Ringing up the cost of overseas calls

Friday, 29 June 2007 12:00

Millions of Britons are set to head to Europe this summer - and be stung by excessively high costs for making and receiving calls while overseas.

The European Union has taken action to cut the excessive cost of using a mobile outside of your home country, but this will not come fully into effect before September. In the meantime Britons are being charged up to 100p a minute for making a call in the EU and up to 149p a minute outside Europe.

But the new EU rules do not come into force until September 30th, so those heading off on their summer holidays should still look for ways of saving money.

"Costs for Brits using mobiles abroad are amongst the highest in Europe, so travellers should look at ways to cut costs," said Rob Barnes, head of mobiles at Moneysupermarket.com.

"Contact your network directly to see what they can offer you."

There are a number of ways of making overseas calls cheaper ahead of the new EU rules, and these will continue to be useful in countries outside the EU after the September 30th deadline.

Moneysupermarket highlighted a number of ways to save money on overseas calls, including global sim cards. However, these mean you cannot use your existing mobile number to receive calls; outbound calls use a separate system and call you back when the phone call connects; and can prove costly for people going away for just a couple of weeks.

Other ways to cut the cost of using your mobile overseas include local sim cards - these are particularly useful for travellers consistently visiting the same country.

"For infrequent users, I would suggest subscribing to their own network's 'roaming bundles' such as O2's Chosen Country tariff, which once subscribed to, can save you over £1 per minute," Mr Barnes said.

"Vodafone offers a passport service with similar savings, but people should be aware these require a monthly fee to be paid or a one-off set up fee."

• Tags:
• household
,
• mobile phone bills
,
• news
,
• telephones