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Abroad calls

andrei01
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Hello, I`m abroad and I need to call to the UK. I have already topped up 15 pounds, but when I was in the middle of the call it closed because the credit was over. It is very expensive to use the credit to call back to the UK. Is there another reasonable option fot this ?

13 REPLIES 13

BandOfBrothers
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi

 

 

This Vodafone link holds information about being abroad and shows how much it is to roam in countries and explains eurotraveller and world traveller and the benefits of opting in. 

 

Vodafone Abroad Usage.

Current Phone  >

Samsung Galaxy s²³ Ultra 512gb Phantom Black.

 

 

Hello. Thanks for the link but it`s not helpful. The option available there is only for the Pay monthly customers. That`s not me..Do you have any other option there ?

BandOfBrothers
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi

 

Payg is there too. 

 

Type in the country your in into the supplied box entitled 'where  are you going'

 

Then the box entitled 'what type of agreement do you have '

 

Choose Payg. 

 

Then choose wether your using a phone or other device. 

 

Then the various costs will shop up followed at the bottom with the best abroad opt in for you. 

 

 

 

 

Current Phone  >

Samsung Galaxy s²³ Ultra 512gb Phantom Black.

 

 

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

Unfortunately, if you're somewhere such as the USA, the charges for PAYG are very high, and World Traveller isn't available to you. Also, be aware that receiving calls is only slightly less expensive, so that will also get through your balance very fast.

 

Your best option, if you have wifi available in your hotel, is to use an app such as Skype. If you have a BT account at home, you might find their SmartTalk app useful, though I'm not sure if you could set it up from outside the UK. (Edited to add that I've just set up SmartTalk on a second phone, and you definitely have to be in the UK, indeed in the house where the landline is, in order to set it up.)

 

Another option might be to get your contacts to call you at your hotel. Outgoing calls from hotel phones are often hideously expensive, but calling from a UK landline or mobile may be very much cheaper, depending on the deal your callers have with their network. For example, I'm opted into Vodafone International (I'm on PAYG), and calls to standard US numbers (from the UK) only cost me 1.5p per minute!

 

Depending on how long you're away, and what usage you require, another possibility might be a local SIM card, but for that your phone would have to be unlocked from Vodafone - again, if not already done, not feasible from abroad. Or even buying a very cheap basic phone could be an option.

catean
10: Established
10: Established
Check the new EU roaming rates that will be valid from 30.04.2016. 3p to call in europe and uk, free to receive calls and 3p/mb of data. So a huge decrease in price.

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@catean wrote:
Check the new EU roaming rates that will be valid from 30.04.2016. 3p to call in europe and uk, free to receive calls and 3p/mb of data. So a huge decrease in price.

Are you sure that that is what it means? My reading of this is that those are the maximum charges on top of the standard domestic rate.

 

Currently I am paying 30p/min to make calls within the UK, but only 16p/min if I take my phone to Europe, the latter charged by the second above 30sec. I had rather assumed that this would rise to 33p/min, but was hoping that the per sec aspect might be retained to soften the blow.

kids
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@Annie_N I read it the same as you.

 

This link from the first page shows the costs clearer,

The calls are the domestic rate plus a surcharge.

 

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

Somehow my searches had brought me in at a subsidiary page, but the first page makes it very clear. The last two EU price rulings had been vastly in my favour, so I had been rather disappointed by my understanding of the latest one. However, it seemed anomalous, to put it mildly, that roaming within Europe should be so much cheaper than using my phone at home (calls, texts and data), so at some point the party was going to come to an end. Ah well :smileyindifferent:

catean
10: Established
10: Established
These are the official new tarrifs :

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/campaigns/roaming-july-15-payg/changes-to-payg-in-eu-reg/

There are no local + surcharge, those are the maximum allowed. From 2017 there will be no roaming in european union anymore, that's if we don't get out until then.