EU Roaming

[MZone]

Hi all,

Just want to clarify something. I am going to Lanzarote in a few weeks and am aware I could be subject to the £2 a day roaming charge to use my phone like home.

I currently have a dual SIM in my iPhone with the other network been O2 which has free EU roaming. My primary number is my Three number. The plan is to use only my O2 number for data, outbound calls and texts if needed but still have the option to get inbound calls/SMS on my 3 number. 

If I switch data roaming off on my 3 SIM before I land and don’t make a call or text whilst roaming am I correct in thinking I will not get charged the £2 a day roaming charge.

Thanks in advance.  

 Adam

[atommyk]

Done some digging and  found this 'data' usage in the three app. How on earth is this charged, and why GPRS? Is that not something the three system should recognise as not a data charge' 

[apadley1337]

This seems to happen when your caarrier sends an SMS message home, presumably to share carrier data. This is being mistaken as a user message and will then trigger the daily charge. As its an SMS message, data roaming settings are ignored. Seems to be prevalent on iPhones and happens on ios 16 and 17. 

[ycantyoufix]

This has been happening to me - currently going around in circles with support as they seem to struggle to understand what a chargeable event is (the current line is that if roaming is off, and you are connected to a network (not for data)!that it counts as a chargeable event - you don’t have to do anything - I’ve pointed out this is not mentioned on their website)

I got charged for using 0.0009 mb of internet despite having roaming turned off every day I was abroad - it’s only started happening since middle of this year on my iPhone 14 - very frustrating. 

[JonathanB]

Hey @ycantyoufix,

Yeah for it to be a chargeable event this would have to be you making a call, sending a text, or using roaming data. This sounds a lot like a situation I'm trying to get investigated. I've sent you a PM to get you in touch with some colleagues that are gathering info about this.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Jonathan

[onthejazz]

In the end the only way I could get this to stop was by changing my spend limit to zero.
However that only changes at the start of the next billing cycle so I was unable to avoid charges and had an unexpected bill which I am not happy about but no way so far to get it refunded.

Something changed on 3's side to cause this as it was not an issue when roaming before.

Also why has the "roaming" on / off button been removed from the 3 account settings online and in the app? I started to get these charges after the updates rolled out and it cannot be coincidence.

[JonathanB]

Hey @onthejazz,

I've referred everyone that's mentioned the issue so far over for investigation. Hopefully a few of you are able to chat with the team I've mentioned on my PMs, and our service desks can use that data to figure out what's happening here.

I will say that the system updates began way back in January, and this only seems to have been an issue for a month or two though, so I'm not 100% sure we can make the call that the two are actually linked yet.

The issue is only reported on iOS too so that may be relevant.

Regarding the roaming option for My3, I'll also get that looked into, thanks for the feedback.

JonathanB

[ycantyoufix]

Yep I had to kill my sim when I was abroad most recently as Ive had to bring in the cap

the team on the phone are not helpful at all.

three seem pretty clueless on this - and it’s very frustrating.

I will try your web chat option