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New user very confused by iDmobile texts whilst in France


Hello :)  I’ve only been with iD for a handful of months, and I’m on day 2 of a holiday in France.  I’m getting texts from iD that suggest I’m somehow racking up unexpected costs.  I’m on 90Gb of data per month which I don’t get anywhere near consuming, roaming in EU is supposed to be at no additional cost provided calls/texts/data remain within the plan threshold.

The texts say things like ‘please be aware that you’ve started using chargeable services whilst roaming.  Any calls, texts, or data will not come out of your standard UK allowances and will cost between 30p and £15 per MB.’   or ‘you’ve now used 100% of your credit limit.  To use any chargeable services you’ll need to log in to the iD mobile app’

I spent a really frustrating hour doing ‘live chat’ on day 1 of the holiday because the above was very worrying.  I got cut off by the first agent after 25 minutes of plodding through questions like ‘confirm your mobile number’ with 5 minute waits between any acknowledgements.  After 30 minutes with the second agent, they kindly confirmed that I should not face any extra charges whilst in France as I’d be using my UK allowance.

The App shows under a box titled ‘Data Remaining’ that I have 177.8GB / 90 GB and that it renews in 6 days.  I’ve seen non-sensical things like this from other operators and it normally occurs when you’ve used very little of your allowance in previous months.  So unless there’s been some huge technical glitch and for the first time in my life I’ve managed to consume all of my UK allowance some how (I give this scenario less than 0.1% likelihood), why is iDmobile trying to spoil my holiday with the above texts??  I’ve made no voice calls and sent no texts since arriving overseas.  I have used some data to listen to music, browse the internet. 

The bills section of the App says that my ‘next bill so far’ will be £20 higher than my plan after 1 day of holiday.  The agent could offer no  reason for this and as it was not yet an invoice told me to just wait for another week until the invoice will be issued.  I don’t fancy leaving this situation mounting up a bunch of debt I don’t understand until it is hard coded into a formal bill.

Any ideas?

Best answer by WelshPaul

NickSeee wrote:

roaming in EU is supposed to be at no additional cost provided calls/texts/data remain within the plan threshold.

This is incorrect! You only have up to 30GB of data to use when roaming abroad. Use more than 30GB and you incur charges! 

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming

When roaming abroad, billing isn’t instant. There is a considerable delay because iD Mobile has to wait for the required usage data to be supplied by the foreign network you connected to.

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4 replies

Tyler
iD Mobile Employee
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  • iD Mobile Employee
  • 3719 replies
  • April 15, 2025

Hey there ​@NickSeee, we’re very sorry to hear that.

 

My best advice would be to set your bill cap to £0.00 on the iD Mobile app/website when logged in. Therefore, if you do so, you’d simply not be able to be charged out of contract charges for anything, including roaming or extra usage.

 

In terms of your bill, you will need to wait for the invoice to be created, and if you have any billing queries then, on what you’ve been charged for and why you’ve been charged, please do let us know.

 

Thanks,

Tyler


WelshPaul
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  • Platinum 
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  • 2762 replies
  • Answer
  • April 19, 2025
NickSeee wrote:

roaming in EU is supposed to be at no additional cost provided calls/texts/data remain within the plan threshold.

This is incorrect! You only have up to 30GB of data to use when roaming abroad. Use more than 30GB and you incur charges! 

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming

When roaming abroad, billing isn’t instant. There is a considerable delay because iD Mobile has to wait for the required usage data to be supplied by the foreign network you connected to.


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 Contributor
  • 1 reply
  • April 24, 2025

Hi Tyler, thanks very much for the reply. I'm back now from a holiday with a lot of long drives where we couldn't listen to music because I was too worried about data charges although I should have had more than enough data and would normally hotspot my family. Sure enough the app shows something like 171Gb not used. My bill however contains charges for non EU roaming when I was in France. Not very happy with what being with ID did for our holiday...


Siân
iD Mobile Employee
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  • iD Mobile Employee
  • 704 replies
  • April 24, 2025

Hi ​@NickSeee 

Sorry you feel this way, and I hope it didn’t bother your trip too much. 

As ​@WelshPaul  has advised, you have up to 30GB of data to use when roaming abroad.

Please visit https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming or check in with us before your next trip, and we can answer any questions you may have.

Thanks.


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