From August 11 2021, Vodafone UK will start charging UK customers to use their phones in Europe, having previously said it had no plans to reintroduce roaming costs, even after they could do so under the U.K.-EU trade agreement signed in December 2020.
The rules will change for new and upgrading customers from Wednesday, 11 August, though the charges will not apply until January.
Vodafone is the second UK operator to officially reintroduce roaming charges, following the swift U-turn by EE who introduced roaming charges in June of this year.
Since 2017, mobile networks in EU countries have been banned by law from charging customers extra to use their phones in other member countries. Legislation scrapping roaming charges within the single market was introduced after multiple cases of so-called “bill shock”, in which holidaymakers returned home from foreign breaks to be presented with bills of thousands of pounds for using their phones to connect to the internet while abroad.
In January EE, O2, Three and Vodafone all said they had no plans to reintroduce roaming charges even though the UK’s departure from the EU enabled them to do so.
The trade deal between the UK and the EU states that both sides will encourage mobile operators to have “transparent and reasonable rates” when it comes to roaming.
If your Vodafone Pay monthly plan started before 11 August 2021, there will be no change to the way you roam as long as you stay on your current mobile plan, so you won’t need to pay any additional charges.
Under the change, new and upgrading Pay Monthly customers will, from 11th August 2021, agree to pay £2 per day to use their monthly allowance of data, calls and texts when roaming around the EU. But this can technically be reduced to just £1 by purchasing a multi-day pass for 8 or 15 days – for £8 and £15 respectively.
Those on the company’s more expensive Xtra plans will still have roaming included, while Republic of Ireland will be exempt for all customers.
At the time of writing, there are no changes to Vodafone’s Pay As You Go plans.
A Vodafone spokesperson said:
“Rather than have all of our customers affected by including the additional costs of roaming into all of our tariffs, customers will be able to choose a plan that comes with roaming included, or purchase an additional roaming pass,”
“Our ambition is to ensure customers don’t ever experience ‘bill shock’ when roaming with Vodafone, because all of our plans and passes will have clear usage caps, and customers will also be able to set their own limits via Vodafone Spend Manager, which is free to set up via the My Vodafone App.”
