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Holidaymakers beware: Brits risk £3000 holiday roaming bill

  • Brits heading on a two-week trip to the USA risk racking up a roaming bill of £3,022[1] – more than the cost of a family holiday to Florida[2]

  • Calls, texts and voicemail charges could easily hit £25 per day[3], and those opting out of £50 network caps could see data bills of £190 per day [4]

  • Almost a quarter (24%) of consumers have returned home from holiday with roaming charges averaging £52 on top of their usual bill [5]

  • One in 10 (10%) said their post - holiday roaming charges were over £100 more than their typical bill, with men more likely to rack up a £100+ roaming bill than women [5]

  • Budget VAT announcement set to add further 20% to non-EU roaming bills from 1st August – just in time for summer holidays

  • Uswitch.com

 British holidaymakers visiting the USA – the most popular destination outside the EU this year[6] – could face a roaming bill of £3,022 for a 14-day trip[1], according to new research by price comparison and switching service Uswitch.com.

Of the 48% planning a holiday overseas in 2017, almost a third (31%) will head outside the EU and 14% intend to visit the USA[6], where roaming fees for a fortnight’s trip could cost more than a family holiday for four to Florida[2]. Based on a conservative usage example, charges for calls, texts and voicemail retrieval would cost £25 per day[3], while mobile data bills alone would total £190 per day[4].

To rack up this bill, a user would have to opt out of the £50 data roaming caps networks automatically apply to protect customers. However, many people don’t realise that if they opt for a roaming bundle, some networks automatically remove that cap, leaving them vulnerable to bill shock[7].

Also, with the cost of data as much as £8 per MB, that cap could be reached by listening to about eight and a half minutes of music on Spotify[8] – which means you couldn’t even get through the first two songs on Adele’s album ‘25’ before hitting your limit, forcing you to opt for add-ons or opt out altogether.

It’s not just travellers heading to the States who are at risk: almost a quarter (24%) of mobile users have returned home from holiday to be hit with a sizeable bill –16% within the past two years[5]. The average overspend is £52 but 17% have racked up charges of over £75 and one in 10 (10%) has spent more than £100. Men (12%) are more likely to rack up a £100+ roaming bill than women (8%)[5].

The top causes of bill shock include forgetting to switch off data roaming (30%), mistakenly thinking WiFi is on (27%) and using a phone in emergencies (16%), forgetting to use flight mode (9%) and forgetting to disable voicemail (8%)[9].

A general lack of understanding about roaming and the associated charges are also to blame. Almost a fifth (18%) wrongly believe there are no charges for people receiving voicemails outside the EU and more than a third (37%) think there are now no charges for using their phone in other EU countries. Just over half (53%) are aware that roaming charges are due to be scrapped entirely in the EU later this year[10].

Although millennials are generally touted as being tech-savvy, 18-34 year olds seem to be the least clued up on roaming rules[11]. And when it comes to others using your phone on holiday, 11% of mobile users say a child or another person they were travelling with used their phone without their permission and incurred roaming charges[8].

The table below shows the charges for pay monthly customers roaming in the USA across the different networks, and as an average cost, as well as any roaming add-ons available:

easter roaming

Prices in table correct for pay monthly customers travelling to USA, checked on 05/04/17

Source: Uswitch.com 

Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at Uswitch.com, says: “There’s good reason to be wary of roaming charges this summer. With a single MB of data – enough for just four minutes of web browsing – costing up to £8 in the USA, it’s well worth looking into roaming deals before you travel. Some particularly savvy mobile users buy a monthly-rolling SIM-only contract with a network offering a better roaming deal, and then hop back to their usual network after their trip.

“For those going to America, Three’s Feel At Home and iD Mobile’s Takeaway plans are, as yet, unbeaten. They allow users to take their minutes, texts and data away with them at no extra charge.

“One word of warning. If you buy a roaming add-on from a network you may automatically opt out of the data-roaming cap of £50 that networks apply to protect you from high bills. Ask your network if this is the case. Keep an eye on your usage even when buying one of these, because activity once spent could cause your bill to rocket towards the £50 cap - an effective solution in the EU where per MB costs are often pennies, but ineffective against the sky-high costs of data elsewhere.

“Although a holiday should be a time to forget about the mundanity of household bills, the Chancellor has announced that, from 1st August this year, VAT will be applied to roaming charges racked up outside the EU. That means roaming bills will be 20% more expensive.

