Mobile Phone Call Charges - Austria

suitseir

I was in Austria for Christmas and nearly died of shock when I got my Vodafone bill the other day!!! As a low usage customer, as in my bill would only be about €40/€50 each month. This time, with approximately the same usage it was about €150!! bearing in mind I made only 3 phone calls over that period. The rest was text messages which come in at about 30c. I would say that the bulk of the bill was while in Austria.

So those of you going skiing to this country! BEWARE. Vodafone advised me that while I am on PASSPORT, some countries do not subscribe to this system! Vodafone say, that if you do go abroad, ring them in advance and they will tell you if there is an agreement with them and the provider there! Again, the big rip off and the consumer paying for it! So, the mobile phone is being put aside for the month - no phone calls or texts til this bill is paid! It would probably be cheaper to buy a ready to go while in Austria. JUST BEWARE CONSUMERS once again!!!!:mad:

Urban Weigl

With Vodafone Passport, you pay the same rate as you would in Ireland, plus a €0.79 "set up" charge for each call made or received.

So for example, if you make a call that would usually cost €4, it will cost you €4.79 while in Austria. Equally if you receive a call while in Austria, which would usually cost you nothing, this will cost you €0.79 while in Austria.

The set up charge is once off per call, no matter how long the call is. Passport is free, but you need to tell Vodafone to activate it on your account. Most people don't, especially on prepay.

suitseir, this may be of interest to you: http://www.three.ie/international/index.html

3 don't charge you any extra fees if you roam on the 3 network in Austria. You pay exactly the same as if you were at home, and you can even use your inclusive minutes! Unfortunately they don't have networks in most of the countries I travel to frequently, but if you travel to Austria, Italy and Sweden, it's worth looking at (full list at the link above). And I'm afraid a lot of countries I travel to, like Germany, Spain and Portugal are missing from the list, so Passport is giving me the better deal at the moment.

1huge1

sorry to hear that man, i learned the hard way a few years back when i was with vodafone now i always research roaming before going to a place (usually takes 5 mins max like)
though like urban weigi said im with 3 and if your going to a country with a 3 network you'll get the cheapest and best service no doubt
though stay away from 3 if your roaming in spain total and utter disgrace from my knowledge

Urban Weigl

Hmm.

Just a thought, but while in Austria, did you manually select the Vodafone network? If you didn't, even with Passport enabled on your account, you were likely paying "standard" roaming rates.

That would explain the high bill, since I've found that with Passport, I really haven't paid much extra.