News 2003
Winter holidaymakers set to get burnt
03/10/2003
Millions of Britons who are jetting off for their winter holiday this year are set to get financially burnt, warns Virgin Mobile. To celebrate the launch of its new service for pre-pay roaming, the UK’s fastest- growing network has lifted the lid on the cost of international call charges made by other networks.
With the introduction of Virgin Mobile’s new roaming service, taking your phone abroad just got simpler for its pre-pay customers because there’s nothing to set up before you leave, and it can be used in more than 25 of the world’s most popular travel destinations. This service is being gradually introduced to all customers from mid-October. For both Virgin Mobile’s pre-pay and post-pay customers, countries have been grouped into seven geographical regions, with single tariffs for each type of call. So, now it is easy to always know what it costs to make a call, receive a call or send a text.
On UK networks’ pre-pay tariffs, and using Spain as an example (one of the UK’s most popular holiday destinations), the cost of making a call to the UK can vary from 75p to £1.20 per minute, with international calls to other destinations costing anything up to £1.99 per minute. The cost of receiving a call is just as wide – with charges ranging from 60p to £1.49 per minute. For Virgin Mobile customers however, it costs a flat rate of 95p per minute to make a call from Spain to any country at anytime, and just 60p a minute to receive a call when you’re there.
International roaming costs fluctuate because UK networks often rely on foreign partners to set prices and charging units which confuses the customer as prices can change per local partner. With Virgin Mobile however, both its pre-pay and post-pay tariffs are based on geographical regions, which are set at a flat rate by Virgin Mobile to make life easier.
The cost of texting on other networks can be just as confusing, with charges ranging from 35p to 50p when texting from Spain. With Virgin Mobile, customers are charged at a flat international rate of 35p per text message sent. To receive a text message is free.
Further hidden costs to watch out for on other networks are:
- peak/off peak prices – Virgin Mobile has a flat rate
- billing units – Virgin Mobile charges for the first minute of each call and per second after that, whereas other operators’ charges can vary from per second to per minute, meaning that customers are often billed for unused seconds
- voicemail retrieval – Virgin Mobile charges the standard call rate per region
- exchange rate – Virgin Mobile’s call charges remain the same whatever the rate of exchange
- charges vary per local foreign network – Virgin Mobile has one charge per country not per local network, so you know what you are paying
- price zones – don’t assume the country you’re visiting is in a certain zone. Check first as a country you would expect to be in Europe could be a more expensive ‘Rest of World’ group. (Virgin Mobile groups countries into seven geographical regions).
Paul French, proposition marketing manager, Virgin Mobile, said: ”We have cut out the confusion over pricing for customers who want to use their phone abroad. Our simple pricing structure means customers no longer need to worry about running up huge bills as they can calculate the cost of their international calls before they make them and know there are no hidden charges. We would encourage anyone to check charges with your mobile operator before you travel so you don’t get stung. Virgin Mobile customers will always have peace of mind of knowing that the calls they make are some of the cheapest international calls around, which means they have more money for Sangria!”
Virgin Mobile was one of the first networks to simplify its charging structure for international calls and actively encourages customers to find out current information about the prices of international calls before they travel abroad. Virgin Mobile customers can simply log on to www.virgin.com/mobile and select a country on its ‘Calling from Abroad’ pages or call 789 when using their Virgin Mobile phone to ensure that they get the best deal possible.
