Summer holiday warning over unnecessary £7 a day charge you can avoid with simple switch

HOLIDAYMAKERS have been warned to make a simple switch before jetting off if they want to avoid an unnecessary £7-a-day charge.

Tourists are regularly stung by roaming fees when overseas and the financial penalties have the potential to ruin your break.

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After all, while we may want to share pictures from our trip with family and friends, no one wants to break the bank while doing so.

Roaming fees are charged when you’re overseas and using your your mobile.

This is because your device will connect to the local network to access internet services or make and receive calls and texts.

This frequently comes with additional costs and you could either be charged a daily rate or a charge calculated by the amount data used.

Research by Uswitch found that fees can be as high as £6 per MB, meaning holidaymakers can easily build up big bills without realising.

And, Ofcom has previously said 14% of UK customers had experienced inadvertent roaming in the year before its last survey.

But there is one simple switch you can make to ensure you’re not charged while you decide the best way to use your phone overseas.

The easiest thing to do is simply to turn off roaming permissions within the settings of your phone.

While this means you wont be able to access mobile data services on the go, it will protect you from fees.

And there’s further good news for those worried about shock bills.

Last year regulator Ofcom brought in big changes to protect mobile phone users from being hit with unexpected charges.

All providers are now required to alert customers when they become subject to roaming charges while travelling.

They also have to signpost customers to free information setting out the roaming costs where they are.

Charges can vary considerably. For example in the EU EE will charge £2.47 a day for 50GB of data usage, after which customers are charged £3.60 per GB.

Three charges £2 a day for 12GB data usage in the EU, with additional use billed at £3 a GB.

Meanwhile Vodafone’s fees vary from £2.42 to £7.39 a day for 25GB, depending a customer’s location and the package they’re on. Additional data is charged at £3.13 a GB.

Of the big four providers O2 is the only one to offer free roaming in the EU, up to 25GB a day, with additional GBs billed at £3.50.

In total there are seven networks that don’t charge their customers to use mobile services in the EU – although they may have usage caps.

Many networks also offer roaming packages for customers travelling overseas.

But Which? has warned customers to carefully consider how much data they need before signing up.

Whatever provider you’re with there are simple things you can do to avoid an unexpected bill.

You could leave roaming switched off and rely on Wi-Fi services.

With Wi-Fi available in accommodation and many bars and restaurants you may decide to cut down on your phone use while away and just use data and mobile services when you can connect.

But, if you’re looking to order Ubers or access maps you might need more provision.

You could consider picking up a pay as you go sim to use while you’re away, although you should still check the fees before switching it on.

Or you could get a local network sim card to access local rates.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

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