Warning for anyone travelling abroad with O2 Travel in non-inclusive area

[Jessica_B]

I travel abroad frequently to Dominican Republic which has O2 Travel but isn't in the inclusive area, so there is a £4.99 a day charge triggered.    I use a local SIM card, so I only receive calls and texts on O2.    I checked and O2's conditions make it clear that receiving a call or a text will NOT trigger O2 travel.   You can receive up to 120 minutes of calls per day free of charge.    The only way to trigger the O2 travel charge is if you make a call, send a text or use data.    Paragraph 13 of the link below makes this clear.  

https://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile/o2travel-paymonthly-terms-and-conditions

However, each day I have received a call, I have been charged the £4.99.    I called to query this, and it seems that the billing system isn't working correctly.

What's more, I made a call before I left the UK, 1 hour before my flight departed, and O2 also charged me the £4.99 for that day, based on that call - made on UK soil - triggering O2 travel.    

If you are travelling abroad in a non-inclusive area, strong advice is to check whether you should have been charged for O2 travel as it seems the system is overcharging.  

[madasaf1sh]

@Jessica_B 

The thing triggering the charge could be the likes of WhatsApp, iMessage as they all do services registration by SMS in the background, and these do send an International Text. 

I have never had any issues with o2 travel when travelling overseas with o2.... EE is a different question. 

If you message O2 on Facebook (https://o2uk.co/O2CFB) , Twitter (https://o2uk.co/O2CTW) or Instagram (https://o2uk.co/O2CIG) , they should be able to look into this for you. 

[Jon30]

I've had a similar / the same issue as this very recently (my latest bill). 

When calling customer service and looking into the usage, I was told that I was charged for each day I received a text (funnily enough, most of the texts were from O2...). They told me that this was normal although I have used O2 travel many times in the past and never had this before. 

I was surprised by this and, as you've pointed out, I found paragraph 13 in the terms and conditions and having pointed this out, my case has now been escalated - hopefully it will be resolved without issue as this seems like a bug.