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.

[darrengf]

@Anonymous Just more of a quick question.

is it an iPhone by chance you swapped the sim in to?  

The he only reason for me asking is that when you put a sim in a iPhone, to provision iMessage and FaceTime, the phone sends a SMS to Apple to give them your mobile number for it to work.

I think it's the Vodafone network when you put a sim in iPhone it comes up that you may be charged for sending a SMS regarding activation of iMessage, do you want to continue. I know it's one of the networks.  Obviously when your in the uk your not charged, but outside U.K., it will be because it's a SMS.

if it's not a iPhone, I'm wondering if android does something similar.

[Anonymous]

@darrengf Thanks and yes, it is an iPhone. So the phone sends a single text I know nothing about and there is no trace of it on my phone? That kinda makes sense, and is sort of what I suspected might have happened although O2 help people didn't seemed to consider that. If it is correct, then they ought to make it clear, or at least give you the opportunity to avoid it (like you mentioned re Vodafone, or whichever other network). Having not sent any texts (to my knowledge) or calls and with data being disabled, I did not believe I should be charged according to O2's rules. Furthermore, it should have been obvious to them that I wasn't actively using the service. 

Anyway, at the 4th time of asking O2 has finally refunded the charges. That it needed that many attempts to achieve this is the most frustrating thing, but I do feel they need to address the billing trigger in the interests of fairness. 

[darrengf]

@Anonymous I'm glad you finally got it sorted.

but yes, evertime you swap a sim into a iPhone, to Activate iMessage it sends a message to apple.

o2 don't show this message, but some other carriers do in U.K and eu.