Tesco Mobile scraps European roaming charges ahead of rule change

Tesco Mobile has announced it is scrapping roaming charges in 31 European countries this summer so holidaymakers can save money when using their mobile phone abroad.

New EU regulations come into effect from 30 April requiring all mobile networks to lower their charges, but Tesco Mobile will be scrapping them completely in most popular summer holiday destinations as part of its ‘Home From Home’ offer.

“This summer, millions of us will head off to Europe for our holidays, and being able to use our mobiles abroad is as important as packing a passport,” says Simon Groves, chief marketing officer at Tesco Mobile.

“Using our phones to share selfies on social media, keep in contact with friends and family, and navigating unknown territory, has become part and parcel of what we expect from our holiday experience. We want our customers to enjoy their holiday without having to worry about the cost of using their phones.”

Which countries are covered?

Tesco mobile is scrapping roaming charges in 31 countries from 23rd May up until September. The countries included in the offer are:

I've got a holiday coming up

The best part is that you won’t need to do anything to activate the Home From Home offer. Simply use your phone in the countries above as normal and there will be no extra roaming charges. That said, you have to remain within your monthly or pay-as-you-go minute, text or data bundle limit. If you’ve used up your bundled amounts you will be charged the same rate as UK out of bundle charges. That’s 4p a min for calls to EU numbers and 1p a text.

You won’t be charged extra for receiving calls or texts while in one of the Home From Home countries.

Ernest Doku at uSwitch.com said of the move: “Hats off to Tesco Mobile, which has even beaten the European Commission to ensure roaming costs no extra for Brits across the entire EU, as well as the EEA." 

“One word of caution. Customers must be careful they don’t get caught out by this time-limited offer, which only stands until 3 September. We hope Tesco Mobile will be communicating this properly to customers via both text and email to ensure there’s no confusion.

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How it shapes up

Tesco Mobile is leading the charge by scrapping roaming charges completely over the popular summer holiday months. Here’s how they compare to what other mobile providers charge.

Calls will cost 4.3p a minute to make and 0.9p a minute to receive on Vodafone. Texts will be 1.6p and data 4.3p per MB. Alternatively, you can opt into the EuroTraveller bundle which includes all your contract’s minutes, texts and data for £3 a day.

EE hasn’t revealed its new charges yet, but at the moment calls costs 16.6p. Alternatively you can pay £4 a day for a Euro Data Pass, which gives you unlimited calls and texts in EU countries and a 500MB data limit too.

giffgaff has two different tariffs depending whether or not you are on a goodybag. Those on a goodybag can call for 4p a minute and 0.5p a minute to receive, texts are 1.5p each and data is 4p per MB.

To access the internet abroad on Virgin Media you need to purchase a 30-day Travel Pass. There are three options available-  a10MB data bundle for 35p, 50MB for £1.50 and a 250MB data bundle for £5.

The standard call, message and data charges are listed below.

*Yet to announce new charges to fall inline with EU Regulations

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