What’s more, Which? warns that exceeding your bundled minutes, texts and data will still be charged in the European Union as it would in the United Kingdom, with all providers charging different rates.
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The end of roaming charges is only designed for short term travellers, not people living overseas for a long time.
The European Commission said the end of roaming charges was one of the greatest successes of the EU.
But there are exceptions to the rule.
Consumers must be aware, however, that while the roam-like-at-home rules apply to services between mobile operators from one country within the whole of the European Union, they do not apply to foreign telecoms, experts have warned. These excess charges have been nixed in favor of homely plans, meaning you will be charged according to the same plan which you had been using in your hometown (described as a location where you stay for around eight months). The charges are, however, expected to drop and reach close to €2.50 per GB + taxes as of 2022.
What if i’m an Erasmus student or working overseas for a long time?
But it’s not exactly zero charges as promised by the commission.
The EU legislature had its final vote in April on how much operators may charge each other for using their networks for roaming, which should cut costs substantially. Also, travelling overseas for more than four months means extra fees.
However, the network Three has declared that they won’t be adding on roaming charges for United Kingdom mobiles.
“And it’s even more weird that if you call your grandma in Poland on your United Kingdom mobile while in Spain, that’s part of your free minutes too”.
However extra charges may still apply if consumers exceed their data allowance while overseas.
The “roam like at home” deal means clients will not be charged extra when making calls outside their home country.
For example if you’re with Bouygues Telecom in France and have a package that includes 20GB of mobile data, only 5GB will be available in Europe (and any other countries included in your offer).
You will be still be charged the same rate for making global calls and will still be limited by the package you have agreed with your provider, but you won’t be landed with surprise bills for being overseas.
Once the user has surpassed this allowance, a charge of €9.50 per gigabyte of data will then apply. “It’s for the few, not the many”.
“It’s really around data roaming where people need to be careful”.
Does the ban apply to the whole of the European Union, and only the EU?
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“The “roam like at home” name is somewhat misleading”, said Robyn Hamilton of price comparison service Bonkers.ie. However, the BBC notes, there is a Brexit question mark over this win for consumers. It’d be unpopular, for sure, and Three UK has already said it won’t raise prices post-Brexit.
