Avoiding bill shock while roaming in Europe

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Avoiding bill shock while roaming in Europe

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shk292

2858 posts

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#1082401 7-Jul-2014 13:33

2DegreesCare:
shk292: I'd get some SIM cards from a provider such as three (UK) in advance - their roaming rates are very reasonable (eg 10p per MB in France). You can get the SIMs on ebay. Then either divert your 2degrees calls to your new UK number or switch to an announcement-only voicemail message with that number. Then swap the SIMs on arrival in Europe.

Just to note you can't call forward to an overseas provider's number.

BTW, we've reduced the roaming charges for Pay Monthly and Business customers in Australia - International roaming on 2degrees

Cheers
^POB

Thanks - I didn't realise that. I usually take a spare old dumb phone and put my NZ SIM in that while overseas, although lately I have been diverting to my work cellphone which I have to carry anyway.

The thing about roaming rate is that if they weren't exorbitant, people would roam and their operators would get a reasonable slice of income. As it is, we just swap SIM and you get nothing. I can only guess that the business user for whom someone else is picking up the tab generate enough revenue to make it worthwhile leaving the status quo in place. Those new Aussie rates are good, although it's a mystery to me why it costs five times as much to provision a MB to a prepay customer as it does for a postpay one

hsvhel

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#1082441 7-Jul-2014 14:05

I've just come back from 30+ days in Europe, used local sims in France, Greece and Italy. It was easier that one that did the lot. We spent about 30Euros all up and got more data and texts than I could use. Calling international was not high on our agenda though.
Theres Wifi in most cities you can log onto with the SIM's and away you go

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darkasdes2

429 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1083778 7-Jul-2014 23:02

I travel through Europe a lot, the easiest option is to get a local sim card. The roaming rates around the EU are very cheap for EU simcards. IF you need to make phone calls back to NZ, just use skype etc. With EU law, they are constantly bringing down the costs of roaming and eventually it wont cost anything at all to roam in the EU.

Just pick up a prepay sim in the first EU country you arrive in. Don't get a UK sim if you are not going to the UK.

Also, you will surprised on the amount of free WiFi around.

If you want an offline Sat Nav, I would suggest Co-Pilot EU. It has defitnily saved me a lot of money

Batman

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#1083784 7-Jul-2014 23:06

alasta:
shk292:
alasta: Can I ask what iPhone app you use for this? I'm going to San Francisco in a couple of weeks and I want to try and get by without needing a local SIM, so your suggestion above would be a big help.

I don't know if it's available in IOS, but NavFree works very well on Android, with free downloadable maps available for most countries. Occasionally not quite a accurate as google maps, but good enough.

Thanks. I found it in the App Store, so will give it a go.

you can cache google maps for offline use, but always have a backup in case it gets cranky

2degreesCare

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2degrees

#1085765 9-Jul-2014 14:48

The best way to avoid bill shock when roaming overseas is to set Spend Control. Once set you can control it from your phone using *100*5# which is a free service even when you're overseas.

Here's more info on what you can do with the *100# menu

Cheers
^POB

alasta

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#1085773 9-Jul-2014 15:00

2DegreesCare: The best way to avoid bill shock when roaming overseas is to set Spend Control. Once set you can control it from your phone using *100*5# which is a free service even when you're overseas.

Does Spend Control have real time awareness of how much you've spent overseas? I would have thought that there would be some delay in the overseas roaming partner feeding their usage data to you guys.

SaltyNZ

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#1085778 9-Jul-2014 15:03

alasta:
2DegreesCare: The best way to avoid bill shock when roaming overseas is to set Spend Control. Once set you can control it from your phone using *100*5# which is a free service even when you're overseas.

Does Spend Control have real time awareness of how much you've spent overseas? I would have thought that there would be some delay in the overseas roaming partner feeding their usage data to you guys.

2degrees only offers roaming in countries where we have real-time control for all services. Thus, spend limit is enforced in real-time while roaming just as it is at home. What is not enforced in real-time is the 2degrees credit limit. The difference is that you set your own spend control, whereas we set your credit limit based on your credit score. If you don't set a spend control limit, we will allow you to spend up to the credit limit, but since that is not enforced in real-time, it can be exceeded.

Spend control cannot.

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

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alasta

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#1085812 9-Jul-2014 15:46

SaltyNZ:
alasta:Does Spend Control have real time awareness of how much you've spent overseas? I would have thought that there would be some delay in the overseas roaming partner feeding their usage data to you guys.

2degrees only offers roaming in countries where we have real-time control for all services. Thus, spend limit is enforced in real-time while roaming just as it is at home. What is not enforced in real-time is the 2degrees credit limit.

Thanks - that's actually really useful to know.

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