Roaming charges whilst data roaming turned off

[bcracknell]

I was on holiday in the US last month and had data roaming turned off before I even left the UK. At no point did I turn my data roaming on. Three texted me randomly at 3 points during my trip saying hello and welcome to the USA, outlining the costs associated with using my phone whilst in the USA. These texts were not telling me I was using my data, just letting me know I could. I've just received my bill to find I've been charged 3x £5 plus VAT for roaming services whilst in the USA. I can see on my bill that these supposed usages were really tiny amounts of data, <10MB. When I tried to dispute these charges, stating that I had my date roaming turned off the entire time,  I was told there was no way the system could be incorrect. However, clearly, the system is wrong if I can be charged tiny amounts of data usage whilst my data roaming is turned off. Please can you advise what I can do in this situation? 

[atommyk]

Difficult to tell. I certainly got charged when ‘roaming’ in mobile data options was off. I don’t think I ever ran the exact comparison with mobile data completely off, as my default position, if not on a go roam pass, would be to use an eSIM for which mobile data would be activated. 

// of note, ombudsman has accepted the complaint and started the case with the network. Let’s see what happens 

[HD1983]

Yes you do get charged. Its an ongoing fault on the Three network, regardless of what device you use. Every 24 hours, it downloads between 1 and 5 kb, charging you for the entire day's roaming. even with the data turned off ands the SIM in flight mode. the only way around is to take the sim out before you travel / take off entirely. Initially customer support will deny the issue exists. After redirecting them to information online, theyll then claim you must have used some data. After continued pressure, they'll cave and admit the issue. The suggestion is that sim checks in with cell sites once a day if it is in any handset and that handset is turned on - regardless of settings. Setting your spend limit to 0 wont stop this. You'll need to set your "credit limit" to 0 - which poses a problem if you do need to use it in an emergency. This is Three's achilles heel unfortunately. Three is a great network with a value based service - but if you want reliability - you have to pay for it in the form of a backup SIM - especially where roamng is concerned.

[cinone]

If the phone is in flight mode it's impossible that the sim checks in with cell sites downloading between 1 and 5 kb, otherwise it's be the phone manufacturer problem, because when in flight mode the phone doesn't allow any connection whatsoever. I set a cap of £0 to my spend limit, but what's the "credit limit"? And where is it found?

[Gurj]

Having had this issue several times last year and got £100's back in unfair charges, this year I have been turning off the Three SIM when abroad and using an ESIM or just WiFi. That's a pain because I can't receive SMS messages for some online services that still authenticate that way only.

Setting a Spend Cap did work for me, at limiting the charges last year when not turning off the Three SIM.

It's a shame Three's technical team are either still in denial or simply can't figure this out!!

[cinone]

I think that when you are abroad your phone connects to local networks, so even receiving SMS messages is a roaming charge, I wish I was wrong but I doubt it. If you didn't pay for roaming, you need to avoid any connection with foreign networks, so either in flight mode and using wi-fi, or it should work having set roaming and data off with a spending cap 0. Or accept the £2 daily charge for Europe if you're staying a week is £14, it can't be over it

[HD1983]

Exactly! If you use Android you can link your phone to another device and use the other device to send and receive texts - using your Three phone. Its a "G Messages" option

[TVOR1971]

Such a relief to find this thread!  I've had this issue in Brazil in February and in France just last week.  Spoke to someone in the call centre who did seem aware of it and gave the explanation others have said, that tiny amounts of data are transferred when you're in a foreign country and that having Data Roaming set to off doesn't change this.  He said the only way to stop it was to either block the service (which I don't want to do) or leave in Flight Mode, which I'll try next time I'm abroad.  Really annoying and I wish they would sort it out.  It's not so much the money, £2 a day in Europe isn't so bad, but it's the principle.  Why have a Data Roaming setting if it's useless?

[TheSolent]

You're not alone. It's happened to me twice this year in France and Greece.  Each time, they only agreed to waive the charges was when I said I would leave Three, which was not an empty threat. It's not possible to turn off your phone because you may need to receive two-factor messages or urgent texts from companies with whom you do business such as banks, credit cards etc.  There is clearly a problem with their systems but they're not listening and I guess many people just "it's only a couple of quid". Not me though.

[TheSolent]

Don’t want to count my chickens too soon, but fifth day in Greece and no roaming charge from Three. Only thing I’ve done differently is on my alternative SIM, I’ve set ALLOW MOBILE DATA SWITCHING to OFF. Or maybe Three has fixed the issue. But the trip ain’t over yet.

[TheSolent]

I can now confirm that for the first time this year, I spent a week in Greece with roaming turned off and was not charged daily roaming fee. This was after turning off ALLOW MOBILE DATA SWITCHING on my second SIM