“A useful travel tip is to download Google Maps for your destination before you travel, which can be used offline without an internet connection. If you get lost abroad, it can be very tempting to use your phone’s GPS quickly, but this can eat up huge amounts of data.”

Find out how you could save over £1,000 a year with Uswitch here.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Claire Jones

Phone: 020 7148 4663

Email: Claire.Jones@uswitch.com

Twitter: @uswitchPR

Notes to editors

Uswitch.com surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,002 UK adults aged 18+ via Opinium. Data was collected 3rd to 6th March 2017.

  1. Average daily calls, texts and voicemail bill of £25.43 + average daily data bill of £190.45 x 14 days in USA = £3,022.32

  2. Cost of family holiday for four based on a two-week trip from London Stansted to Orlando costing £2,510.56 departing on 22nd April and returning 6th May and including flights and accommodation. Prices via Thomson.co.uk correct as of 27.03.2017

  3. Average daily calls and texts bill of £25.43 is based on making three five-minute phone calls to the UK per day, receiving two five-minute phone calls, listening to a two-minute voicemail message, and sending 10 text messages. Calculation is: £0.8915 + £0.7510 + £0.892 + £0.2810 = £25.43

  4. Average daily data spend of £190.45 is based on the following usage per week (then divided by 7 to get daily data spend): send/receive 20 text only emails, send/receive 10 emails with images/attachments, 2 hours surfing the web, 1 hour streaming music, download 5 music tracks, download 1 app, 30 minutes video calls like Skype, 50 photos posted or tweeted. Calculation is: 400KB + 3MB + 30MB + 4MB + 20MB + 4MB + 150MB + 250MB = 461.4MB / 7 days = 65.9MB x £2.89 (average price per MB) = £190.45.  File sizes according to AT&T and MakeUseOf. EE not included in mean data cost as add-ons must be purchased to use EE mobile data abroad.

  5. Respondents were asked: ‘Have you ever returned from travelling abroad to find that your phone bill was higher than usual?’ – 24% of all respondents answered ‘Yes’, and 16% answered ‘Yes – in 2017’, ‘Yes – in 2016’ or ‘Yes – in 2015’

Respondents who had returned from travelling to a higher than usual phone bill were asked: ‘Thinking about the last time you received a bill that was higher than usual after being abroad, approximately how much higher was it?’ – The mean response was £51.98. 17% of respondents answered £75+, 10% of respondents answered £100+, 12% of men answered £100+ and 8% of women answered £100+

  1. Respondents were asked: ' Are you planning to travel overseas in 2017 and if so, where?’ – 48% of all respondents said yes ‘Yes’ and 31% of these said they planned on travelling outside the EU. The most popular destination outside the EU was the USA, which was selected by 14% of respondents

  2. For example, Vodafone customers who have purchased a roaming bundle are automatically opted out of their networks data roaming cap.

  3. Spotify’s default streaming bitrate for mobiles is 96kbps – which works out as 0.73 MB per minute. Tesco Mobile’s data per MB is £8, meaning by using 6.25 MB you could hit the £50 data limit. 6.25/0.73 = 8.6 minutes

  4. Respondents were asked: ‘What do you think were the reasons for why your bill was higher than usual?’ – 30% selected ‘I forgot to turn data roaming off when I arrived in my destination’, 27% selected ‘I thought I was using Wi-Fi but I was actually roaming’, 16% selected ‘I had to use my phone due to an emergency’, 9% selected ‘I forgot to put it in flight mode’ 8% selected ‘I forgot to disable voicemail’, 6% selected ‘A child used my phone without my permission’ and 6% selected ‘A person I was travelling with used it without my permission’

  5. Respondents were asked: ‘Please state whether you think the statements below are true or false:’ ‘There are no charges for people to receive voicemails outside the EU’ – 18% incorrectly selected ‘true’

There are no longer any extra charges for people from the UK using their mobiles in other EU countries’ – 37% incorrectly selected ‘true’ ‘Charges for mobile roaming in the EU are due to be scrapped entirely later in 2017’ – 53% correctly selected ‘true’

  1. Respondents were asked: ‘Please state whether you think the statements below are true or false:’ ‘There are no charges for people to receive voicemails outside the EU’ – 27% of 18-34 year olds incorrectly selected ‘true’

‘There are no longer any extra charges for people from the UK using their mobiles in other EU countries’ – 39% of 18-34 year olds incorrectly selected ‘true’ ‘Charges for mobile roaming in the EU are due to be scrapped entirely later in 2017’ – 48% of 18-34 year olds correctly selected ‘true’

  1. See table above

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