Dealing with the loss of unlimited Eu roaming

[Derekoak]

Many mobile data providers are now charging for Eu data ontop of your plan. Three and Smarty have reduced roaming to 12gb per month and I think 3 may stop data all together if they notice more than 2 months in the Eu in a rolling 12 months. Smarty does have a 30 gb for 10 pounds a month plan unlimited text and std phone calls and we now plan 2 of these on our 2 phones. They allow tethering. That gives us 60gb at home and 24gb in the Eu, better than 12 in the eu with one unlimited plan. If 24gb is not enough we can get a smarty data only sim for one of our tablets 15gb for £8.10. That also ought to have 12gb roaming allowance. Giving 36gb roaming for £28.10 per month. We could also amalgamate these into a Smarty group and save 10%.

 

[GMJ]

I have EE 4G wireless unlimited data at home and the router is portable so I can take it with my in the MH anywhere in the UK. Up until the changes in roaming came in, it was also good for Europe as well.

I have yet to pick up the phone to EE and see what they are planning to charge me if I use it abroad. I am hopeful that as a long standing customer who also has 2 mobile phones and our house landline with them, they will cut me a deal. They usually do, so fingers crossed.

 

[Fisherman]

Here’s what three say about roaming abroad.

Roaming abroad | Support | Three

All you need to know about Roaming Abroad with Three.

www.three.co.uk

 

[Budgie]

If you were in a contract with EE in July this year data in the EU is a max of 50 gb month after July it is 25 gb,

 

[Derekoak]

How much would I pay for 25gb a month roaming in Eu with EE?

 

[barryd]

Looks like Vodafone who I am with are still (for now) allowing you to Roam in Europe but only up to 25gb a month and only within their now enforced (so they say) fair usage policy which they say is 62 days before they may start charging. I wonder if they will enforce it on a 90 day trip which is all we are allowed now anyway thanks to ******.

An important update about roaming | Vodafone UK

An important update about roaming

www.vodafone.co.uk

I always have found Vodafone extremely reliable in mainland Europe because they use so many different networks.

 

[Derekoak]

My research would suggest that Smarty can provide . 60gb in UK and 24gb roaming in the Eu for 18 pounds a month on a rolling month contract, or 75gb uk and 36gb Eu for £25.29/month. In the way I described in #1. Does anyone know of something cheaper in that region of use? Regulations allowing we may be in the Eu a good proportion of the year.

 

[barryd]

My research would suggest that Smarty can provide . 60gb in UK and 24gb roaming in the Eu for 18 pounds a month on a rolling month contract, or 75gb uk and 36gb Eu for £25.29/month. In the way I described in #1. Does anyone know of something cheaper in that region of use? Regulations allowing we may be in the Eu a good proportion of the year.

I think I am paying £14 for 60gb and unlimited calls with Vodafone but you wont find that on their website. If you have a long term relationship with your provider you can usually with a bit of perseverance get through to someone who can haggle and negotiate a better deal thats not on the website. Worth a try.

Whats key though is how good the service is abroad and what the fair usage terms are. I suspect they will all be two months now but whether they enforce that I dont know. Only time will tell I suppose.

 

[SimonM]

As a standby I purchased some data sims in LeClerc in France this summer when I ran short of data on Three. They are meant to be used continually and topped up each month and so you get charged €4.95 for the sim and then a rolling monthly charge if you choose to use it. I didn’t, and just changed to a new sim for ease of use. Quick and easy, but they have a 5gb limit outside of France.

The service is from Reglo Mobile and used to be called LeClerc mobile.

 

[GeoffL]

Here’s what three say about roaming abroad.

Roaming abroad | Support | Three

All you need to know about Roaming Abroad with Three.

www.three.co.uk

Eek! Thanks for the warning. However, they also say that you are exempt the daily charges if they have agreed this or your pay-monthly plan started prior to 1st October 2021. This means that we can continue to use our allowance both in the EU and in Australia until we change our plans -- and I'll make sure that continued free "Go Roam" is a condition of us staying with Three...

That said, they've also removed the ability to use you phone as a personal wifi access point when roaming outside the EU -- so I'll need to continue using my Telstra MiFi in Oz.

Here's some more in-depth info about Three's "Go Roam".

 

[Derekoak]

As a standby I purchased some data sims in LeClerc in France this summer when I ran short of data on Three. They are meant to be used continually and topped up each month and so you get charged €4.95 for the sim and then a rolling monthly charge if you choose to use it. I didn’t, and just changed to a new sim for ease of use. Quick and easy, but they have a 5gb limit outside of France.

The service is from Reglo Mobile and used to be called LeClerc mobile.

3 do/did a similar sim 24gb prepaid for 2 years but you are supposed to continue to use it after. We never did. About £2 per gb a while ago.
So for 4.95€ how many prepaid gb did you get within France? Trouble is we do not just go to France.

 

[Derekoak]

I think I am paying £14 for 60gb and unlimited calls with Vodafone but you wont find that on their website. If you have a long term relationship with your provider you can usually with a bit of perseverance get through to someone who can haggle and negotiate a better deal thats not on the website. Worth a try.

Whats key though is how good the service is abroad and what the fair usage terms are. I suspect they will all be two months now but whether they enforce that I dont know. Only time will tell I suppose.

