Roaming refresh

[hotjambalaya]

wow, not sure how I missed all this, but I landed in the USA last night and suddenly found out I dont have free roaming here anymore.

Just got off the phone with CS and he gave me a brief run down of the change. Apparently my plan gives me 1 free inclusive extra which i can change whenever I want and I was on EU roaming. He switched me to ROW roaming, so hopefully I should be fine soon. 

Its annoying that I have to manually change between them now, whats more annoying is that I cant see how to do that in the app or via the webpage. Also what happens when I'm flying from the USA directly to the EU? I'd have to remember to change just before boarding the plane to the EU plan, or not have data on arrival?

The increase in included countries is a good net positive, the implementation of it is horrific. Why do I have to manually change between ROW and EU? I can only be in one place at a time, so either make it global so no switching needed, or switch you over automatically.

Also he mention ROW as basically being everywhere else, but when I mentioned a couple of countries he said yes you're covered for them since they're zone 1. Looking online I see that there's about 4 different zones for ROW. Since I cant see in my account where I change my inclusive extras, Im wondering if inclusive extras exist for zone 2 etc? can i select ROW 2 which then covers me for all those countries for example?

Edit: my plan on my bill is listed as Smart Sim UNL £40 12 month (£57.38 before discount). I see people mentioning the Full works plan, is that similar, or better?

[Matt_124 · Accepted solution]

You're on a Smart Plan, which preceeded the newer All Rounder and Full Works plans as the plans with Inclusive Extra options.

With the new Full Works plans (taken since 29th August 2024), you get free-of-charge EU and RoW Zone 1 Roaming included in the plan automatically, alongside the choice of an Inclusive Extra worth up to £20pm and some other benefits. The idea is that the level of Roaming is included in the new plans and no longer requires switching Inclusive Extras.

The confusion on the thread is many were on the older versions of these plans where Roaming was not included in the plan but required an Inclusive Extra choice to be used on it, such as in the case of Smart Plans or older All Rounder or Full Works plans.

The addition of an Inclusive Extra for ROW Roaming was an accommodation for those on these older plans, otherwise they may not have received access to the new countries without upgrading or may have lost access to the 5 RoW locations when switching to the Zone based system.

The newer plans don't have Inclusive Extra options for roaming, so you choose the plan to suit your needs to start with (Essentials Plus or All Rounder for EU, or Full Works for EU + ROW Zone 1).

[hotjambalaya]

Ah thanks!

So actually, to have pretty simple roaming, all I need to do is call and change to a Full works plan, then I no longer have to shuffle between inclusive extras, and I'm automatically covered for EU and ROW 1 without having to do anything. That actually works really well for me, thanks!