Vodafone daily roaming increase to $7 per day??

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Vodafone daily roaming increase to $7 per day??

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63 posts

Master Geek

#2253580 7-Jun-2019 09:23

I can’t believe Vodafone are so arrogant as to put the daily roaming charge up 40% 🤬 and try and justify it by the adding of a few more countries that it is available in. All the extra countries do is give them more chance to earn revenue because, if you are like me, in somewhere like Vietnam all I previously did was turn off data and use Wi-Fi and just leave phone on for emergencies.

I could accept maybe 20% ($6 per day) but 40% really gets my back up and I will be looking at the old alternatives I used to use. $5 was acceptable and a no brainier, even if it was only a few texts a day and a bit of google maps. Now I will just go back to downloading areas I want when on Wi-Fi, they will actually end up getting less money from me.

I agree too, that the charge per each device seemed like greedy double dipping, what difference does it make, if your data plan allowance is 10 GB, whether you use it on one device or two? It simply made me turn off data on my shared iPad Mini and hot spot off my phone. Same result, same data used, just bloody annoying.

I could never understand it for data only devices, different when you are talking about two phones on same plan that can make unlimited calls.

networkn

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#2253587 7-Jun-2019 09:31

The number (40%) only looks big because the number it started with, is so small. It's $2 a day!

I guess for some it's a real problem and worth spending hours investigating and making changes, for me, it's not amazing news but hardly worth spending hours of my time (worth considerably more than the $100 a year difference it's likely to make).

dafman

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#2253598 7-Jun-2019 09:49

networkn:
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Well it looks like my main reason for choosing VF originally is now up for reassessment. Let's see - on a 30 day overseas trip my roaming charge will now be $210 instead of $150. Mr VF has now given me the basis for an evaluation all the other options available to me. Thank you!

Really? For me $60 over a 30 day holiday isn't really even a rounding error on my other costs. I understand not everyone spends the same on holiday, but surely, even for the most thrify among us, it would be fairly similar? I mean, I am not *thrilled* at the price increase, but I'd hardly change providers over it.

The thing is, it was the one thing that VF offered over 2Deg & Spark that really gave them the competitive edge. When our contracts came up for renewal six months ago, I had a quick look at the others, but the $5 no fuss roaming was the key reason we renewed. Now it's moving to $14-21 a day (depending whether we are 2 or 3 travelling) it's no longer the draw card it once was.

For all its faults, I have been pretty happy with VF in the past, but now I am going to have a good look at the others when renewing. Time will tell, but let's hope the new owners don't do a 'Cadburys' to the company.

networkn

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#2253600 7-Jun-2019 09:55

I'll be interested to know what you find in the market with the same features that costs less than that. I guess in the end it will depend on your price/features break point.

I seriously doubt this has anything to do with the new owners at all. This would have been in the pipeline for months, they would have had to make changes to their billing platform, website etc etc, not something easily done in days.

Plus the sale hasn't completed yet!

NzBeagle

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#2253602 7-Jun-2019 09:56

For me, the convenience of the $ per day to use it like I'm at home, only ever applied on short trips, where a local SIM couldn't be justified. This just changes the tipping point.

I've not really found any of the Roaming plans too compelling as a general rule, but depends where you travel to as well. I don't think Vodafone has done much to demonstrate why the cost should / could increase from before. Would the increased use of (/dependence on) data be one of the reasons? Previously sipping at data, our local data caps are now more than they were when $5 launched?

stw

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Master Geek

#2253657 7-Jun-2019 11:19

Just a quick comparison of Telstra in Australia is $10 a day for 70+ countries. And only 200MB a day.

I also love not having to worry about how much data you go through. My pet hate is not having UAE on daily roaming.

Also, Vodafone UK has a Red Entertainment plan that has 77 inclusive roaming countries (free roaming) starting at £22 $42NZD Month for 10GB or 35Gb for £25. If Vodafone UK had the ability to have an account with a esim. I would run both and turn the data on the Vodafone Uk when roaming in that part of the world and improving the overall internet experience by dropping the latency down.

Just food for thought.

SheriffNZ

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Ultimate Geek

#2253662 7-Jun-2019 11:26

stw:

Just a quick comparison of Telstra in Australia is $10 a day for 70+ countries. And only 200MB a day.

I also love not having to worry about how much data you go through. My pet hate is not having UAE on daily roaming.

