UKC

Hi,

Just a heads up for anyone travelling to Switzerland and considering making the mistake of switching on their phone.

My Phone supplier has diligently texted my on entry to every country I've visited over the last two years, they always send a Welcome to xxxxx. Here are all the associated roaming charges... However, when I recently crossed the Swiss border to fly home from Geneva the text was a bit different. "Welcome to Switzerland" but no information on the roaming charges.

So, it turns out while data is 0.04 per Mb in France, its actually £7 per Mb in Switzerland. I only used my phone for a brief 10 minutes in the airport but the unexpected bill is massive! There is a clause where they "try" to limit usage to a 50 Euro cap. In my experience they don't try very hard as my bill was several times the "maximum" limit.

So, just a heads up, if roaming, always check the prices and if no information comes through, don't use it!!

All the Best

(P.s. I am appealing this with the phone company on the basis they texted my the prices for every country I've ever visited however on the one occasion they chose not to inform the prices, they are sky high - how convenient?!)

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:

I am with 3 and can use data and text for nothing in pretty much all EU and Swiss, not that it helps you now !

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

Good info, it seems like three is offering a good deal nowadays. You may have helped, I might be defecting after this!!

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:

I used to be on O2 and come home to £80-100 bills or have to scratch around after wifi for internet, those days have gone. Good reception too in most spots.

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:

I have a cap of I think a fiver, which turned out to be a good a thing - arriving in Morocco last autumn I had forgotten to turn off the data roaming, and as I turned my phone on a the airport it checked my email and instagram followed almost instantly by a text from Tesco saying I had hit my five pound cap so I had no more data access! One of the fast five pounds I've ever managed to accidentally spend!

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:


Thanks for the warning, honestly that's useful, but to me it's a case of "Wow shock horror news - Switzerland is expensive"

In reply to abseil:

Indeed - Data is 175x more expensive per Mb!!! 0.04p in France and £7 in Switzerland! Believe me, 10 minutes was very expensive!!

In reply to Dark-Cloud:


Apparently this "saved" me about £3k last year. Admittedly I did spend a combined three months in Europe, NZ and the US (all free roaming). If you go abroad regularly, there is no need to search beyond 3 for a phone provider IMO.

In reply to ianstevens:


Also on 3 with no roaming charges, saves me a fortune.

In reply to Jim 1003:

You can roam free in Europe on some vodafone packages too.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:


How much do you pay for the package out of interest?


Chris

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:

Once we've exited the EU you'll pay Swiss scale roaming charges everywhere!

In reply to ianstevens:


FWIW, I went with Vodafone as at the time they offered a superior deal. I'm not sure what Three's data performance is like abroad, but there were some negative reports on the web about their data speeds, and at the time they did not offer the service in Belgium. With Vodafone I've never had less than 3G performance while roaming abroad.

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:
I use vodafone and it has a red package attached which includes free roaming and 2gb per month abroad.

Just a warning if you are going to Kalymnos. In some areas you pick up Turkish service and it is most definitely not free!! Last time I was there (in Turkey) it was £8 per mb and about 1.40 per minute both making and receiving. Luckily it was work related but my bill was just over £500 i think. Changing my flight cost me £40 in call charges!

In reply to planetmarshall:
Always had 3G whenever those with a non-roaming phone have (3G is far from ubiquitous in rural South Island NZ, whilst the opposite is true in San Francisco). Can't get 4G though, but I've never found this as an issue for a bit of Facebook, UKC and Strava surfing, plus Garmin sync, MyFitnessPal and work/personal email.

Chris: I know you didn't direct this inquiry at me, but I can still help with an answer. I pay £47/month for 600 mins, unlimted texts and data and a 64GB iPhone 6. Switching to SIM only will drop it down to £15/month with a drop from unlimted data to 12GB (although this may be an upgrade deal as I've been with 3 for many years now). Not cheap but I'm often away from WiFi spots and am far to millenial in my lifestyle to live without the internet.

In reply to Chris Craggs:
£33 a month, 2GB data, 600mins, unlimited text, not that you need that as iMessage and whatsapp has pretty much killed it on iPhone, but that was with the phone in contract, out of contract now so should be able to reduce the minutes and up the data a bit and pay less I would think.

But as somebody has already pointed out roaming may be set to rocket with the brexit debacle.

In reply to Chris Craggs:

I'm with 3 on an older plan and have unlimited data, far too many messages and minutes for £24 a month. Bargain.

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:

Yeah I got stung for about £90 a few years ago in Pakistan when I made the mistake of checking FB at the end of the trip and sending a few 'I'm alive and well' messages. So maybe not just Switzerland. Would have been cheaper to have used the sat phone!

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:


Sorry if it make you feel worse but Geneva airport has free wi-fi.

In reply to Scott K:


That sounds like the same package I have and I think it is 2Gb in the EU, not "abroad" in general.

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:

Which network, out of interest? O2 and EE both treat it as EU.

In reply to Dogwatch:
Yes. EU plus some other countries.
Also, when I was with EE you could opt in to get cheaper calls to certain countries. EE was quite a good package but I can't get a good signal at home so had to change as I need a phone for work.