Pay monthly services

[JohnLogsdon]

Eurotraveller looks interesting as I will be spending over 4 weeks away this summer. 

Two questions:

1) To use ET do I have to connect to the Vodafone partner network?

2) Calling 'overseas' from the UK is expensive still but would those charges apply calling a number in the country where I am?  In other words would a call within the country that I am in be charged as an international call from the UK (!) or would those calls come out of my plan allowance?  Presumably calls back to the UK would be within the allowance.

You see the problem.

Previously I have just dropped a local SIM Into my phone but that has some disadvantages, particularly the cost of data.  At least I don't have one of those Apple things that doesn't let you do that with its latest app iRippedUOffHaHa.

Ideally of course mobile phone companies would regard the whole of Europe as a single market which it should be and therefore we would have one plan that covers everything.  Our allowances would be common whereever we are. I would happily trade my many hundreds of minutes and unlimited texts down for this facility.  I never use them anyway although data is important.

And pigs might fly!  

The first mobile phone company to do this will really clean up.  HInt HInt VF!

[JD]

Hi John

As you have a few questions I'm going to quote your post and answer below each one:

1) To use ET do I have to connect to the Vodafone partner network?

No. In the past some promotions required you to select a specific partner network but this is no longer the case.

2) Calling 'overseas' from theUKis expensive still but would those charges apply calling a number in the country where I am?  In other words would a call within the country that I am in be charged as an international call from the UK (!) or would those calls come out of my plan allowance?  Presumably calls back to theUKwould be within the allowance.

Whilst you're in one of the Europe Zone countries, calls back to theUK, elsewhere in that country and to any other Europe Zone country are included in EuroTraveller. So, after the £3 daily charge, you'd just use your allowance or if you had no minutes remaining would just pay the standard cross network rate of 35 pence per minute.

Ideally of course mobile phone companies would regard the whole ofEuropeas a single market which it should be and therefore we would have one plan that covers everything.  Our allowances would be common whereever we are. I would happily trade my many hundreds of minutes and unlimited texts down for this facility.  I never use them anyway although data is important.

As you can see from the above, this is the kind of thing we now offer with EuroTraveller - now for just £3 a day you can use your allowance to call from any Europe Zone country back to the UK or to any other Europe Zone country, using your own allowance!

Thanks

J

[isdoo]

Sorry, but this warrants its own thread, as it is all getting confusing.

Just read that the Vodafone passport is beign scrapped for all monthly custoemrs from July 1st even if you are currently signed up to it.

Is this correct?

So it is EuroTraveller at £3 a day or pay for data as you go.

Data Traveller is being scrapped both from Europe (2 a day) and the rest of the world (£5 a day) from July 1st whoch is a great shame.

[danielp808]

not sure about passport, havent grasped 100% how this works.

But from what i gather, got to be better to pay £3 per day to use all uk services, rather than just £2 for data + 75p per call + 24p per text!

[isdoo]

Not really as it the extra £1 multiplied by however many days would go towards several calls - and you would still get 25mb of data a day rather than your current allowance beign used

[stonewall]

£3 a day is too expensive for Europe Data Traveller.  Is there still the option to pay £10 for a month's data on a contract phone in the same way as I have done in the past?  As I will be away in France for 40 days the latest tariff is far too expensive, and after 20 years with Vodafone, I will have to look at changing to another network, possibly a French network.

[JohnLogsdon]

Phew - I found my original question.

You really should have a 'Posts by' or 'My Posts' links like most other fora because I couldn't remember the title....

Anyway EuroTraveller is a step in the right direction but nowhere near what it should be.

1) If I call another European country from the UK, it is still charged as an international call AFAIK.  Therefore there is an illogicality as when in a EuroTraveller country, I can call any other Euro country including the UK.  A proper scheme would include all Euro calls and have a common scheme for residents of all Euro countries which use Vodafone.  Of course I can use Skype or Viper or ....!

2) At the moment you have to pre-select EuroTraveller or Passport.  Again if there is to be an additional charge, the system should cap this at £3 a day so that you can start off on Passport for the day and if you don't make any calls or connect to the data network, that's 0.0p as at present.  But if you make one call or receive one text, that should kick in Passport until either a data call is made or the cost exceeds £3 a day.

3) Vodafone customers within the EuroTraveller area should all have the same facilities.

Get this sorted out and travellers (particularly high use people and businesses) will flock to VF.  Or whoever offers the service.

My 0.02p's worth.

