Three - Go Roam surcharge?

[KompetentKrew]

Hello,

I received an SMS from Three today - I guess that in 2 weeks' time I'll have been out of the UK for 6 months.

Has anyone else experienced this, please?

How much is thew surcharge, and how often do they apply it?

My initial reaction was that I must abandon Three immediately, which would be quite inconvenient. I'd have to buy a local SIM and I wondered if I'd be able to convince my mail forwarder to activate the SIM if I took out a new contract with a UK provider (needed for banking authentication). However if the surcharge is genuinely modest, and only applied every few months, then perhaps I can stay with Three.

The "more info" link: About Go Roam - About Go Roam - - Support - Three

 

[Mistroma]

Hello,

I received an SMS from Three today - I guess that in 2 weeks' time I'll have been out of the UK for 6 months.

Has anyone else experienced this, please?

How much is thew surcharge, and how often do they apply it?

My initial reaction was that I must abandon Three immediately, which would be quite inconvenient. I'd have to buy a local SIM and I wondered if I'd be able to convince my mail forwarder to activate the SIM if I took out a new contract with a UK provider (needed for banking authentication). However if the surcharge is genuinely modest, and only applied every few months, then perhaps I can stay with Three.

The "more info" link: About Go Roam - About Go Roam - - Support - Three

The link you supplied says:

Already received an alert?
Go Roam in Europe
If we don't see any changes to your usage in the two weeks following the alert, we'll charge the following amounts for continued usage:

3p per min
1p per SMS
0.3p per MB


A lot better than it was years ago. We specifically asked about usage in EU before leaving UK and were told we would be cut off after 2 months use. It would be fine if we bought credits and used the normal non-roaming rates. I can't rmember how it worked but we did pay a lot more than the cheap EU roaming rate.

I needed my phone as I was waiting for news about a sick relative. We returned to the UK after 2 months to attend a funeral and had our service suspended a month after returning to Spain. No SMS warning, just loss of connectivity. Customer service were useless and replied to my emails to say they couldn't call me to discuss the problem (even though I said the problem was lack of service).

I eventually had roaming restored as a goodwill gesture but only after returning to UK. Three then blocked roaming a few weeks later because I went to Sweden for a week. Three restored it again and said it was my last chance, even though it had been caused by their incorrect advice. I wasn't abusing their service as I had actually been paying well over the odds for the few calls made and received.

I left the SIM in a drawer during the next summer and only turned it on to send 1 SMS to keep the SIM active. Three immediately blocked roaming again. I had put the SIM back in a drawer again and only discovered the block when checking online in UK a couple of weeks later. I stopped using Three when they said I had been outside UK for too long. I pointed out that the SIM had not been used for 5 months and they were assuming that it had been sitting unused in a location outside UK.

I would have been quite happy to pay a small surcharge, probably cheaper than the amount I actually paid.

 

[KompetentKrew]

The link you supplied says:

Already received an alert?
Go Roam in Europe
If we don't see any changes to your usage in the two weeks following the alert, we'll charge the following amounts for continued usage:

3p per min
1p per SMS
0.3p per MB

Excuse me, I didn't read past the bold "Permanent roaming restrictions" section.

0.0p per MB is £3 per GB, so I'm not sure that that's sustainable. Maybe juggling it with another contract or a local SIM.

I had to ask the girl at the marina in Lorient for the wifi code this week - it appears she doesn't routinely bother giving it out because it's so cursed. I couldn't even get the splash page when I tried it.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Some have been lucky with other UK companies even tho they all have a fair use policy, I asked everyone and all give me the same answer , if you out longer then 2 months they would stop it , tho talk to many on the cruising route people with O2 Vodafone all seen not to bother to disconnect you .
Made be it just the luck of the draw .

 

[nortada]

Yes SHMBO and both got it back in April, after we had been out of the UK for 6 months.

I got on to 3 with Live Chat and explained because of lockdown I couldn’t leave Portugal, let alone return to the UK. The guy said he had noted it on my file and stressed the word ‘may’ so given my circumstances, it wouldn’t happen. He stressed before they would do anything they would contact me.

Four months later, still using 3 and as yet haven’t been charged.

SHMBO went down the same route but explained that she was a little old lady, trapped by Covid in Portugal ? so the phone was her only link with the family. Got same response as me and no charges.

It would be useful to know how many folk have got this message and if anybody has been surcharged.

 

[Mistroma]

Excuse me, I didn't read past the bold "Permanent roaming restrictions" section.

0.0p per MB is £3 per GB, so I'm not sure that that's sustainable. Maybe juggling it with another contract or a local SIM.

I had to ask the girl at the marina in Lorient for the wifi code this week - it appears she doesn't routinely bother giving it out because it's so cursed. I couldn't even get the splash page when I tried it.

I almost missed it as well and further down there's more on actual charges.


For New Pay As You Go customers, the rates will be:

10p per min
10p per SMS
5p per MB

I wouldn't be paying £51.20 per GB and local SIM would probably be a lot cheaper for data. Greece usually works out around 1 euro per GB in summer and I pay about 45p per GB in UK. No idea about deals in France but I doubt any would come close to Three prices.

