topic Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200% in Roaming

Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

garethibrown — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 17:24:31 GMT

I am visiting Australia in a week. In preparation I visited the EE shop in Bognor Regis in November. I wanted to find out the price for roaming abroad. The agent there told me it would cost £25.00 for 28 days and to come back in January 2025. Now I am astonished to find out it would cost £25.00 for 7 days. An increase of 200%! This is disgusting I can’t afford that price. Even the EE agent was astonished he thought it was still the old price.

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

Profile closed — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 17:32:47 GMT

@garethibrown

They changed it in December.

https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Roaming/Roaming-refresh/td-p/1480939

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

XRaySpeX — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 18:12:25 GMT

@garethibrown : An increase of 300%!

It changed on 4th Dec. to Roaming Refresh .

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

Northerner — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 19:00:44 GMT

Hi @garethibrown

What tariff do you have.

Thanks

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

garethibrown — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 22:55:33 GMT

MP Essential SIM Unlimited 1m £33

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

Matt_124 — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 23:09:56 GMT

If you have been with EE for over 6 months and are on SIM Only while still having EE Broadband, you could change your tariff to the MP Full Works SIM 1m £48 (£28 with your BB discount applied) which would include roaming in the EU, USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.

As it is a 1m-rolling contract you should then be able to switch back down to your £33 (£13) Tariff when you come back.

Your best bet would be to call EE on 150 and see what they can do.

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

garethibrown — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 16:50:30 GMT

Hi
Thank you so much. I have been so confused. I spoke to an EE person, Andy and he helped me take out the Full Works Package. I had no idea I could do this as the website is rather confusing to me. I now pay £28.00 (£20.00 discount for having EE Broadland ) per month which allows me to have roaming whilst I am in Australia without any worries. I can then change back when I return.
Regards

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

Matt_124 — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 18:04:41 GMT

Brilliant glad to hear you're all sorted @garethibrown.

One thing to make sure you do now before you go is to ensure the ability to Roam has been fully enabled on your account. Text ROAMING to 150, then in response to the following message reply GOING. You should then get a text back confirming worldwide roaming is enabled on your account.

It's separate to any billing add-ons, it purely provides the capability for your account to Roam. There won't be any charges etc associated with enabling it, just makes sure that your phone will work now that you've sorted the billing side out.

Happy Travels!

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

garethibrown — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 23:19:40 GMT

Ah, thanks I’ll try that. I’m going in six days time. Should I activate it now or on the day I go? Initially I thought I had to set roaming on my iPhone.
Regards
Gareth

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

Matt_124 — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 23:28:30 GMT

You can do it anytime before you leave the UK, but I would do it now just to know that its done and that it'llwork in case you encounter any issues or error responses.

You're partly correct but have also made one of the most common misconceptions. While you have a visible Data Roaming setting on your phone this is just a toggle for the device, it has no bearing on the account setting on EE's system to enable you to connect to foreign networks. This is usually off by default.

Without roaming being enabled on your EE account, your SIM would refuse to connect to a foreign network regardless of what your phone settings are.

Would be kind of like turning on the kitchen tap (Phone data roaming settings) but nothing comes out because it's switched off at the stop tap (roaming not enabled on account).

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

garethibrown — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 11:12:48 GMT

Hi Matt

I’ve done as you’d said and texted ROAMING to 150. Put in Australia then going but it comes back at the end of the text the following:

“Great news, your device is all set to roam in AUSTRALIA. To use your allowances as you would in the UK, you'll need to buy a pass when you arrive. The charges are:

£5 for 24 hours

£25 for 7 days

If you don't buy a pass, it'll cost:

Calls: £1.66/min

Texts: £0.76

MMS: £0.89

You will not have access to mobile data unless you buy a pass.

We'll send a text when you get there about how to get the pass.”

Am I missing something?

regards

Gareth

If you want to talk to us, please reply CALLBACK and one of our Guides will call you back.

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

Matt_124 — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:25:41 GMT

Hi Gareth, think that is just a standard response when entering a country. I will attach what I sent and got back when I did it, it may take a bit of time to get the image approved so it will not show up right away.

When i did it, i sent ROAM and not ROAMING, followed by GOING and the key thing to look for is "your phone is all set up to roam in any country worldwide".

Anything else can be disregarded from this point as you've already sorted the billing.

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

garethibrown — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:55:25 GMT

Hi Matt

it’s a shame they have to tack on you have to buy a pass when you arrive etc etc

thank you

lets see what happens

regards

Gareth

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

Matt_124 — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 14:11:26 GMT

As long as you got something like the sentence above stating "your phone is all set up to roam" then you're good to go, don't worry about the billing side as your change of plan will have sorted that all out.

Have a good trip, but if you have any issues in between feel free to ask.

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

SW15 — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 20:50:11 GMT

if you think that is steep EU roaming has gone from GBP25 per month to GBP75 per month that is a 300% increase.

So since 2023 it has I believe gone from GBP15 per month to GBP75 which is an incredible 500 percent in just over a year unbelievable.

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

XRaySpeX — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 23:32:42 GMT

@SW15 : It's from £25 / month to £100+ / month. That's still about a 300+% increase.

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

Chazzo — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:30:15 GMT

Excellent observation but it is a worse outrage still. The rise is actually more than 400%.

Re: Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

goodbyenine — Sun, 20 Apr 2025 07:32:36 GMT

I might jump ship. Or buy a Spanish SIM this summer.
Apalling.