Vodafone brings back roaming charges for travel across Europe in post-Brexit blow to customers

Vodafone is the second major UK mobile network to bring back charges for customers who travel to Europe.

The post-Brexit change means new and upgrading customers will have to pay up to £2 per day to use their monthly allowance of data, calls and texts.

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At a glance: 5 key points

- Roaming fees will affect new Vodafone customers who join on or after August 11 and anyone who upgrades and renews their contract from the same date will also have to pay the charges

- The charges do not come into effect until January 6, 2022

- BT-owned EE was the first to announce the reintroduction of roaming charges in June

- Holidaymakers using Vodafone will be able to reduce the cost to £1 per day by purchasing a multi-day pass for eight or 15 days

- The Republic of Ireland will be exempt for all customers

What’s been 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.

“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.”

A Vodafone spokesman said

Background

Free roaming came about in June 2017 when the UK was still in the EU, meaning people could use a reasonable amount of their existing package in other European countries without being stung by any extra charges.

BT-owned EE announced plans to reintroduce roaming charges for Europe back in June, starting at £2 per day – though it too has bundle passes that can reduce the overall cost.

O2 and Three have avoided going down the same route, so far, and are sticking to fair use limits, which is not out of the ordinary, as this is in line with existing EU rules.

The full list within Vodafone’s ‘Europe Zone’ include: Aland Islands, Austria, Azores, Balearic Islands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus except Northern Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France (including Corsica), French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, St Barthelemy, St Martin, Sweden, Switzerland and Vatican City.