Consumer body Which? has warned British holiday makers to be careful of
potentially running up enormous phone bills by leaving their data
roaming capacity turned on when they are on holiday.
The organisation has said that bills could rack up even in
roaming-enabled phones are just left switched on in suitcases and not
actively used, due to applications and downloads automatically running
in the background.
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Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said that phone companies need
to do more to highlight the cost and usage of data to their customers,
particularly in light of the new rules on data roaming and mobile phones
that came into force across the EU this month.
“Using your mobile overseas can be hugely expensive but there are things
consumers can do to keep costs down, like using wi-fi where available
and turning off data-roaming,” he said. “But we also want to see phone
companies doing everything they can to make consumers aware of exactly
how much data they’re using and the costs.”