Vodafone to reintroduce data roaming charges for Europe
9 August 2021, 16:02
Vodafone is the latest phone company to reintroduce its data roaming charges for people travelling in European countries.
It means new and upgrading customers will need to pay around £2 a day to use their monthly allowance of data, calls and texts while abroad in the EU.
However, holidaymakers will be able to reduce the cost to £1 per day by purchasing a multi-day pass for either eight or 15 days.
Those on more expensive Xtra plans will not have to pay any additional costs, with roaming continuing to be included in their package.
A spokesperson for the company 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."
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"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."
Current consumers on existing plans will not be affected by the roaming charges until they make any changes to their contract.
It comes after EE was the first to bring the EU charges back in June, despite previously saying it would not do so post-Brexit.
Under the UK's Brexit trade agreement, it said both sides should "co-operate on promoting transparent and reasonable rates" for mobile charges but there would be no guarantee of free roaming moving forward.
O2 and Three still say they have no intention of reintroducing the charges but instead have "fair use limits".
Fees in the EU initially ended in 2017, enabling people to continue using their plans at no extra cost.
