the SIM to them and asking them to pop it into their phone for long enough for it to register on the UK network.

more « rip of Britain » and every reason to go French SIM.

We’ve been here 12 years and it hasn’t happened. I guess I’ve probably been back to UK once a year, so maybe that has stopped it being blocked.

O2 have always had that policy, it not a roaming charge but its in their T&Cs that if you are a genuine holiday maker then calls come out of your “bundle” but if not they then have the right to apply a surcharge.
100 texts = £1 a month, use WiFi very available now and WhatsApp for calls and it won’t be painfull on the wallet.
Reason for keeping UK mobile is so that uk mobile users don’t have to pay higher call charges when calling to French mobiles.

That’s fair enough, so long as there is an alternative French number to use…

Sadly… calling a UK mobile is an expense I can do without. I find that too many Resident folk do not have a French number to give me, yet they want me to call them … :zipper_mouth_face: :zipper_mouth_face:

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isn’t it also the case that a UK mobile calling your French phone costs you too? Best to use WhatsApp for such calls…

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I forgot that… my phone bill is usually the same… and cheap as chips… but it goes haywire when there is a new Brit on the scene, with a problem/challenge … :wink: :upside_down_face:

EDIT: Today, I gained a German (courtesy of our Mairie :wink:) … a German who has… a German mobile…

I don’t seem to be charged when UK clients call me on their mobiles.

I think free calls with WhatsApp only works if both caller and receiver uses the app.

Ah, of course, you have clients… who presumably pay for your services, one way or another… :wink:

I have a very basic phone… which does all I want it to here in France… which is where I live.
I don’t have paying clients…

Since international calls are not included in my package, I use an app called Libon to make those calls.
To a mobile in another European country, the charge is 0.04 €/minute. Very reasonable.

no roaming charges with this device :upside_down_face:

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Thin end?