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Unexplained roaming charges

  • November 10, 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 262 views

I am using my phone abroad, iD eSIM is switched off. Data switched to mobile only. No network signal on my phone. Despite this have incurred charges of £34. My data allowance is 5GB but I thought if I was using the phone to make WhatsApp calls via wifi it did not eat into my data? I cannot access any information to see what has caused me to incur charges out of plan, it just shows a total, not a detailed breakdown. My bill was capped at £20 so not even sure how a bill of £34 is even possible? Cannot seem to connect to iD via Chat either, which is irritating

 

Best answer by Daz_S

Hi there Andy (​@andeepea)

Honestly it was no problem I was only offering suggestions/advice and totally understand the reason for the delay👍

 

I’m not sure why you’d need an SMS to respond on here. But my iD account and my forum credentials are not linked, but I thought we only needed to verify our email to able to use the forum. I would have to guess and say you were/are accessing the forums via the community link via the app - if you are you don’t need to do it that way. You can simply use wifi on any device, go to the community.idmobile.co.uk and post over wifi or data.

 

But yes I would also like use WhatsApp for communicating with iD - I would say this would be an excellent way for getting support from them too rather than FB and X etc - I don’t do those other social apps.

 

The charges appear to be from incoming calls

Ah yes, that! That would likely have been caused by not setting roaming up and whatever network your phone connected to would charge for those calls. Ferry owners do this a lot.

 

Since joining iD I did an awful lot of research and noticed iD did things differently to my previous provider. So when using my phone overseas and anyone back home wanted to talk, I told them the whatsapp me or text and I’d call them back just in case.

 

Or as an example - my wife and I were on a cruise. Another person was using their phone and we were in the middle of the sea. When they finished that call I happened to ask them if they’d bought a wifi package on the ship - they hadn’t. And with their permission I checked their phone and they’d connected to Telenor Maritime. This is boarderline extortion IMHO. I set their phone up to roaming when we reached Spain and they checked their bill for that one call. I forget now what is was but it was well over £20.

 

I switched data off in the UK as my flight departed and also switched off both eSIMS.

You should have put in Airplane/Flight mode and I don’t know if switching the eSIMs off would stop all traffic, but guess it should. The only thing that might happen is after switching the phone off and on it might have automatically re-enabled the eSIMs.

 

The status was showing no signs from any carrier. I received four calls in total.

I’m not an iPhone user myself, but I can’t see how you received those calls without a network connection.🤔

 

But I thought the incoming calls would not have connected if my SIM was switched off? My billing cap was set to £25 I think - what would happen if I set it to £0? Would I still receive the calls or would the caller get a number unavailable message?

As above. If the eSIMs were off I’m not sure how the calls came through. Using an app over wifi yes, but not over data. It really does look like the phone must have ‘secretly’ enabled them.

 

Separately, I was unable to make direct wifi calling from your phone when connected to WiFi, except via WhatsApp or FaceTime. I’d go to make the call and it just would not work. Can’t remember the exact message but I think it just said “unavailable” or something like that. I was connected to either hotel wifi, portable wifi or a company wifi where I was working, in each case stable and good signal.

 

Wifi calling only works in the UK. Not many know this. Personally I wished it was universal as when it works its ruddy useful for areas with bad signal strength.

 

 

edit to add. Did you go to one of iD’s roam free destinations Andy?

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5 replies

Daz_S
Gold Contributor
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  • Gold Contributor
  • 1627 replies
  • November 10, 2024

Hi @andeepea 

Did you:

  • switch off the eSIM before you even left the UK or did you do this once you got to your destination?
  • make a mistake as you probably should have turned off mobile data, as you wrote you switched data to mobile only?
  • spot if your mobile displayed no network or emergency calls only?
  • go into your account and turn off the defaults - as in international and roaming before leaving the UK?
  • set your phone to manual network selection? Although duly noted you appear to be able to turn off eSIM on your phone?

I genuinely thought the £45.00 roaming cap was taken to £0 in the event of us moving our billing cap to £0. But now maybe this automated Rate Advice text we receive when we roam could be independent to the billing cap - I hope a member of staff can clarify this.

And sorry for all the questions, the answers might point to why this has occurred.


Tyler
iD Mobile Employee
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  • iD Mobile Employee
  • 3294 replies
  • November 11, 2024

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

 

To avoid roaming charges, we’d advise turning off roaming via the iD Mobile app/website and your phone’s own settings so that roaming doesn’t work, and also to set your bill cap to £0.00 if you wish to not use any roaming, or to be charged at all.