Also, Vodafone UK has a Red Entertainment plan that has 77 inclusive roaming countries (free roaming) starting at £22 $42NZD Month for 10GB or 35Gb for £25. If Vodafone UK had the ability to have an account with a esim. I would run both and turn the data on the Vodafone Uk when roaming in that part of the world and improving the overall internet experience by dropping the latency down.

Just food for thought.

I second this - I'm off to Europe in a couple of months. Everywhere we're going in Europe is covered by the $5 - scratch that - $7 a day (which work is kindly picking up the tab for) but I'm going to have to remember to turn off data while transiting through Dubai.

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invisibleman18

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#2253663 7-Jun-2019 11:26

This is probably a dumb question but just wanting to clarify how roaming works. I'm going to the US later this year and previously on prepay when I've gone overseas I've just made sure I had enough credit to cover any calls or texts I might need to make, which wouldn't be many anyway. Now that I'm on an on account plan, how does it work exactly? Do you get charged the daily rate every day from the day you turn the phone on overseas to the day it's back in NZ, or only on days when you actually text/call/use data? So on days where you only use camera/WIFI etc but no text/call/data would you be charged?

SheriffNZ

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#2253667 7-Jun-2019 11:33

invisibleman18:

This is probably a dumb question but just wanting to clarify how roaming works. I'm going to the US later this year and previously on prepay when I've gone overseas I've just made sure I had enough credit to cover any calls or texts I might need to make, which wouldn't be many anyway. Now that I'm on an on account plan, how does it work exactly? Do you get charged the daily rate every day from the day you turn the phone on overseas to the day it's back in NZ, or only on days when you actually text/call/use data? So on days where you only use camera/WIFI etc but no text/call/data would you be charged?

You get charged only on days when you use the network. So if you only use camera and wifi on certain days, there would be no charge on those days.

Linux

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#2253676 7-Jun-2019 11:53

invisibleman18:

This is probably a dumb question but just wanting to clarify how roaming works. I'm going to the US later this year and previously on prepay when I've gone overseas I've just made sure I had enough credit to cover any calls or texts I might need to make, which wouldn't be many anyway. Now that I'm on an on account plan, how does it work exactly? Do you get charged the daily rate every day from the day you turn the phone on overseas to the day it's back in NZ, or only on days when you actually text/call/use data? So on days where you only use camera/WIFI etc but no text/call/data would you be charged?

and a new day starts on NZ time not the country you are roaming in

invisibleman18

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#2253677 7-Jun-2019 11:55

Awesome thanks.

sbiddle

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#2253693 7-Jun-2019 12:02

invisibleman18:

This is probably a dumb question but just wanting to clarify how roaming works. I'm going to the US later this year and previously on prepay when I've gone overseas I've just made sure I had enough credit to cover any calls or texts I might need to make, which wouldn't be many anyway. Now that I'm on an on account plan, how does it work exactly? Do you get charged the daily rate every day from the day you turn the phone on overseas to the day it's back in NZ, or only on days when you actually text/call/use data? So on days where you only use camera/WIFI etc but no text/call/data would you be charged?

You only get charged on the days you use your phone for voice/sms/data. But it's important to note you'll pay the $7 fee for *any* usage. Send a single SMS message that whole day and you'll pay $7 regardless if you use data or make a voice call.

invisibleman18

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#2253696 7-Jun-2019 12:06

Great thanks for that detail. I shouldn't need to make many calls or send texts as not going for work and most contact to people back home would be via WIFI (messenger etc). But if I do need to then I may aswell use data for the rest of that day to make it worthwhile. Thanks for the quick replies.

networkn

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#2253697 7-Jun-2019 12:07

The issue(If you call it that)being that data can be used without your knowledge (sync for data etc).

sbiddle

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#2253698 7-Jun-2019 12:07

networkn:

I'll be interested to know what you find in the market with the same features that costs less than that. I guess in the end it will depend on your price/features break point.

Vodafone NZ Prepay is the best example of something offering the same features that costs less.

$19 valid for 7 days with 1GB, 100 mins and 100 SMS will fit within the usage requirements of the vast majority of people of travel. Of course if you were traveling for a weekend that is more expensive than Daily Roaming, but if you're away for a week or two that's going to meet the usage requirements of the vast majority of people who roam and be less than half the price of Daily Roaming.

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