Roaming USA

pumpmonkey · ‎22-04-2025

Hi,

My daughter has a sim only plan on my account and unlike previous years the new roaming charges 😥 are now in effect for her visit to the USA.

EE say you now can't buy a roaming pass until you arrive in the USA whereby she'll receive a text... unfortunately, she landed two hours again and is yet to receive such a text.

Also the information to me on the app is very misleading, when you go through the roaming allowance, and select the country you are visiting (USA).. then vein the bottom of the page, standard pay monthly roaming costs... surely the information relating to the USA can't be correct? as it seems to suggest without the roaming pass, calls to the EE Europe zone are included?! which would mean calls back to the UK are included whilst she's in the USA, without a roam abroad plan! surely they have this wrong!

I must admit, the old mothly roaming plan was so easy to setup from the app the day you travelled... and so much cheaper!

My daughter's going for three weeks and two days!... £85. if she buys three weekly passes and then two days @ £5 per day. how do you even buy a day instead of a week when she's getting no message to buy anything! and also contradicts EE roaming info on the USA whereby the attached screenshots indicate its included in her monthly plan?!

Any help greatly appreciated.

bristolian · ‎22-04-2025

Does your daughter have a connection to any US local networks? That is fundamental to being able to make & receive calls, send & receive text messages, and use mobile data.

Her ability to receive text messages thus directly creates the ability to receive the welcome text message.

There are pros & cons with the new pricing structure, but ultimately you need to weigh up the one-off cost against the overall cost of any foreign trip. The alternative is to pay for calls & texts on a per-minute/per-text basis, and either go without mobile data, or use a local SIM. In other words - an element of the cost is for convenience.

pumpmonkey · ‎23-04-2025

Many thanks for the reply, unfortunately she arrived in Chicago and now moved on to Detroit and still hasn’t received a message (24hrs).

shes just FaceTimed via WiFi and claims she can’t get any network provider (the reason for no text)…

she’s turned her phone off and back on a few times, checked the carrier settings etc. but can’t seem to find any available networks! Our account says she’s set up for roam abroad on the app.

we’ve been with EE since 2021 and she’s spent the past couple of years (on & off) in the USA with no issues… well her physical sim packed up the first time and we had to activate an eSIM which was far more complex than it should have been with her already in the USA. She has an iPhone 14 Pro. I’ll try EE tomorrow and see what they say.
Cheers

bristolian · ‎23-04-2025

@pumpmonkey wrote:

Many thanks for the reply, unfortunately she arrived in Chicago and now moved on to Detroit and still hasn’t received a message...she can’t get any network provider

she’s turned her phone off and back on a few times, checked the carrier settings etc. but can’t seem to find any available networks! Our account says she’s set up for roam abroad on the app.

Nevermind resetting any settings, get your daughter to perform a manual network search - and try connecting to each available local network in turn.

Can you post a screenshot of the option on the app you're looking at? It may be referring to a billing add-on just as easily as it could be the free ability to roam.

pumpmonkey · ‎23-04-2025

when I spoke with her she said she’s tried searching for networks but nothing is available, hence not being able to find any networks. Like I said, she’s not had this problem the past two years she’s been travelling there. Just seems strange.

bristolian · ‎23-04-2025

When you say "nothing is available', do you mean....

1: No networks are listed, thus there is no coverage in that location? Or..

2: Networks are listed on a search but your daughter is unable to connect to them?

The former explains your daughter's issues. The latter is good evidence of issues.

That "add-on" (inverted commas deliberately to not confuse with billing add-ons) is indeed global roaming permissions.