O2 Travel Changes 7/4

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I have been usng the free O2 Travel bolt on since 2016 as I travel to European countries quite often. I use it primarily to browse for when wifi is unattainable. I browse and I get charged £1.99 for the day. In terms of of making phone calls and text messages. If I text a UK number whilst in a European country I get charged 4p. So the overall current setup is:

"While travelling in Europe just pay a 50p connection charge to make and receive calls between European countries then talk for free for up to 60 mins. You'll pay just £1.99 for the days you use data in Europe & there’s no upper limit, but traffic management steps apply. £40 monthly spending limit for data outside Europe."

An email has been sent out from O2 stating changes to how O2 travel works. It now states that:

"From 7 th April 2016, we’ll be adding calls and texts sent back to the UK and within O2 Travel destinations, to the data you already get with our O2 Travel Bolt On. This will give you data, up to 120 minutes and 120 standard texts, per daily charge within selected destinations in Europe. With O2 Travel you’ll only be charged for the days that you use it."

My udnerstanding is that from 7/4 if I am in a European country and I text a UK number, rather than being charged 4p like I used to be, I will be charged £1.99.  Is this correct? I appreciate they are saying you can send up to 120 messages and still get charged £1.99 but I never send 120 messages. I usually send just a couple. By this logic, the £1.99  charged that was activated only when you used data, will now also be activated by sending a text message. If I send one text per day for 3 days I will end up paying £5.99? 

Can someone please verify tell me if I have misunderstood the change?

Thank you.

PS: I am not asking to be told about the different options to circumvent sending a text.. I just want to know that I have understood the changes correctly.

[Anonymous]

How to opt out?

[MI5]

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@Anonymous wrote:

How to opt out?

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Text "NOTRAVEL"  to 23336 and you will be opted out and pay standard rates.

Do this before you travel.

[jonsie]

Live chat opted me out whilst I was here in Thailand. 

[Anonymous]

@MI5  ok finally been and got back,went with a 3 sim card (feel at home) and for 2 days struggled with slow message send times and slow data to the point of not worth bothering.

   Eventually put the o2 card back in and found everything much better.No bill yet but if its 4.99 a day I'll stick with o2 sim in the future....No 4g but the 3g I got was much better than I remember it being here

 Thanks again for your help.

[MI5]

Good to hear mate.
I've just got back from France and my data speeds were adequate for my usage this time, so things might be improving there.

[Cleoriff]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@MI5  ok finally been and got back,went with a 3 sim card (feel at home) and for 2 days struggled with slow message send times and slow data to the point of not worth bothering.

   Eventually put the o2 card back in and found everything much better.No bill yet but if its 4.99 a day I'll stick with o2 sim in the future....No 4g but the 3g I got was much better than I remember it being here

 Thanks again for your help.

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I find that very interesting @Anonymous as one of our members @Bambino is from the USA and travels frequently back there. He uses 3 Feel at Home with no issues at all. Mind you, he has a phone with a local sim and uses that at as well. I suspect it has a lot to do with the area you travel to?

[Anonymous]

I'd hazard a guess there is a better than average chance i done something wrong   I'm just kinda glad o2 worked out ok

[Bambino]

I'm in the US now and my Three sim works fine. I believe both O2 and Three use the AT&T network to roam here, so it shouldn't have made any difference which sim was being used, apart from where the OP was at the time.

[Cleoriff]

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@Bambino wrote:

I'm in the US now and my Three sim works fine. I believe both O2 and Three use the AT&T network to roam here, so it shouldn't have made any difference which sim was being used, apart from where the OP was at the time.

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Thanks for a the confirmation @Bambino. Enjoy your time in the US...:smileywink:

[MI5]

Network congestion or otherwise will obviously play a big part in performance.