travelling-blogger

comments

A warning to those preparing to jet off abroad this summer: taking a mobile phone with you can be a very costly business.

While we all know to be careful when using our smartphones abroad, the true cost of using the internet on holiday has been revealed in a set of shocking new statistics.

The research comes as the European Union slashes data roaming charges by more than 50 per cent from today in a bid to encourage people to use their mobile phones more abroad.

Risky business: Travellers should be careful not to overspend on data when overseas

The new law comes too late for Carissa Grice, 18, from Greater Manchester, who managed to rack up a £3000 bill while using Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to chat to friends in Turkey, downloading 630MB of data.

Thankfully Orange since slashed the £2,907 bill to £250 for the 'devastated' trainee nail technician.

A second recent incident saw a teacher faced with a £2,600 bill after downloading a Neil Diamond album while on holiday in South Africa.

The new rules about mobile phone costs state that the maximum charge for outgoing calls is 19 cents (Around 15p) excluding VAT, six cents (around 4p) for outgoing text messages and 20 cents (15p) for a MB download of data.

However, the new caps only apply when you use a mobile within the EU, the rest of Europe is exempt. But statistics show, just half of travellers realise the new rules are limited to European Union countries.

Endsleigh Insurance has researched the exact cost of using the most popular mobile apps outside the EU and in the rest of the world.

Based on O2 data roaming charges, the results make for some scary reading.

It costs 3p per megabyte of data roaming in Europe, but a whopping £6 in the rest of the world.

Based on a photo taken from an iPhone 5 camera (which has an average size of 2MB) it would cost 76p to upload a photo onto Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Holiday: Carissa amassed a huge bill on her mum's phone while on holiday in Turkey

Vulnerable: Kids should be careful if they want to remain in contact with their friends while on holiday

This estimate also does not include being on Facebook itself which would use data too. Especially if the users scrolls through friends status', which can be text, images or videos which all require data to load. Facebook also now auto plays videos which can push the cost of browsing up further if this feature isn't turned off.

Streaming a 30 minute episode of a show abroad could cost up to £540, that's the equivalent of a flight to Mauritius with Thomas Cook!

Chatting to friends of Whatsapp will set you back up to £12 while browsing the Internet for 30 minutes could cost up to £60.

Sarah Newell, Gadget Sector Manager at Endsleigh Insurance said: 'We are so accustomed to using our phones every day for entertainment, keeping up to date with news, and staying connected with friends: everyday apps we take for granted in the UK, if used in the same way abroad, can rack up unexpected bills that can exceed the actual cost of a holiday.

'We've seen bills rack up into the £1,000s, so would advise on planning ahead to avoid a nasty surprise when you get back.

'Check data roaming charges with your provider, get prepared with a data bolt on or usage cap, or switch off data roaming on your phone altogether!'

Luckily, roaming charges are set to drop by more than 50 per cent from today thanks to new European Union rules.

It comes after research in February revealed that less than 10 per cent of travellers use their mobile phones abroad in the same way they do at home due to excessive charges.

Which? has also published new research showing that one in six people have been shocked by their mobile phone bill after returning from a holiday.