EU Roaming Charges scrapped from June 2017
After an interim cap taking effect on April 30th 2016, data roaming charges will be fully banned from the 15th of June next year, after a final green light from the European Parliament.
The aim of the roaming ban is to prevent UK mobile customers being caught out by huge bills when downloading films or other data during European holidays or Business trips.
One-fifth of UK mobile users travelling to the EU in the last year have faced higher than usual bills for usage, collectively amounting to £573m, according to data from Uswitch. The average charge added to bills was £61 on top of a user’s standard contract charge, while 17% faced bills of £100 or more.
Finally you’ll be able to relax about bill shock while you’re away and pay around the same prices as you would at home with the charge added by mobile operators for calls, texts and internet browsing when using your phone abroad, no more than:
- €0.05 extra per minute for calls
- €0.02 extra per SMS sent
- €0.05 extra per megabyte of data used
This is around four times cheaper than the current rates – with outgoing calls currently capped at €0.19 per minute, incoming calls at €0.05 per minute, text messages at €0.06 and data usage at €0.20 a megabyte, excluding VAT, offering you huge savings in time for the 2017 summer. If you opt for pay as you go, you will be billed the usual rate for minutes, texts and data. If you have a monthly contract, you should be able to use your usual allowance wherever you are in the EU.
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