Travelling in the UK

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MurrayM

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#298771 15-Jul-2022 10:40

I'm heading off to the UK soon and will be taking my phone with me. I use Vodafone and the plan I use is My Flex Prepay. I'll be away for one month.

In the past when I've visited the UK I've always popped into a Vodafone store and they've given me a UK SIM card and I've bought one of their pre-pay plans (eg a £10 Bundle gets me 7GB data, unlimited calls and texts) and this has been more than enough for my uses. When I get home I replace the UK SIM card with my NZ one and throw away the UK card. I find that this works out cheaper than using the Vodafone NZ pre-pay roaming ($6/day or $22/week). I won't be calling or texting anyone back in NZ while I'm away, I'll use a messaging app if I need to get in touch with anyone.

This time I'll be traveling with a duel SIM phone for the first time and I was considering leaving my NZ SIM card in the phone and adding the UK SIM card and telling my phone to default to the UK SIM card for data/calls/texts.

What happens if someone calls or texts my NZ number while I'm away? Do I have to pay to receive the call/text? The only info I could find on the Vodafone site says that the caller doesn't pay anything extra.

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#2942114 15-Jul-2022 10:45

As you are in the UK a incoming call will trigger the daily roaming charge of $8 - incoming SMS are not billed

I am not sure about VodafoneNZ but 2degrees do not charge when using WiFi calling overseas

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/daily-roaming/

Edit: Daily roaming might be for on-account customers only!

WiFi calling is best for free roaming call VodafoneNZ and hope it works the same way as 2degrees customers

Linux

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#2942120 15-Jul-2022 10:53

All incoming calls are charged if VodafoneNZ do not offer daily roaming for Prepay customers and all SMS sent have a surcharge

nztim

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#2942142 15-Jul-2022 12:09

Can confirm Vodafone do NOT charge for VoWiFI while roaming, I was in the US for 3 weeks in May and the days that I was at the in-laws and my mobile never left the house we were not charged

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

nztim

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#2942210 15-Jul-2022 13:18

Another thing to note is the $8 per day is NZDT 0:00 to NZDT 23:59 not your local time zone

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

MurrayM

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#2942258 15-Jul-2022 15:42

Linux:

As you are in the UK a incoming call will trigger the daily roaming charge of $8 - incoming SMS are not billed

I am not sure about VodafoneNZ but 2degrees do not charge when using WiFi calling overseas

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/daily-roaming/

Edit: Daily roaming might be for on-account customers only!

WiFi calling is best for free roaming call VodafoneNZ and hope it works the same way as 2degrees customers

Yeah I think that $8/day roaming charge is for on-account plans, which I'm not on.

This page on Prepay Roaming plans has two plans: $6/day or $22/week. And you elect which one you want after you land in the UK by sending a text message with the plan you want. Unfortunately it doesn't say what will happen if you don't sign up for either plan and then get a phone call from NZ.

Pretty sure my Oppo A5 2020 has WiFi calling, so that's not an option for me.

MurrayM

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#2943068 17-Jul-2022 10:51

MurrayM:

Pretty sure my Oppo A5 2020 has WiFi calling, so that's not an option for me.

Oops! Meant to say that my Oppo A5 2020 doesn't have WiFi calling, so that's not an option for me.

quickymart

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#2943072 17-Jul-2022 10:59

When did the price increase from $7 to $8?

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MurrayM

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#2946418 26-Jul-2022 09:22

As a follow-up:

This morning I spoke to someone in Vodafone support who told me that when I land in the UK and turn my phone on I should receive a text message welcoming me and offering their roaming plans (I know this is correct as I've had this happen in the past). If I ignore the messages and don't reply to tell them which roaming plan I want to use (I'm on prepay and there are two prepay roaming plans: $6/day or $22/week) then roaming won't be activated and anyone that tries to call my NZ number will just go to my voicemail (I'm not sure about text messages to my NZ number, I assume they won't be sent since VFNZ can't find my phone and they'll be kept for so long and then dropped after a certain amount of time). I can then get a UK SIM card, insert it in my phone and tell my phone to use the UK SIM card by default for data/calls/texts.

Just before I leave NZ I'll disable mobile data on my phone to stop it from trying to send/receive any data until I can get the UK SIM card installed. I'm not sure what would happen if I don't do this and my phone tried to use data, I guess nothing as I haven't selected a roaming plan.

trig42

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#2946420 26-Jul-2022 09:38

If you don't need it, and you definitely want to avoid any charges, remove the SIM after you board the plane.

Linux

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#2946421 26-Jul-2022 09:39

I do not agree with what you were told about roaming if your phone is on and registered on the mobile network it will ring and bill the prepaid account

MurrayM

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#2946447 26-Jul-2022 10:50

trig42:

If you don't need it, and you definitely want to avoid any charges, remove the SIM after you board the plane.

This is what I've done on my past trips, but in the past my phone could only handle one SIM card. Since I've now got a dual SIM card phone I thought leaving my NZ SIM card in my phone would save me having to store it somewhere else during my trip and risk losing it (damn those things are tiny!)

MurrayM

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#2946449 26-Jul-2022 11:00

Linux: I do not agree with what you were told about roaming if your phone is on and registered on the mobile network it will ring and bill the prepaid account

I must admit that I'm still a bit sceptical too. In the Vodafone app on my phone if I scroll to the bottom of the home screen and go into the "Roaming overseas" option it says "Global Roaming is ON" and "To turn roaming off, please call us on 777 from NZ or +64 9 355 2007 from overseas". I tried calling and spoke to someone that told me he couldn't turn roaming off for me and that I should just remove the NZ SIM card. He couldn't tell me what would happen if I left the card in and someone tried to call it.

The online chat person I spoke to today just said to not choose a prepay roaming plan when I get to the UK and I'd be fine since I wouldn't have a roaming plan set up, any calls to my NZ number would just go to voicemail. But I'm a bit worried that this isn't true and I'll be charged and it would eat into my prepay balance.

Now I'm just more confused 😕

Maybe I'll just play it safe and remove the SIM card.