Sally says:

As soon as I read your plea I messaged Vodafone to ask it to get in touch with you as soon as possible and help with your data “foro” – fear of running out. It was the weekend so I hoped that, when I caught up with you on the following Monday, all would be well. However, you told me no one had been in touch from the company. So I prodded Vodafone again.

With you laid up in a French hospital bed with a severely lacerated leg following a tumble on the slopes, you were worried that you would lose vital communication with family and colleagues when you most needed it. You were right to be concerned. Despite your efforts to get the firm to top up your account before you used up your allowance, it instead suspended the service when your usage hit its 25GB “fair usage” limit. It was only at this point that you received a text offering the chance to top up with 5GB of data for £20.

You had no option but to pay this in order to stay connected while recuperating. You felt somewhat aggrieved as your normal monthly payment at home – for unlimited data – is just £27.

You told me it was not the extra fee that niggled you most but the lack of coherent information and customer support when you needed it most.

Following my second intervention, Vodafone contacted you directly. It told me your case had been “resolved”, which included refunding your £20.

You wondered whether your experience was part of “a new dawn of consumer roaming horror stories”. I wondered the same. I fully expect roaming complaints to loom large in the Consumer Champion’s postbag over the coming months as new arrangements bed in for using mobiles abroad.

Before 2017, when roaming charges were abolished by EU regulations and when I was working on another national newspaper, I edited stories of travellers being landed with horrendous mobile bills on their return from holiday – sometimes larger than the cost of the holiday itself. Downloading a film, music or maps – or simply checking Facebook – cost some unlucky mobile customers hundreds of pounds for a trip in Europe, while those who went to non-EU destinations such as America reported bills running into the thousands. 

It came as a relief when these charges were abolished in Europe, meaning that holidaymakers could use their phones in EU countries without fear of unexpected bills. But since January 2021, when Britain left the EU, providers have been free to reintroduce roaming fees.

Nothing much happened last year, as firms pondered their actions, but now some are about to apply these charges once again. EE, Vodafone and Three have reintroduced them, while O2 and Virgin Mobile, which recently merged, have said they will not bring them back. It means we all have more head scratching to do before we head abroad to avert bill shock. 

Ernest Doku of the comparison service Uswitch said: “The choices are to pay additional daily charges of £2 or buy a bundle, ideally before you leave home, otherwise in some cases you will be paying an extra £7 for each extra gigabyte of data.” As a guide, it takes more than 4GB of data to stream a two-hour Netflix movie in high definition.

Your experience prompted me to check my own position as I am hoping to head to Europe next month. It turns out that I can use my mobile as normal, as my contract is with Sky, which piggybacks on the O2/Virgin network and so applies the same rules. My husband is with Vodafone, but is on a contract that continues to include roaming. But both he and I will still need to be careful not to go mad with our data as both providers apply a 25GB fair usage cap.

Travellers who expect to exceed the cap or do not have roaming in their contracts will either have to pay the £2 a day charge or, if they are with Vodafone, for example, purchase a pass for eight or 15 days at a cost of £1 a day.

Mr Doku said existing customers with Vodafone, EE and Three should be “safe” as long as they signed up to their deals before specific dates last year, which vary between the providers. He said: “They should check their contract to see whether these new charges apply to them.”

He added: “When it comes to travelling, don’t leave it until the last minute to check the roaming charges for your destination. Use hotel and café Wi-Fi when on holiday where possible, ensuring any public access points are safe and secure before you log on.”

Just in case, I’ll be downloading my Netflix fix before I go.