Charges for using WhatsApp audio

[Foxy84]

Would anyone know why I’m being charged for using WhatsApp audio? I have been charged around £50 quite a few months ago.  I rang up to complain, but was told that because I’m ringing my son in Australia it could be using my data up if I’m not on WiFi. I added a spend cap to my bill (I’m the only one in our house that gets charged for speaking to him, we all use WhatsApp) I’ve had messages saying I don’t have enough spend cap balance. My usage says I have got 6.49GB of 7GB left. Am I being really stupid, I just don’t get why I’m getting charged

[bristolian]

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@Foxy84 wrote:

Would anyone know why I’m being charged for using WhatsApp audio?....I’ve had messages saying I don’t have enough spend cap balance. My usage says I have got 6.49GB of 7GB left. Am I being really stupid, I just don’t get why I’m getting charged

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What exactly makes you think you are?

WhatsApp is just an internet app, usage of it is charged as data by whatever you're using for your internet connection. If that's EE's mobile network, then usage of any internet-function is taken from your data allowance.

Apple & Android phones have data counters that itemise your usage down to individual apps, you can also synchronise this with your bill cycle. Compare with the response to texting BALANCE to 150 and make sure the two broadly correlate.

[Foxy84]

I’ve sent the message BALANCE and also checked my current bill and I’ve been charged £7.02 for two calls to my sons number (one for 2 seconds and one for 3 seconds on Monday this week) both using WhatsApp audio. When I challenged the bill the last time (£50ish) I was told that on very rare occasions WhatsApp loses signal and then switches to a normal call rate. It seems wrong to me!!😔

[bristolian]

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@Foxy84 wrote:

I’ve been charged £7.02 for two calls to my sons number ...both using WhatsApp audio. When I challenged the bill the last time (£50ish) I was told that on very rare occasions WhatsApp loses signal and then switches to a normal call rate. It seems wrong to me!!😔

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That is absolutely wrong. Data sessions are setup in a mobile network fundamentally differently to voice calls. If a call appears on your bill, it would have been dialled as a call via your phone's normal dialler, not using any internet app - WhatsApp or otherwise.

When you're using any internet-app - be that WhatsApp, Facebook, BBC News, Sky Sports, What3Words or otherwise, your phone and the mobile network see a data session. Nothing more, nothing less.

Data sessions cannot switch to voice calls. The closest you'll get is that when using 4G or 5G voice-calls, data sessions can continue at the same time. If coverage is lost, that affects both mobile data & voice calls - they use the exact same signal.

[Foxy84]

Thanks for your help with this. Think I might have to ring them again and challenge it

[bristolian]

Check whether the call is listed in your phone's call log. If it does, then it was dialled directly not using any app.

If your data allowance has reduced by 0.5GB, then you have not been charged separately for that 0.5GB - it's part of your allowance.