 

It is very likely that you did connect to some form of roaming connection, hence being charged. Where did you go abroad please, and did you got out at sea at all?

 

What happens when you try the live-chat also please?

 

Thanks,

Tyler


  • Author
  • New
 Contributor
  • 1 reply
  • November 26, 2024

Firstly, thank you for the helpful replies. The delay in responding was because the only way of logging on to the forum was to receive an SMS verification code, and for obvious reasons I did not wish to switch my phone on to do that. May I recommend to iD that they think of another method of verification? Email or WhatsApp for example?

The charges appear to be from incoming calls. I switched data off in the UK as my flight departed and also switched off both eSIMS. I have an iPhone 14. The status was showing no signs from any carrier. I received four calls in total.  I also switched n my sim and made a call to my voicemail, which I expected to be charged for. But I thought the incoming calls would not have connected if my SIM was switched off? My billing cap was set to £25 I think - what would happen if I set it to £0? Would I still receive the calls or would the caller get a number unavailable message?

Separately, I was unable to make direct wifi calling from your phone when connected to WiFi, except via WhatsApp or FaceTime. I’d go to make the call and it just would not work. Can’t remember the exact message but I think it just said “unavailable” or something like that. I was connected to either hotel wifi, portable wifi or a company wifi where I was working, in each case stable and good signal.

Thanks

Andy


Daz_S
Gold Contributor
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  • Gold Contributor
  • 1627 replies
  • Answer
  • November 27, 2024

Hi there Andy (​@andeepea)

Honestly it was no problem I was only offering suggestions/advice and totally understand the reason for the delay👍

 

I’m not sure why you’d need an SMS to respond on here. But my iD account and my forum credentials are not linked, but I thought we only needed to verify our email to able to use the forum. I would have to guess and say you were/are accessing the forums via the community link via the app - if you are you don’t need to do it that way. You can simply use wifi on any device, go to the community.idmobile.co.uk and post over wifi or data.

 

But yes I would also like use WhatsApp for communicating with iD - I would say this would be an excellent way for getting support from them too rather than FB and X etc - I don’t do those other social apps.

 

The charges appear to be from incoming calls

Ah yes, that! That would likely have been caused by not setting roaming up and whatever network your phone connected to would charge for those calls. Ferry owners do this a lot.

 

Since joining iD I did an awful lot of research and noticed iD did things differently to my previous provider. So when using my phone overseas and anyone back home wanted to talk, I told them the whatsapp me or text and I’d call them back just in case.

 

Or as an example - my wife and I were on a cruise. Another person was using their phone and we were in the middle of the sea. When they finished that call I happened to ask them if they’d bought a wifi package on the ship - they hadn’t. And with their permission I checked their phone and they’d connected to Telenor Maritime. This is boarderline extortion IMHO. I set their phone up to roaming when we reached Spain and they checked their bill for that one call. I forget now what is was but it was well over £20.

 

I switched data off in the UK as my flight departed and also switched off both eSIMS.

You should have put in Airplane/Flight mode and I don’t know if switching the eSIMs off would stop all traffic, but guess it should. The only thing that might happen is after switching the phone off and on it might have automatically re-enabled the eSIMs.

 

The status was showing no signs from any carrier. I received four calls in total.

I’m not an iPhone user myself, but I can’t see how you received those calls without a network connection.🤔

 

But I thought the incoming calls would not have connected if my SIM was switched off? My billing cap was set to £25 I think - what would happen if I set it to £0? Would I still receive the calls or would the caller get a number unavailable message?

As above. If the eSIMs were off I’m not sure how the calls came through. Using an app over wifi yes, but not over data. It really does look like the phone must have ‘secretly’ enabled them.

 

Separately, I was unable to make direct wifi calling from your phone when connected to WiFi, except via WhatsApp or FaceTime. I’d go to make the call and it just would not work. Can’t remember the exact message but I think it just said “unavailable” or something like that. I was connected to either hotel wifi, portable wifi or a company wifi where I was working, in each case stable and good signal.

 

Wifi calling only works in the UK. Not many know this. Personally I wished it was universal as when it works its ruddy useful for areas with bad signal strength.

 

 

edit to add. Did you go to one of iD’s roam free destinations Andy?


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  • iD Mobile Employee
  • 1922 replies
  • November 27, 2024

Hi ​@andeepea 

 

Thanks for updating the thread. 

 

It looks like ​@Daz_S has offered some excellent insights on potential caused for this happening. 

Please do get in touch with any questions and we will be able to assist further. 

 

Thanks, 

 

Nat