Bills soar for using mobiles abroad

As the bank holiday season gets under way, anyone leaving thecountry should beware extortionate bills just for switching on theirmobile phone.

Using your phone abroad to call the UK can cost up to pound(s)2 aminute, while receiving calls can cost as much as pound(s)1.50 aminute, warns website uSwitch.com.

Those with smartphones or internet-enabled handsets need to watchout for sky-high data roaming charges. These are often included inmonthly packages in the UK, but can be as much as pound(s)3 permegabyte in the EU or pound(s)8 in the US.

The website's Ernest Doku says: "One of the biggest ways to getstung is by the high cost of data roaming. Mobile internet usersmust ensure they check that this is turned off when not in use toprevent online services such as email updating automatically. Theycould also try to avoid visiting sites that are heavy on thevisuals, as data is charged per megabyte downloaded - although thismay be a hard ask for the Facebook and Twitter addicts amongst us."

Four of the six main mobile providers offer bolt-on packageswhich give reduced rate calls, offering savings of nearly 60%. O2customers who make just seven minutes of calls to the UK from the USwould be better off buying a bolt-on.

Mr Doku said that "the minute consumers switch on their phoneabroad, it will register on to a local network. This means anyactivity on the handset will be billed at overseas rates, which aremuch higher than standard charges in the UK".