Why do I need £20 spend cap to use my contract aboard?

[Bootoo]

I have an old contract which includes unlimited text, calls and 200GB data. I am entitled to use it in EU as I had it before brexit. I’ve checked with customer services and they confirmed this. However last time I went to Spain (I visit my parents every year) I couldn’t make calls or send text. I’ve never had this problem in the past. Apparently it’s because I need to change my spend cap from £0 to £20. This is new and I don’t understand why. I don’t want to spend anything other than using my contracted allowances. I would rather the call didn’t work than risk an accidental charge. I’ve been told I have no choice but to have a cap of £20 which means I could incur charges by accident. Any ideas what’s changed and is there any way round this? 
thanks 

[bristolian]

---

@Bootoo wrote:

last time I went to Spain ...Apparently it’s because I need to change my spend cap from £0 to £20. This is new and I don’t understand why. I don’t want to spend anything other than using my contracted allowances....I’ve been told I have no choice but to have a cap of £20 which means I could incur charges by accident.

---

What's your basis for saying this? Whom or what has told you this?

You've mentioned an inability to make calls or send texts. Could you receive calls & texts? Did you try connecting to alternate local networks to prove this wasn't a local issue?

There have been cases where a spend cap has oddly restricted usage that should be inclusive, but other factors need to be eliminated first.

[Northerner]

Hi @Bootoo 

What is the name of your tariff.

Thanks 

[Bootoo]

Is that it?

[Bootoo]

I did all of this while abroad after speaking to customer services. Didn’t get it resolved. Was told when I spoke to customer services when I got back I needed £20 spend cap. I asked why as I shouldn’t need anything to spend so it all should be inclusive. Was told things have changed and I have to. I said I think it’s a way of getting people to spend unwittingly. 

[Matt_124]

A zero spend cap can bar some services, including roaming, in some circumstances. I tend to think of it as the billing system 'thinking' about charging you, before then zero-rating the usage. If you have a £0 spend cap, then there is no mechanism for the billing system to be able to 'think' about it as it will simply refuse to do anything that it perceives as chargeable.

With inclusive Roaming you will be able to use up to 50GB of your data allowance and unlimited calls and texts to phone numbers within the country you're visiting and back to the UK. There shouldn't be any situation which generates additional charges, outside of unknowingly calling a premium rate number or sending premium rate texts or visiting/connecting to a country that is not covered by your Roaming Addon.

[XRaySpeX]

or sending an MMS (Picture Msg).

I wonder if it really works that way by "I'm thinking this may be chargeable before deciding it isn't" or is the IF SpendCap > 0 test is out of place?

[Matt_124]

To be fair it is hard to say.

It does seem to be somewhat inconsistent (with some reports of individuals not needing to adjust it to use their device) but I haven't had a chance to test it myself by lowering my spend cap before connecting to a foreign network. (don't get on too many holidays these days sadly)

The above is how I've always made sense of it and explained it to others (thanks to an explainer by a helpful guide on one occasion), but the latter could very well be the case too.

Could also be dependent on the specific roaming add-on and where it intervenes in the billing process, might explain some of the inconsistency.

[Bootoo]

This may partially answer the question but doesn’t explain why:

a) it has to be £20 and not £5. If it just needs to ‘think’ about it surely £5 would work in the same way?

b) this wasn’t the case in the past. I’ve had the same contract since before brexit but it was only last year I had an issue with the spend cap being £0. I’ve always had a £0 spend cap and never had problems before. This makes me think it’s not to do with the ‘system’ needing a £20 spend cap but some other change?

[ukms]

This is from my app …. Which shows a minimum cap if there is no pass. You’ve mentioned that you have roaming included, which roaming pass do you have showing in your app or where does it shows you have roaming included (other than what you’ve been told on the phone) ? Keeping in mind that roaming may have changed since you last travelled.