[Webby1]

Check this Virgin Page which explains the fair usage policy.
I was interested in their deal for 200gb for £16. Their fair usage calculator tells me I can only use 8.5 gigs abroad before there is a surchage.
Now I am certain that if we were still in the EU this kind of deceptive advertising would not be allowed
But now that we are free from the EU shackles it's a sharks/liars market. Wait until they start on our food supply...........oh sorry we are the food supply.
All words in italics are lies

 

[barryd]

Yes Peter, my French one is 40GB for €8.99 but only in France. It's only 4GB outside France but more than I ever need.

Ray.

How is that the case Ray as France is still in the EU? I thought you could use your EU full roaming allowance across all EU countries since 2017.

 

[raynipper]

Yes I thought that at first but after only one trip outside France it warned me of the reduced limit. Maybe it's just my supplier Bouygues. I'm happy with it now even after joining up at €4.99 FOR LIFE and after two years they upped it to €8.99. Bastards just would not discuss 'life'.

Ray.

 

[Webby1]

It seems that even "life" might be subject to a fair usage policy.

 

[Pudsey_Bear]

This from Talkmobile who use the Vodafone network.

Roaming charges and using your phone abroad | Talkmobile

Going overseas? We’ve divided countries into six different zones to make prices easy to understand. Learn more about them here.

talkmobile.co.uk

 

[Webby1]

And in the Talkmobile slightly smaller print "As a result, inclusive roaming in Zone 1 is subject to a fair use policy of 15GB of roaming data per month. Roaming data after 15GB is charged at 0.6p per MB."
Now 15gb might be enough for many............ but it would be £6 per extra gb.

So it's still down to Tiekom or Popit for the best deal for big data usage abroad.
I will check with Popit that when they say "You can use all of your allowance in the EU" that their definition of all is not different to mine................. or even different from mine

 

[Pudsey_Bear]

I only put it up because I'm with them and the back up is excellent.

 

[Webby1]

So does that mean when you are abroad you actually go out and look at things rather than just stay in the van consuming data
We do get 12gb from our UK contract with 3 but its not usually enough and although most campsites seem to have Wi Fi it can be a hassle to get a usually slow signal.

 

[Pudsey_Bear]

Who???

 

[Webby1]

It was in reply to youwho

 

[Pudsey_Bear]

I've yet to go but a bit of both if we're camped somewhere picturesque, we like to wander around historic towns but my mobility is poor these days.

 

[barryd]

The trouble is a few years ago 12gb would have been enough for most people for a month. I can remember about a decade ago or so when Vodafone did their Data Traveller service it was £10 extra for 25mb a day data!! We thought it was great! It was enough to check emails and search the odd thing but before that we really had nothing. Fast forward to 2022 and you would use up 25mb just opening a news page there is so much junk on them. Nobody bothers to render images for the internet anymore like they did in the olden days as they assume everyone is on a superfast connection with unlimited data. So your 12gb will soon get scoffed, especially if you start watching streaming services which again are much more high quality so consume more data. We were doing 15gb a day at the back end of our last trip on some days.

 

[Webby1]

Well, I've done it! Ordered the Virgin SIM 50GB data with free calls, texts and roaming with no limited use. Mind you, it's a rolling month contract so I guess they could change that at any time. The sim must be activated by 29 Nov so it looks like my old Voda will continue till then.... I hope so.

My main point here was to flag up how people are being lied to (is deceived a more polite way to put it)
Jean clearly has been told that this sim has no limited use for roaming................but I think that's not correct.
Hey happy to be proved wrong.
But it seems to me that at the moment all UK providers have this fair use get out clause hidden in the small print somewhere.Perhaps if the Popit deal takes off they might have to think again, but I doubt it.
We're in the post Brexit Badland not Sunny Uplands

 

[jiwawa]

fact)........are you sure @jiwawa there is no limitation on usage abroad. They often put roam like at home and then "subject to our fair usage policy" in the small print

Before I bought it I read that there was no cap on the data you could use abroad (in EU) but unfortunately I didn't screenshot the page. I have since seen a mention of 'fair usage'....

