Top tips to cut down mobile phone charges abroad

[TurnToStone]

Top tips to cut down mobile phone charges abroad

Using your mobile phone on holiday? Some simple measures can reduce the likelihood of returning to an unpleasant bill

Harriet Meyer
The Observer, Friday 28 June 2013

If you want to use your mobile phone on holiday, ask your provider for a usage cap. Photograph: OJO Images/Rex Features

Using your mobile phone while on holiday abroad can result in an unwelcome data roaming bill when you get home – especially outside of the EU. So what are our top tips to cut down on charges?

• Check data roaming and automatic updates for Smartphone apps are switched off.

• If you want to use the internet, wait until you can use the Wi-Fi signal at a hotel or café.

• Ask your provider for your own usage cap if you are concerned that you won't be able to keep track of your use.

• Make sure your phone is unlocked , and buy a local SIM card. There are plenty of small local independent mobile phone stores and unlocking specialists who can do it for you.

• Alternatively, buy a SIM before you go. For example, Dataroam has a range of pay-as-you-go and 30-day plans that it claims could save users "up to 90%", with pre-paid data SIMs starting at £14.99.

• To avoid the costs of receiving voicemail, make sure to deactivate this before you fly.

• There are special apps to reduce the amount of data you use – for example, try the Onavo app, which claims to give you the ability to do up to five times more with your current data plan without additional fees.

• Download maps for your destination before you leave home, or use your a Wi-Fi signal for this.

• Take advantage of data "bundles" that can be used abroad. For example, O2 is offering O2 Travel to all pay-monthly customers. This will offer 25MB of data per day for £1.99, with international rates from 29p per minute to make a call and from 8p per min to receive a call. Orange customers travelling outside Europe can sign up for a global mobile data bundle, starting from £6 a day for 30MB. There are also larger bundles that work on a 30-day or monthly recurring basis.

Finally, if you're on holiday, relax – and consider keeping your phone switched off and in your suitcase.

 

[scroobal]

Unless you are on corporate account all these tips are not helpful. The only tip worth considering is to switch off auto roam and get a local sim card which is available at all airports big and small many ports of entry.

Even motels have internet access so you can do all your messaging without much problem.

Local sims at destination are now available for iphone, iPads, data heavy with light calls and vice versa. Even hotels now have internet access at high speed at affordable daily rates.