[stonewall]

I have previously used Vodafone Data Traveller, paying £10 for a month's worth of data access on an iPhone.  The quantity of data used is fairly small, but without the Data Traveller option would have been excessively expensive.  £3 a day doesn't sound much, but when one is in Europe for 50 days, then it becomes excessive.  What would have cost £20 now costs £150.  This is clearly completely uneconomic.  THere is an option, unless they change prices, in moving to T-Mobile, who allow you to pay £10 and get get 50MB that can be used across 30 consecutive days.  This is the obvious option to choose.  Unlock your phone, dump Vodafone and port the number to T-Mobile.  The other option to use is an unlocked MiFi such as the HUAWEI E5830s costing about £65 or so in unlocked condition on ebay, with a French SFR 'Pret a Surfer' 3G data card installed in it.  You then have your own personal WiFi network in your pocket. 100MB then costs €9.

[JohnLogsdon]

Interesting point, @stonewall.  I didn't know about the £10/month data deal (or had forgotten) but I'm not a frequent traveller.  I am spending £30 a month anyway on a vodafone account and hardly use any of the data, calls or texts, which is a bit annoying.  That's why a pan-European proper account would be better for many people, you too I suggest.

I am in Bulgaria for 4 weeks this summer and some of that time I will have access to wifi.  So the odd £3 a day when it kicks in didn't seem too bad, particularly as it will include calls back to the UK.  I can change the SIM as I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 so that's not a problem.  I can get a prepaid MTel SIM with 100MB good for 30 days for about £6 (or 500MB for about £9) and tether it to my laptop.  My wife has an iphone with 25MB a day roaming allowance as well but my account doesn't have that.

Since all I am really concerned about is monitoring some servers in the UK and fixing them if they fall over (shouldn't of course), that would probably do when I am not in wifi range. 

MTel is Vodafone's partner in Bulgaria.

[Dave]

Hi guys,

Passport will no longer be available to be added to numbers from the start of next month, however if you already have it on the number then it will remain providing as it is not removed at any point.

Dave

[isdoo]

Does that mean we can still add passport as going on your post we can. How do we do this?

I have 2 lines that we would like it added to to go with the service already on our 2 other lines.

[Dave]

Hi guys,

The £3 daily charge for EuroTraveller allows you to use all your allowances whilst abroad, so you're getting more each day than you were with just Data Traveller or Passport. You only get charged for the days you use the service as well, so if you don't connect on any given day, there's no £3 charge. This also means that you don't have a daily data limit after which you incur charges - it's as much of your monthly allowance as you might want to use. 

Just to clarify another point, Passport is being phased out with these changes, so it will only remain on those accounts which already have it. If you choose to switch to EuroTraveller or to remove Passport, you won't be able to re-add it at a later date.

JohnLogsdon - Just so you know, if you click on your name on the top forum page or beside any post, you'll get taken to your profile page which includes a list of recent posts you've made and the option to view all such posts, so if you do struggle to find a thread again you can check there.

Dave

[drey_p]

Dave - thanks very much for the update on the Eurotraveller package.  I note that the plans available online with 1200 minutes or more come with Data Traveller.  Does this mean that the cost of using data abroad is included in the plan (up to 25Mb per day)?  Also, if a person on a tariff that has Data Traveller, subscribes to Eurotraveller would this give them an extra allowance of 25Mb per day?  If not - it could mean that the effective cost of sending a text is £3 so incredibly expensive.

[stonewall]

Dave - you don't mention whether the £10 option for a month's data can still be asked for if one is already on Vodafone Passport.

If it is no longer available, a better option is to dump Vodafone and go to T-Mobile who are introducing such a scheme now.

[isdoo]

Am sadly having to look seriously at T-Mobile as the costs for Vodafone are now too high.

Would however love to know if the £10 a month is still an option for those on passport.

Will wait until July 1st to make a full decision.

[Lee]

Hi there isdoo,

As Dave says, it's no longer possible to add Passport to a number.

Sorry,

Lee

[drey_p]

Hi Lee

Dave's message says that "Passport will no longer be available to be added to numbers from the start of next month" which implies that is can still be added. You are saying that it can't be.... I am confused LOL

[isdoo]

indeed - mixed messages

[emrawkgrrl]

When I emailed about just using the 25MB & 10 texts when I'm away next month as that's all I'll need I got told tough, I have to pay £3 daily (even though I used that before fine in November).

Hmm new provider when contract expires in a few months I think, sneaky rats.

[ukricardo]

Have u seen T-Mobiles rates?? How can £1/£2.50/£10 for 3/10/50MB be any cheaper?? For a flat £3 with Vodafone you can just use your home rate - simple!! And that include calls!!