Saturday 11 August 2012

How to cut down on roaming


One of the big cost bug bears when it comes to phone bills and something you should consider when you compare mobile phones is roaming charges. These often increase bills by a substantial amount, especially if you are outside of the EU or ignorant to the extent of their costs.

What are they?

Roaming charges are the additional call charges that are added to the cost of calling a native network from one in a different country. They are added to the price of the call and can really lead to substantial charges on texts, calls and data sent from abroad.

Many a person has come home from holidays to find that their phone bill is astronomical because of roaming, whether for phone calls, texts or in many cases in this day and age data - which can really push up the prices.

Where do I pay it?

If you make a call outside of your home country you will have to pay roaming costs. These costs vary from area to area and in recent times the European Union has lowered the costs substantially, feeling that mobile networks were charging extortionate amounts for a service they could provide for a lot less. They however, still cost a significant amount of money, even when you are making calls inside the EU.

Roaming outside of the EU however is not under the powers of the Union and so it still costs an arm and a leg to make a call, text or connect to the Internet. Be especially aware if you are travelling of these costs as otherwise you will have to pay significant amounts on your bill when you come home.

How to Lower Roaming Costs

Fortunately, there are a number of ways you can lower the cost of roaming costs after you choose a phone from MobilePhoneDeals.ie.

One of the best ways to lower the cost of calling abroad is to purchase a local sim card when you are in another country. This allows you to call people inside that country for a very low cost and means that you don't come back to a huge bill. Using a pay as you go sim card really lowers the price and also allows you to keep a track on calls made.

If you want to ring home for a low cost, you should ensure the phone has a VPN such as Skype. This allows you to make low cost calls to and from your phone over the Internet to phones in your home country for a low price.

You can also use messaging services such as WhatsApp and others to reduce the cost of messaging to almost nothing when you are away. These services also use a broadband connection to significantly lower the cost of sending a message to others with the app installed.

Add Ons

If you call a specific country from your home network on a regular basis then a bolt on can also reduce the cost of this on your phone. Bolt-ons can be added by network providers to your device and when you compare mobile phone deals it can be a good idea to ask the price of the bolt-on to a specific country. Then you can add it on a monthly basis to your contract and pay only a small amount in addition for low cost calls to a specific country. This can really impact on your bill and ensure that you don't get a surprisingly high invoice and can continue enjoying your mobile phone deals.

Roaming charges and extra bill charges can be quite a surprise when you end up receiving them and can place a real and often surprising drain on finances. By lowering the incidence and chance for such issues to occur, you also manage to keep all your finances in check. In turn you can then save your money and receive other great offers from MobilePhoneDeals.ie in the future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The Article is written by Cormac Reynolds at www. MobilePhoneDeals.ie which lists and compares mobile phone deals and mobile broadband deals in Ireland. Compare O2 Mobile Phones, Vodafone Mobile Deals, Meteor.ie Mobile Phones and Three.ie Deals. Visit http://www.MobilePhoneDeals.ie for more information. Copyright information. This article is free for reproduction but must be reproduced in its entirety, including live links & this copyright statement must be included.

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