Stop roaming charges while abroad

[GRC]

Hi,

I am moving around Europe at the moment and have been using the Roam Like Home (of course) in the EU but today arrived in Switzerland and have already been hit by a couple of £ roaming charges for having the phone in my pocket until we parked up at our location. 

I need to turn off roaming for the next few days and back on when we move onwards to Germany.  But how to do that?

Also, do e-mails and WhatsApp use data or are they separate as I seem to have received both after I turned off mobile data on the phone as soon as we arrived at our location?

A swift response would be greatly appreciated.

Gary

[GRC]

Bump!

[Ilyas_Y]

Hey @GRC, thanks for reaching out to us.

I'm sorry to hear about the issues you're facing with the roaming services.
Is your SIM card with O2 or with Virgin Mobile?
If it is with O2 - then you would need to contact O2 to turn off roaming, if it is with Virgin Mobile, then this can be turned off in MyVM.

And to answer your question, it does take data - perhaps your Wi-Fi was switched on and connected so you received notifications?
Let us know if you need any more support going forward.

Kind regards.

[GRC]

Thanks.  We are back in the EU, and by turning off mobile data I seem to have stopped further charges accruing, but was that the most efficient way to do it?  I have a VM SIM and in the online account it suggests that roaming can only be deactivated while in the UK, which is not a lot of use if one is moving around. So is it the My VM app on the phone that can turn roaming on and off while underway and what is the difference between turning off mobile data on the phone and switching off roaming? 

As to the emails and data issue, I most definitely received new emails when I had been away from any wifi source, to which I had previously been connected, for several hours, i.e. on a hike in the Swiss Alps!  Any thoughts on how that is possible? 

[enlli]

The mobile networks can only do a blanket on or off for roaming data, and you are right in assuming that it is not always possible to change that when abroad.

My phone running Android 12 has two settings. One marked Turn off roaming data and another to turn off data completely. I have always turned both to off in the past.

Don't know about iPhones but I do read reports from time to time of the phone using data even with it switched off.

I was told that it is often an app that somehow overrides the phones setting. But we would need an iPhone user to confirm that.

[GRC]

Thanks, I am on Android anyway.  Just looked a bit deeper in settings and see Mobile Data as a general setting on/off and then for the SIM itself, Data Roaming on/off.  I had only turned off the general setting via the higher level menu.  Who knows...

[Ashleigh_C · Accepted solution]

Hi there @GRC

I'm so sorry you were not able to turn off the roaming while outside of the EU. You should be able to do this via the My Virgin Media App. 

I know you are now back within the EU but if you are travelling outside of this again and you need to change this again please do let us know if you have any issues. 

Thank you. 

[GRC]

Thanks