My mobile bill is £500+ - Anyone do special deals?

[isv]

My monthly bill is now averaging £500-600 pm (I travel a lot) - I am currently with 3 and benefit from their Feel-At-Home roaming arrangements but still manage to run up a massive bill each month. Wondered if any of the operators have special depts who will cut deals for people who spend a lot?

[pherlopolus]

Is it data or call charges?

[gtidriver]

What's your monthly data allowance?? Im with Vodafone and I have 61gb of uk and European data. Plus the usual unlimited calls and texts. It costs £44 per month. That is with some discount that I got in-store when I purchased my contract. If I leave Europe the same allowences are available but it costs me £5 per day to use the phone.
£500-£600 per month? Are you phoning chat lines??

[fat80b]

Don’t think you’ve provided enough information. I’m with 3 and travel a lot and I don’t ever use anything over my allowance.

I am mostly USA and Europe though so it all comes out of my normal allowance. If I do go to non feel at home locations, I turn my data off and use WiFi where possible.

Which countries do you visit ? And is it calls or data that is hurting you.

Have you thought about a local SIM card when you get to the countries that 3 fah doesn’t cover?

[alorotom]

I spend an inordinate amount of time in the USA and have been on 3 feel at home as well as EE max tether a whole lot and use roughly 30-50gb, 3-400mins plus some 800-1000messages monthly and rarely pay more than my standard tariff cost

The only times it goes up is in a non-partnered country (so when I travel to Thailand for example) and even then I rarely see a bill over £250

Sounds like either some elements are missing from your post or you’ve been stitched up massively by 3

Also is this a business or personal contract?

[hairyben]

Thats a lot. A dual sim phone might be usefull, so you can keep in touch with a main number while being able to swap in various traveller/local sims?

Use an app like viber etc for calls/messaging?

[Kermit power]

Wow! You seem to be around five times more prolific than another PHer's sex-crazed teenage son if your bill is anything to go by!

[GCH]

Is this personal or business travel?

If the latter, why are the company / client not paying it?
If the former - and I speak as a heavy traveller - what on earth are you doing to rack up that sort of bill?

[ging84]

I believe it might be half term

[isv]

alorotom said:

I spend an inordinate amount of time in the USA and have been on 3 feel at home as well as EE max tether a whole lot and use roughly 30-50gb, 3-400mins plus some 800-1000messages monthly and rarely pay more than my standard tariff cost

The only times it goes up is in a non-partnered country (so when I travel to Thailand for example) and even then I rarely see a bill over £250

Sounds like either some elements are missing from your post or you’ve been stitched up massively by 3

Also is this a business or personal contract?

I benefit from 3 Feel at Home in the US/Europe like everyone else but it doesn't cover non-UK calls...I also get hit in India (£2 minute!) which is not covered by Feel at Home. Most of the excess is calls not data.

I travel a lot...India once a month, US twice a month and Europe once a week.

Personal contract but work reimburse me...but I just wondered if my monthly spend would get me a favourable deal with another operator...???

[alorotom]

You’d need to speak to a network directly and in store as they probably won’t believe your spend levels and any broker (cpw etc...) would be useless

Sounds like you could benefit from a dual sim device and a local sim for India

Some networks do offer discounted bundles for some of your situations so would be worth a conversation

Also you need to get this sorted ASAP as next year all roaming charges will be subject to 20% VAT after a change in legislation here so your bill could be about to go up by at least another £100

[williaa68]

Try Vodafone - £5 a day in India

[jinkster]

Im on a EE 4GEE max plan. Unlimited mins/ unlimited texts 18gb data of which 15gb can be used in US, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand along with calls to UK numbers.

[jontysafe]

I have just switched to BT Onephone plus bolt ons. I also have a dedicated UAE phone and when I’m in a country not on OnePhone tariffs I buy a local sim. Pain bit most countries are covered.
It’s surprisingly easy to rack up big number bills.

[Yipper]

Assuming it's true, that's insane. I travel to ~30 developed and developing countries a year and do full working days with big files and my mobile bill is almost never more than ~£50 a month. You need to get better prepared before and during travel. Buy a local SIM, buy a local dongle, get a global SIM, prepurchase international roaming packages, moderate voicemail, use free coffeeshop / airport / hotel WiFi, compress data in the browser, use WhatsApp, set a usage cap, etc. etc.

This has it all in one place:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-roa...
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/us-roamin...