A tourist had this bad experience, which led him to return earlier than planned to limit costs…
This summer, an Austrian tourist’s vacation was cut short faster than expected, with a hefty bill. This story is not about a financial scam or a stolen bank card… This time, it’s about a surprise expense. On August 1, the vacationer was shocked to receive an exorbitant mobile bill, amounting to 16,413.55 euros. However, the tourist had anticipated this with a mobile subscription that included a limited amount of data and a default limit of 60 euros.
This astronomical sum corresponds to what is called roaming fees. If these terms don’t mean anything to you, that’s quite normal, because few people know the regulations regarding telephony abroad. That’s why anyone could have had this mishap.
Roaming charges are additional fees that users may incur when using their phone abroad, outside of their home network. When you make a call, send a text message or use mobile data in another country, your operator must connect to a foreign local network to provide these services. This connection between networks results in additional costs, which are passed on to the user’s bill.
However, in some countries, roaming charges have been eliminated or significantly reduced, allowing travelers to enjoy their mobile plan without additional costs. For example, in the European Union, roaming surcharges were eliminated on June 15, 2017. But in Switzerland, where the Austrian tourist went, this is not the case… When the Austrian learned of the problem, he had to interrupt his vacation and quickly contacted his mobile operator to find a solution. He won his case and saw his bill go from 16,413.55 euros to 60 euros.
This story that ultimately ends well serves as a reminder that it is important to find out about the telephone rates in the country you are going to visit before leaving. Similarly, to avoid any unpleasant surprises, you can deactivate “data abroad” in your phone settings and use the local Wi-Fi of your rental or hotel. You also have the option of buying a SIM card on site with a certain number of GB of Internet.