New Roaming Charges - 1st July 2013

[andreww top cat]

Useful info thanks A good alternative for many countries is ToggleMobile -only 3ppm for outgoing calls- free incoming -8p texts - and data15p per MB.

Used this in Spain over the last 10 days and very impressed. Used my phone a lot and spent less than £2

[various_mm guru]

this is good news and thanks to EU  we have seen cost of using our phone in europe fall year on year since 2009.

There plan has been to lower the cost for consumers. the EU have have slowly implemented caps every year since 2009 to to meet thier traget levels.

roaming costs will further reduce next yeay in July 2014, and it is expected that competition between mobile providers will lead to even lower costs.

So for all those that say 'what has europe done for us'. well, now you know

[joolzian]

At least its going in the rifht direction.

Thanks for the toggle tip Andrew.

[andreww top cat]

@joolzian - you're welcome. Just apply for a local number(s) for the country/ies you're visiting before leaving the UK and the call charges are unbelievably good value. People can still call your "UK number" too - so it doesn't cost family and friends in the UK any extra to call you (free for you to receive) and you can call UK landlines and mobiles back home for 3ppm

[hammondsc cicerone]

Apparently there won't be any roaming charges come 1st July 2014 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/10119159/EU-to-e...

[hammondsc cicerone]

How do you do that ?

[ifc1978]

I have heard that from 1st July 2014, so in 1 year time, roaming in europe wont exist anymore. Is that right. Would i be able to use my giffgaff allowance everywhere in europe?

Also what about roaming in the USA?

Thank you

[daver13]

Just used ToggleMobile in France with French local number in June. Worked extremely well and prices charged were spot on. I can highly recommend. My only query is whether their current SMS rates are in line with new EU rules post July 2013/

[camp_ranger]

Thats going to make a lot of difference for some people

[anth006]

Spoiler

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gregsnell wrote:

Just for info on the 1st July 2013 the roaming price caps will be lowered which can only be a good thing.

Last time this happened I helped resolve a query asking if giffgaff were breaking the rules regarding price caps. After looking into it I found that the mechanism for calculating the exchange rate changed with the most recent EU regulation covering roaming charges. It is now the average of the exchange rates published in the Official Journal of the European Union on the 1st March, 1st April and 1st May of the relative year with the new caps coming into force on the 1st July of that year.

As such to prevent any confusion arising again, or at least to provide a place to point people to, I have calculated the exchange rate and price caps that will come into effect on the 1st July.

The exchange rate is as follows:

1st March	1st April	1st May	Average
0.86300	0.84515	0.84430	0.85081

(please note the average should always be rounded down to the same number of decimal places as the rates published in the OJoEU)

The real terms price caps are as follows:

Service	Price Cap (EUR w/o VAT)	Price Cap (EUR w/ VAT)	Price Cap (GBP w/ VAT)
Making Calls (Per Min)	0.24	0.288	0.24
Receiving Calls (Per Min)	0.07	0.084	0.07
Sending SMS	0.08	0.096	0.08
Data (per MB)	0.45	0.54	0.45

(Please note it is just coincidence that the price cap in GBP with VAT is the same as the Price cap in EUR without VAT)

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Thank you. This seems to answer the questions posed in contribute more recently.

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute-Innovation-Promotion/Giffgaff-EU-roaming-rates/m-p/91512...