Keep Your Mobile Charges Down

Neil Gerrard, Labour MP for Walthamstow, has warned constituents about the potential costs of using mobile phones abroad, and how huge bills can be avoided. Neil said "Many people have a shock when they get the bill for their mobile phone after they have been away on holiday. The so-called roaming charges, both for phone calls and for downloading data can be much higher than for using the phone in the UK. Even using your voicemail can make the bills soar; it can cost as much to call your voicemail from abroad as to make a phone call to the UK.

The pan European tariff which has been agreed by many EU countries only applies to voice calls and not to texting or data downloads, and is not available in every European country."

Neil has also signed a House of Commons motion on the subject which reads as follows:

"That this House is concerned that many UK citizens may return from holidays abroad only to endure bill shock when they open their mobile telephone bill; believes that this will be particularly severe if they have used data roaming to access internet or text services whilst abroad; notes that mobile data usage is increasing in the UK but that consumers may not be fully aware of the roaming charges when abroad; welcomes the European Commission's review of data roaming charges; calls on mobile telephone companies to reduce the rates they charge for roaming; and further calls on Ofcom to ensure that wholesale prices for data roaming are reduced from an average 3.00 euro per megabyte of mobile data to 0.25 cent per megabyte."

Ofcom, the industry regulator, has published a leaflet which gives tips on how to make sure that you don't run up massive bills. the leaflet can be downloaded from their website here

July 2008

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