Disgusting roaming abroad price increase by 200%

[garethibrown]

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.

[Minkey1]

@garethibrown 

They changed it in December.

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

[XRaySpeX]

@garethibrown : An increase of 300%!

It changed on 4th Dec. to Roaming Refresh .

[Northerner]

Hi @garethibrown 

What tariff do you have.

Thanks 

[garethibrown]

MP Essential SIM Unlimited 1m £33

[Matt_124 · Accepted solution]

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.

[garethibrown]

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

[Matt_124]

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!

[garethibrown]

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

[Matt_124]

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).