 

[Webby1]

That's what I'm talking about Jean....................you have been deceived and lied to. Is there still an Advertising Standards Authority ?...........do we in fact have any standards in this post Brexit free for all.

When we say organic sir we mean we aspire to be organic..............when we say free we mean for a small downpayment................when we say bogof we mean buy one hundred get one free.

There's a job for me here in advertising..................when we say job we don't mean that you get paid.

 

[weldted]

If your current sim runs out it should just then become a month to month deal, so just let it run for another month. Then just order your new sim before the deal expires. It will cost you 2 months on your current sim, one to let it run till you get home and one months notice?

 

[jiwawa]

Something similar seems to be happening Ted. I had to order the new sim on 2nd Nov or lose the offer. So I had to instruct them to move my number to themselves. What I didn't know was when that would be done. If it was done immediately then I feared I would lose the Voda access while still away and not have the Virgin as its sim would be sitting at home. But I still DO have Voda access so it looks as if that won't be revoked until I actually activate the Virgin SIM - after I get home. So all good 👍

 

[Glandwr]

The trouble is a few years ago 12gb would have been enough for most people for a month. I can remember about a decade ago or so when Vodafone did their Data Traveller service it was £10 extra for 25mb a day data!! We thought it was great! It was enough to check emails and search the odd thing but before that we really had nothing. Fast forward to 2022 and you would use up 25mb just opening a news page there is so much junk on them. Nobody bothers to render images for the internet anymore like they did in the olden days as they assume everyone is on a superfast connection with unlimited data. So your 12gb will soon get scoffed, especially if you start watching streaming services which again are much more high quality so consume more data. We were doing 15gb a day at the back end of our last trip on some days.

I can remember those days when you used to watch every Meg. Just remembered also that when old Shep was a pup and I was accessing via mobile that in order to my minimise my data usage I downloaded, installed and used Opera as my default browser.

Looks like it can still CONSIDERABLY reduce your data usage. Possibly even enough to convince a provider that you had cut down your usage abroad enough to comply with their fair usage policy? Especially if you only used it abroad.

I see that they also offer their own integrated VPN service.

How to shrink your mobile data usage with Opera Mini

Opera Mini browser can save you 90 MB in mobile data usage per month. Find out how it works to help you use those extra megabytes better.

blogs.opera.com

Opera Web Browser | Faster, Safer, Smarter | Opera

Faster, safer and smarter than default browsers. Fully-featured for privacy, security, and so much more. Get the faster, better Opera browser for free.

www.opera.com

 

[barryd]

I can remember those days when you used to watch every Meg. Just remembered also that when old Shep was a pup and I was accessing via mobile that in order to my minimise my data usage I downloaded, installed and used Opera as my default browser.

Looks like it can still CONSIDERABLY reduce your data usage. Possibly even enough to convince a provider that you had cut down your usage abroad enough to comply with their fair usage policy? Especially if you only used it abroad.

I see that they also offer their own integrated VPN service.

How to shrink your mobile data usage with Opera Mini

Opera Mini browser can save you 90 MB in mobile data usage per month. Find out how it works to help you use those extra megabytes better.

blogs.opera.com

Opera Web Browser | Faster, Safer, Smarter | Opera

Faster, safer and smarter than default browsers. Fully-featured for privacy, security, and so much more. Get the faster, better Opera browser for free.

www.opera.com

Yes I still use Opera occasionally, mainly for its free VPN for Torrent sites. Ive not tended to worry about data anymore in the UK at least but I wish I had remembered in the lakes a few weeks ago as we were on an EE Sim with just 40gb as there was no signal in a couple of places we went and Mrs D hammered it by leaving a load of video stuff open all the time. I think we were down to our last GB the day we left.

 

[jiwawa]

Opera says it can save you 90MB a month. It's something, yes, but isn't really going to make any difference, is it? I have it up years ago cos it was slow.