Roaming questions

[Rozii]

Hi,

I currently have both the O2 Travel (Zone 2) Bolt On and the O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Bolt On as a Volt customer. As I understand, these allow me to use data, calls, and texts in Europe and 27 extra countries outside Europe.

I’m currently in Turkey and I understand that, to use services here I’d need to either trigger the £7 daily charge on the days I use my phone or switch to an Ultimate tariff.

I have a few questions I’d really appreciate clarification on:

1- If I trigger the £7 Bolt On, is there a usage cap, particularly for minutes? I’ve seen mentions of a 120-minute limit in some places. My primary need is to receive calls from the UK, not make them. Are there limits on incoming minutes?

2- I’ve read that receiving texts or calls doesn't trigger the daily charge unless you use data, make a call/text. However I recently answered a call while in Turkey (from a US number), and the Bolt On was triggered.
Would this have happened if the call had been from the UK instead?
Does simply answering a call (and speaking for a few minutes) from a UK number trigger the £7 charge, or is that treated differently? USA call was an exception, though I don’t get charged if I receive a call from abroad while in the UK.

3- I didn’t receive any notification or warning that the £7 Bolt On had been triggered, no texts or app alerts. I only noticed it while checking my account page for tariffs and saw the timer counting down in the "Abroad" section. Even customer service confirmed it was active, but they couldn't explain the lack of notification or verify any extra charges yet. This was quite confusing, especially since I wasn't aware it had been triggered until it was almost over, and I didn’t get to use it properly.

4- Let’s say I switched to ultimate plan then I traveled for more than 63 days. If I turn off roaming and stop accepting calls after receiving the fair usage warning or 63 days, can I simply switch services back on and resume my regular UK tariff immediately upon returning? Or does the system require that the majority of the following 4 months must be spent in the UK before my usual tariff fully resumes? If so, would that mean potentially facing high or out-of-bundle charges during that time in the UK after my trip?

5- Is there 63 days limit on travel zone 2 daily charge option or can you use it as long as you pay £7 for every day you use?

I know this may be a bit confusing, but I’d appreciate any assistance.

My main concern is understanding whether, with both Travel Bolt included but not ‘active’, I would be charged for receiving calls from the UK and speaking for x amount of minutes. Most resources only cover outgoing calls, and it’s unclear what limits or charges apply to incoming calls.

Thank you very much for your help!

[pgn]

Yip. O2's fine print serves more often to confound than to clarify 🤷

Your post probably prevails, @MI5 - so @Rozii - you need to query the roaming charge made for the call received on your phone, with O2 Travel in place, from USA to you while you were in Turkey. Good luck, the links just below for X or FB should be good for this, and persist. Good luck.

[Rozii]

@pgn Thanks for the response.

I don’t think this applies in my case though, I’ve had plenty of voicemails and while I know listening to them incurs a charge, simply receiving them definitely doesn’t.

My bill refreshes in a couple of days, so I’ll try triggering the Bolt On by answering a call and I guess we’ll know for sure then

As for the 63-day limit, I suppose I won’t know for certain but it does seem to be based on the time since first usage, rather than just being abroad or the phone connecting to a different network. I’ve never received a fair usage warning for staying abroad over 63 days, so that seems to support it. 

And honestly, that’s how it should work, it’s much fairer to apply the limit after someone has actually used the service for 63 consecutive days or triggered it 63 times within 4 months, not when they’ve only used it once or twice over several months.

I might ask about it on social media at some point as you suggested. 

Thank you!

[Rozii]

Just for information, I’ve now tried accepting incoming calls from the UK while abroad, and interestingly my account showed the “unlimited incoming calls” countdown for 24 hours (actually today’s started at 1 day and 59 minutes?!), but no extra charges appeared on my bill or account. Took SS for those, but don’t know whether I can add those to here.

I tested this across two days and once with the accidental call from USA last week. My billing cycle refreshed two days ago and no additional charges showed up, not even for the US call I answered last week. So it seems the Travel Bolt On terms override standard roaming terms and receiving calls (or incoming minutes) doesn’t actually incur a charge.

It would’ve been so helpful if O2 clearly stated “incoming minutes” in their terms instead of just “receiving calls” because I had been avoiding answering calls altogether thinking it would trigger charges.

For context, customer service did tell me I would be charged for answering calls, but they also once said calling the international voicemail number was free from abroad and I got charged for it while still on chat with the advisor. They had to manually fix it afterwards.

So…safe to say some of these things are still a mystery even to them 😄

Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on my account and let you know if anything unexpected pops up later. I only plan to use it this month, but if I end up staying another month or two, I might get clarity on whether the 63-day fair usage is calculated from the first day of usage, or from the total number of days used. Could be useful info for anyone travelling more than two months and using their plan only occasionally.

---

[MI5]

Standard garbage from customer service these days.