Many who have traveled abroad know that roaming can be an expensive affair. Although most people are careful with their mobile data, there are a few things you need to keep in mind to avoid an expensive surprise after your vacation.

Since 2017, using another operator's network on a holiday abroad (roaming) within the EU has cost the same as in Sweden. "Roam Like At Home" means that an operator may not charge any extra fee in addition to your national subscription price when you use your mobile phone while travelling within the EU.

But your fee can still be significantly more expensive than you expected if you're not careful about where you are, if you buy something, what your data limit is, and what dates you're traveling. Even free calls can cost a lot of money because they're usually only free for those with a domestic subscription, not for foreign subscriptions.

Close borders to a non-EU country

It is enough that you are in transit in a non-EU country for you to be involuntarily connected to its mobile towers and receive a much more expensive tariff. In some cases, it is enough that you are in a country close to the border of a country outside the EU to be connected to the other country's network. There is also a risk that you will be connected to satellites if you are on ferries, boats and in some cases airplanes.

• Tip! Always turn off your phone near borders to, or when transiting through, a non-EU country and on boats and planes (if WiFi is not available).

Cost control on all subscriptions

You should receive a message from your operator with current pricing information when you travel to a new country and connect to a foreign network. Unless you and the operator have agreed otherwise, your operator should ensure that there is a cost cap on your mobile subscription of EUR 50 (approximately SEK 550) and that your subscription is blocked when your usage reaches the cap. You must unblock yourself according to the instructions in the message to be able to use the subscription again. You can raise the cap, but remember your changes.

The date may affect your bill

The cost control applies monthly. If you plan a trip that spans a month, the calculation of the cost of consumption will start from zero each new month.

• Example: For example, you may receive an invoice of 1100 SEK for used data if your stay extends over the end of June and the beginning of July because each month's cap is 550 SEK.

It is important that you know what your billing periods look like and that your cost control is at a level you are comfortable with. ARN came out with a decision regarding billing and monthly limits for data traffic abroad.

Have you purchased an international package?

Remember to read the terms and conditions carefully. ARN has recently come up with a decision where a consumer ordered via text message but did not read the terms and was charged for use. Since the terms were clear, the consumer was not right in ARN.

More tips for the holidays!

• Remember that the current roaming rules only apply to roaming on terrestrial networks and not satellite networks which are often what is used on ships and in aircraft.
• An operator is not obliged to offer roaming. Find out what applies to your particular subscription before you travel!
• Keep in mind that some services and apps automatically use data traffic without you seeing it, such as your email inbox. You can turn this off on your phone.
• If you are near the border of a country that is not covered by EU roaming rules, you should be careful not to be connected to a mobile network in that country, which may result in additional costs.

If your phone is stolen

If your phone is stolen, remember that you need to block it immediately. Since you need to identify yourself to customer service, you may have problems if you have your BankID on the phone that is stolen, and you will also not be able to receive login codes sent to the phone.

But there are other ways. For example, you may be able to block your phone from another phone by, for example, "Find my iPhone" in another phone or similar for other models. Since there are usually other ways to contact the operator, read on your operator's website, the fact that you were not able to contact the operator immediately via, for example, customer service is no reason not to pay any invoices. Here, ARN came up with a decision 2019.

Also, do not rely on the balance limit of 50 EUR to be applied immediately, there may be a delay before your Swedish operator receives the information from its foreign partner and then the amount may have increased drastically.

Source: Telecom Advisors