EE to reintroduce roaming charges across Europe

[Condi]

£2 per day to use your data on the continent, but not Eire which will remain free.

Suspect that this will not be a very popular move, especially when other operators are (at the moment) not doing the same. EE said the move would "enable them to keep investing in the network" which roughly translates as "we think it will make some more money for shareholders".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57595913


EDIT - this was EE's statement less than 7 months ago....

EE said:

EE said: "Our customers enjoy inclusive roaming in Europe and beyond, and we don't have any plans to change this based on the Brexit outcome. So our customers going on holiday and travelling in the EU will continue to enjoy inclusive roaming."

Edited by Condi on Thursday 24th June 13:11

[Condi]

gavsdavs said:

Is this a surprise to anyone ?

Not really, no, but as they did say ahead of time they had no intention of doing it it does come across as a very "greedy" change of policy.

CustardOnChips said:

People will happily spend £14 on a Stalla and a bacon butty in the airport. But not on being able to use their mobile abroad for a week. Ah well.

People don't like paying for something the used to get for free, simple as that. If the bacon butty used to be free and then went to £14 no doubt they would sell far fewer of them, and from the consumers POV you don't get anything extra for that £14 compared with what you used to get.

It will definitely make people shop around a bit more, and suspect EE will end up "throwing it in" to a lot of contracts at renewal time.

[Condi]

gaseous clay said:

Yet another reason why SIM only is the way to go, there's nothing massively cheaper than my SIM only deal at the moment so I'm happy to let it run until such time as there is.

Interesting that it is only for new customers. I'm on some very old contract with EE which has better terms than the new ones, and thanks to some error when it was created, it's quite a cheap contract.

As you were, no panic.

[Condi]

smithyithy said:

O2 have written off the remaining 16 months and ~£600 of my contract as the email they sent to me about the new roaming charges stated I may be able to leave without penalty due to OFCOM regs.

So a bit of a result really, even if I have to pay for roaming with whatever network I go with next (likely to just swap between cheap 30-day SIMS now) the money I've saved by terminating more than makes up for it.

How does this work if you have a contract phone? Can you keep the phone, or do you have to return it as it's not paid off until the end of the contract period?

Guess that is why EE's changes are for new contracts only.

[Condi]

smithyithy said:

Surely would've been cheaper for them to just allow more roaming data?

Suspect they've budgeted for more people just paying up than cancelling the contract.

Consumers are not very savvy at times, but if you had a brand new contract then cancel it, take the phone, purchase a £10/m sim only contract and be £50/m better off

[Condi]

smithyithy said:

Just ordered a replacement SIM deal from '1p Mobile' - 30 day roller, 50Gb for £15, uses EE (best coverage for my areas of use) including 5G

Not really 1p is it?!

[Condi]

mmm-five said:

Looks like you can also avoid the £2/day charge if you add the 'Roam Further' add-on instead - so £10/month vs £28 for 2 weeks.

This used to just cover 5 countries outside of the EU (USA. Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand), but from Jan 2022 it will also include the 45+ countries that are currently included in the EU/EEA roaming.

As expected tbh, they'll have a swappable or add-on for those who value it.

[Condi]

Yeti97 said:

RacerMike said:

US is a particular pain for me as my sister and her family have literally just moved to Philadelphia this year, hence I'll probably going there at least once a year now if not more frequently.

Bit of a nightmare really. Praying at least one provider keeps their roaming! Otherwise will be sucking up that £5 day cost.

If 3 are not going to, who else would? It was their USP years before the EU banned it, so unless anyone else sees that as an opportunity to take their customers it looks like everyone will do the same.

[Condi]

abzmike said:

Sorry, what did the EU ban? Charging for roaming, bloody good thing it was too, particulary if a regular traveller.

..... Yes, the EU banned roaming charges...... As per the subject of the thread.

[Condi]

loudlashadjuster said:

There are no additional costs for operators or clearing houses because of Brexit itself,.... it's just that UK networks are no longer bound by the EU directive so are choosing to pass those charges (and a healthy markup, of course) to their customers. Because they can.

But if we were still part of the EU what they are doing would be illegal, so they only have the opportunity to charge us more because of Brexit. It is impossible to separate the 2.

[Condi]

mmm-five said:

My contract is up shortly, so I'll be asking for a reduction in the bill to take account of the reduction in service. Wonder what the answer will be!

You could presumably stay on the existing contract and keep your roaming data? Depends if its sim only or with phone I guess, anyone on a nice sim only deal will be keeping hold of it and buying a phone with cash.

[Condi]

There is a lot to be said for keeping hold of old contracts if you've got something good.

I have an old sim only contract and there is still nothing better to replace it.

£20/m for unlimited mins, unlimited texts, 20GB data, full BT Sport access (worth £10), and full use of my data in the EU.

Also, because it's and old contract, instead of an annual price increase of RPI +3% (!!!), I just get charged CPI from memory, which doesn't sound like much of a difference, but when RPI is 6%, it's a difference of about £1 or so a month.