Calls from NZ to UK can't be made.

[APVaslet3]

I'm on holiday in New Zealand and need to call my UK bank from my UK EE number. When I call any UK number I get an automated message saying "You can't make call right now as you've put a call bar on, you'll need to switch this off." 
I'm on a monthly contract, with a 20£ spend cap and a the international 30 min call add on. Can someone please explain why I can't get through? 

Cheers

[XRaySpeX]

@APVaslet3 : Can you receive calls & send texts?

As you are on contract, did you activate roaming on your EE a/c before you left UK by texting ROAMING to 150? Having a roaming billing add-on doesn't of itself activate roaming on your a/c. Having roaming activated on your EE a/c, not just on your device, is crucial to using your contract SIM abroad.

Often just rebooting the phone is the simple remedy. Also try selecting a network manually rather than auto.

Otherwise if you are on contract you need to call CS to get your roaming activated. Try calling CS on the Freephone no. in my sig. on Skype over WiFi. It should be free.

[bristolian]

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@APVaslet3 wrote:

I'm on holiday in New Zealand and need to call my UK bank from my UK EE number. When I call any UK number I get an automated message saying "You can't make call right now as you've put a call bar on, you'll need to switch this off."

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1; Can you call NZ numbers? Which is another way of asking whether your phone has a connection to any Kiwi networks.

2: Did you receive a welcome text message on first arrival in NZ?

3: Is the automated message in an NZ or UK accent?

[timk86]

I have this exact problem.

1) can’t call NZ numbers

2) have received a welcome message, also receiving texts and using data works fine 

3) message is in a kiwi accent

My EE line has previously worked absolutely fine in NZ, this is a recent change.

any help would be appreciated. Thanks 

[bristolian]

Normally "me too" posts are best moved to a new thread, but you've provided enough detail to conclude roaming is already enabled and your issue may be resolved by performing a manual network search and cycling through each local network in turn.

Are the symptoms the same on each? Or does a particular network resolve the issue?

[timk86]

Oops, sorry. Just seemed to match my exact problem so tagged in. At least it’s not a Harvey Weinstein kind of ‘me too’!

Thanks for the input. My phone connects successfully to Spark NZ, but calls are barred. The other two networks - One and 2degrees - I can select but the phone won’t connect, ie no signal bars. Previously (before EE changed roaming from EU and RoW combined to separating them), I could select any network and it would work fine.

no idea what’s going on here! Thanks for the help trying to work it out. What shall I try next?

thanks!

T

[XRaySpeX]

@timk86 : Just to clarify: EU & ROW 1 roaming were never combined. It used to be that EU + 5 non-EU countries, incl. NZ, (a small subset of ROW 1) were combined under the Roam Abroad Pass.

[timk86]

Yes, thanks. I meant that specifically referring to NZ