Roaming charges in Bucharest

[karis6197]

Will my EE essentials plus contract which includes EU roaming charges be valis in Bucharest?

[bristolian]

https://ee.co.uk/mobile/pay-monthly compares the EE plans, and https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile/roaming/roaming-costs lists roaming charges for each country.

Romania is in the EU, and thus the £2.59/day charge should be inclusive within your plan. Ensure you text ROAMING to 150 before leaving the UK, to ensure access to foreign networks is enabled.

[karis6197]

I recently changed my phone & upgraded my sim plan to "EE One Essentials Plus" which is listed as including EU Roaming at no extra cost - my wife already uses this plan & was not charged a daily rate recently in Spain & did not have to text 150 either! So, do I still have to text 150 when I arrive? You say the £2.59/day charge should be inclusive with my plan but what exactly does that mean?  I used to pay the extra £2.59 daily charge before I upgraded  but my SIM was not changed & I've not had any confirmation from EE that this fee & roaming cost is now included automatically at no extra charge. Got to say I find EE web site information a little ambiguous on this, hence posting on here! 

[bristolian · Accepted solution]

The text message to 150 serves two purposes.

1: It allows for confirmation of account-specific pricing information, in the same way the roaming pricing tool does,

2: Crucially for first-time roamers, it allows for the free roaming facility to be enabled. This is a one-time process whereby "permission to access foreign networks" is enabled on your SIM. Without this, your phone won't get coverage abroad with predictable consequences. One of those predictable consequences is that without a network connection abroad, you won't be able to make or receive calls, send or receive text messages, or use mobile data.

Once the free roaming facility is enabled, it is only removed if you explicitly request so. There is an option for EU-only roaming to be enabled, which would mean "no coverage" in other countries, but otherwise it's a once-only process.

The billing side is separate from the facility to roam, my statement that the daily charge was inclusive, was a reference to how EU-roaming is charged. There is no option to pay per-call or per-text within the EU now, so you either pay a 12day, 7day or daily charge for use of your UK allowances. If your plan "includes" EU roaming, it means that the flat-rate charge is "included" and thus inclusive. Inclusive means no additional charge.

[karis6197]

Thanks for the detailed response. It makes more sense to me now although I cant help thinking the EE website & upgrade correspondence makes things more complicated/confusing to the customer than it needs be.

[Leanne_T]

Hi @karis6197 

Thanks for posting on the community and sharing this feedback.

I'm really happy you got the help you needed from @bristolian and if you need anything else, please pop back and let us know. 

Leanne.