 

[scruff]

Could you perhaps ask 3 to send out a replacement sim to someone you trust in the UK and ask them to make a handful of calls on it ? It may then appear you're back in the uk for a fortnight so you can revert to business as usual...?

At any rate free roaming will likely expire in January

 

[nortada]

Could you perhaps ask 3 to send out a replacement sim to someone you trust in the UK and ask them to make a handful of calls on it ? It may then appear you're back in the uk for a fortnight so you can revert to business as usual...?

At any rate free roaming will likely expire in January

Not according to the providers, who confirm that roaming agreements are outside Brexit.

Roaming is not a Brexit thing.

Connect 3 has 71 roaming destinations so the 27 are not big beer.

 

[Koeketiene]

Received the very same warning a couple of months ago.
Not been charged yet, though use my French mobile over 90% of the time.

Did use my 3 mobile phone on a UK network to make a couple of calls when I sailed past the Guernsey last month.
Hope that was sufficient to reset the clock.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Could you perhaps ask 3 to send out a replacement sim to someone you trust in the UK and ask them to make a handful of calls on it ? It may then appear you're back in the uk for a fortnight so you can revert to business as usual...?

Yes, I think I'll ask my mail forwarder if they would be so kind as to activate a SIM for me like this, and then I can just lose my SIM whenever Three threaten me again.

I might move my main number to a cheaper tariff with another provider so that I don't have to be without it when this happens.

 

[Daverw]

Coukd you send your sim to a family member or friend in the uk, they use it in their phone and make couple of calls and then send it back to you, take a couple of days and clock reset.

 

[jordanbasset]

Never been disconnected with my vodafone sim in europe, it is fixed monthly allowance (100GB) rather than unlimited, do not know if that is the reason I do not get disconnected or that it is because it's Vodafone

 

[GHA]

I might move my main number to a cheaper tariff with another provider so that I don't have to be without it when this happens.

I went to gifgaff payg and swapped number to that just for codes for banking etc then a local SIM in a dual SIM phone for Web access, which in Portugal is €1 a day all you can eat.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Cheers @GHA.

How long have you been with GifGaff? Do they allow you to stay out of the country indefinitely?

 

[GHA]

Cheers @GHA.

How long have you been with GifGaff? Do they allow you to stay out of the country indefinitely?

Must be maybe couple years now, maybe more. Sometimes theres a text saying something about extra something cost as I'm never in the uk but it's rubbish for data though fine for receiving security code texts which is the only reason to keep a phone number these days

 

[nortada]

Back to thread.

Has anybody actually been surcharged by 3?

Having looked at our 3 accounts, during lockdown, when we got the warning, we were making heavy use of the 3 hot spots to download films and the like. (Close to our 20GBt overseas monthly limit).

After the warning we reduced our usage (10GBt per month) but still used the hot spots.

Five months on we have still not returned to the UK but have heard nothing since and have not been surcharged.

When you get within 20% of your roaming limit, 3 send you a warning, followed by another warning at 10%.

Clearly these messages are computer driven so I surmise provided you stay below 80% - no computer driven message and no threat of surcharges?

 

[RupertW]

EE has a 15Gb limit for roaming even if you have unlimited UK data but for the last couple of months it waived its roaming rules so all UK data available for the indefinite future.

 

[nortada]

EE has a 15Gb limit for roaming even if you have unlimited UK data but for the last couple of months it waived its roaming rules so all UK data available for the indefinite future.

Thanks useful to know but this thread is focused on 3, which gives 20GBts roaming a month and it appears not to be surcharging or cutting folk off.

 

[syvictoria]

Has anybody actually been surcharged by 3?

Surely it doesn't matter whether or not anyone has ever been subject to the surcharge. If it's in the small print, it's a possibility. Edited to add: Anyway, it's likely to all change next year!

Clearly these messages are computer driven so I surmise provided you stay below 80% - no computer driven message and no treat of surcharges?

 

[nortada]

Surely it doesn't matter whether or not anyone has ever been subject to the surcharge. If it's in the small print, it's a possibility. Edited to add: Anyway, it's likely to all change next year!

Of course surcharging matters. Unless you want to either stop using roaming or get caught with a huge bill. I would have thought that obvious but possibly not relevant in Norwich. There again.

If the providers are to be believed, roaming next year will be the same as this year.

Thanks for picking up the typo. I will proof read future posts more carefully.

Another option would to stop answering the same questions over and over again - just post relevant links and leave others to do their own research and come to their own conclusions - right or wrong. Possibly those of us already overseas have a better grasp of what is going on.

What will happen to mobile roaming charges after Brexit?.

From The Above Link

Operators' plans - 13 July 2020.

Of course, just because the operators might be allowed to reintroduce roaming charges, it does not necessarily mean that they would do so.

Three has no plans to bring them back in, regardless of how negotiations between the UK and the EU turn out.

Vodafone said it currently had no plans to change its roaming charges.

EE said: "Our customers enjoy inclusive roaming in Europe and we have no plans to change this based on the Brexit outcome."

And O2 said: "We currently have no plans to change our roaming services across Europe, maintaining our 'Roam Like At Home' arrangements."

A few minutes research can provide answers and the BBC 'just shot your dog'.