Yes to Roaming Cap

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A European Parliamentary committee has voted to automatically cap roaming charges for consumers.

Many people are stung by extortionate phone bills when they use their mobile phone’s abroad, with networks charging an average of 74.8p to make a call back to the UK from Europe. It is therefore no surprise that many consumers come home to a larger mobile phone bill than they anticipated.

Many networks offer special international roaming add ons/bundles that their customers can choose to opt in to. Unfortunately many people don’t know about these badly publicised extras that can be added to their tariff to make calls cheaper.

After recent customer service research carried out by OneCompare.com showed that customer service departments of many networks didn’t know the correct international call charges, it indicates that even they find their own call charges confusing. Many customers are therefore receiving the wrong information which results in an unexpectedly high phone bill.

The cap will make call charges clear to everyone not only for the consumer but also for the networks customer service staff. Anthony Ball, director of OneCompare.com states “Since the EU made a threat to regulate the roaming charges offered by mobile companies there has been some movement from the major operators but consumers need to be made aware that some of these packages contain empty promises as the customer requires the awareness to opt in for roaming packages such as Vodafone Passport and O2 My Europe. Clearly if the operators are serious about tackling confusion amongst mobile customers these services would be extended to all customers as standard.

Consumers will need to be savvy and actively seek out the details of these charges which are often hidden away in the corners of provider’s websites or visit an independent source for this information. Our recent investigation has shown that in almost four out of ten cases some of the major mobile networks are giving customers the wrong information on international calling costs. Mobile operators should be transparent and allow their customers to be fully aware of the cost of international calls preferably in the form of a text message with details of the roaming rates in that particular country.”

The final outcome will only be decided on the 9th of May, however if this results in capping roaming charges consumers can look forward to lower international mobile phone calls and avoid the shock of a nasty mobile phone bill when they return home from their holidays.