Yes it the fair usage bit I am trying to get round. Smarty is using the 3 network and they share fair usage of 12gb max per month, but they do not say anything about other restrictions. So I am investigating several small Cheap contract sims to accumulate 12gb fair usages. On up to three devices all of which can be a hotspot for the others.

 

[Glass man]

I have a Virgin mobile contact and they still allow free EU roaming. I was in The Netherlands in October and November for six weeks. We watched TV many nights, usually several hours at a time. It all came in my contact £20.00 unlimited calls, texts and Data.
Very pleased with this. I do not have a Virgin media contract for a landlines or Internet Data at home.

 

[barryd]

Yes it the fair usage bit I am trying to get round. Smarty is using the 3 network and they share fair usage of 12gb max per month, but they do not say anything about other restrictions. So I am investigating several small Cheap contract sims to accumulate 12gb fair usages. On up to three devices all of which can be a hotspot for the others.

It looks like they also apply a 60 day limit to roaming but more worryingly they say they could suspend your service completely if you over stretch it.

Roaming fair use terms and call rates to the EU | SMARTY Help Centre

If you are roaming in the EU or calling the EU from the UK, here's some information to be aware of.

help.smarty.co.uk

That was similar to Vodafones policy when I last went abroad which concerned me so much I got it in writing from them that they wouldnt cut me off. I wasnt so much bothered about the charges more the being cut off. Vodafone have changed their policy now so you just pay for what you use outside of the 60 days or whatever it is. If your Smarty number is important it might be worth getting some kind of confirmation from them that they wont cut you off.

 

[Derekoak]

It looks like they also apply a 60 day limit to roaming but more worryingly they say they could suspend your service completely if you over stretch it.

Roaming fair use terms and call rates to the EU | SMARTY Help Centre

If you are roaming in the EU or calling the EU from the UK, here's some information to be aware of.

help.smarty.co.uk

That was similar to Vodafones policy when I last went abroad which concerned me so much I got it in writing from them that they wouldnt cut me off. I wasnt so much bothered about the charges more the being cut off. Vodafone have changed their policy now so you just pay for what you use outside of the 60 days or whatever it is. If your Smarty number is important it might be worth getting some kind of confirmation from them that they wont cut you off.

Thanks Barry. I had not found that. I may enquire.
They warn you a fortnight before so if you had a plan B there might be a workaround. When you return to the uk they will reconnect you. Then apparently you could go again? We haven't been abroad for more than 2 months while with Smarty. so it had not been relevant but we might want to. Maybe 5 months including Romania for example.

 

[Derekoak]

I have a Virgin mobile contact and they still allow free EU roaming. I was in The Netherlands in October and November for six weeks. We watched TV many nights, usually several hours at a time. It all came in my contact £20.00 unlimited calls, texts and Data.
Very pleased with this. I do not have a Virgin media contract for a landlines or Internet Data at home.

Here is virgin media extended travel fair usage policy

Fair Usage Policy – Extended Travel​

I’m going travelling around the EU for 14 weeks. Will I be breaking the Fair Usage Policy?​

Not necessarily. Here’s how the Fair Usage Policy works. In every rolling 4 month period, you must use more data, calls and texts in the UK than the EU or spend more time in the UK than away somewhere else.
So, if you’ve used your phone more in the UK than you have in the EU within the last 4 months, you can still use your allowance whilst travelling without incurring a surcharge.

 

[SimonM]

3 do/did a similar sim 24gb prepaid for 2 years but you are supposed to continue to use it after. We never did. About £2 per gb a while ago.
So for 4.95€ how many prepaid gb did you get within France? Trouble is we do not just go to France.

The Three Internet with legs 24gb/24 months sim now has a 12gb limit total when used abroad.

The LeClerc Reglo sim is available in different gb values, I think a 24gb one cost me something like €20 which included the €4.95 SIM card cost. I was happy to get internet and so the card was then a throwaway - it’s only money and needs spending on something . It does not work in Andorra at all (nor did Three), but for the few days we spent in Spain it worked fine.

 

[Piper01]

I have a Vodafone Red Together contract 200 GB total a month (only 40 Euro a month. Fair Use Policy said 25 GB every month when in foreign country. Just heard yesterday they upgraded this to 40 GB. If you use more than 40GB not a problem if not in 4 month 4 times. My wifes phone joins me with Red Together, so each of us has 40 GB to spent a month in foreign countries. Enough for watching my Tele needs using my phone as a hotspot.

 

[witzend]

Would Lebra sim work with out being charged roaming ?

https://mobile.lebara.com/de/en/roaming

 

[Deleted member 86180]

We’ve been quite happy with our Superdrug payg unlimited 3 sim in Europe up until now, but looking further ahead the EE 24 month £25/month (160 GB) or the £28/month (200 GB) contracts look fairly attractive if planning trips in European longer than two months. They both allow one ‘smart benefit’. As far as I can see the ‘smart benefit’ of choice would be the ‘roam adroad pass’ which allows you (after January 2022) to use all of your allowance including data throughout Europe without dropping off after two months.

It also promises the same concessions for the US, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia.

Having followed YouTubers John & Mandy on their epic European tour (ducking in and out of Schengen countries), they’ve reported great coverage using EE with a Netgear Nighthawk M1 and a Poynting antenna (both of which we decided to upgrade to).