UK holidaymakers risk mobile phone bills of hundreds of pounds during a week’s vacation in some popular destinations. Roaming fees for EU countries usually come to less than £14 for a week’s holiday and are free for O2 and Virgin Media customers - yet charges can quickly rise for destinations further afield, such as Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The study by comparison and switching service Uswitch.com, shows some providers like Vodafone let customers use their domestic monthly allowance of calls, texts and data while on holiday outside the EU for £6 a day, meaning a week’s break will cost no more than £42 in the 156 destinations it covers
But some places are excluded from overseas data, call or text bundles. For example, consumers travelling to Egypt face charges of up to £7.20 a MB for data, calls costing £5 a minute, and texts billed at 60p each. This means that a holidaymaker using 1GB of data, making 20 minutes of calls and sending 10 texts a day could end up with a £787 bill.
