Just recently Globe Telecom took the phrase “bill-shock” to another level this week when it charged one of its customers over PHP3 million for international roaming call and data charges. The subscriber caused quite a stir when he posted a breakdown of his monthly bill on his social media account.
While the amount is truly a shocker (pun not intended), over billing or the phenomenon called “bill-shock” is a common problem for postpaid subscribers. However, if you want stay online when travelling without having to worry about selling your kidney to pay for the bills, then follow this guide.
1. Force your phone to use only Wi-Fi connections.
Go to your phone’s general settings or phone settings and disable cellular data, 3G network, and LTE Network. This way, you’re 100% sure that apps which require internet connections will not use up cellular data and only load when a free Wi-Fi connections is available.
2. Manually close all unused applications in the background.
Simply exiting from an application doesn’t completely close it. Sometimes, this applications continue to update in the background even when your phone is on standby mode. So, if you’re being billed per data usage, this one mistake could really hurt your pocket. Check your smart phone’s manual on how to completely shutdown apps. In iOS devices, you double tap the home button and all running applications will appear, you then swipe-up the apps you’re not using.
3. Apply for an unlimited data roaming service from your telecom provider.
The cost may be expensive initially, but if you really need to be connected all the time, then it’s the right choice. Verify from your service provider that your request has been activated a few days before traveling to be sure, you wouldn’t want to be falsely thinking you had unlimited data coverage when you actually did not.
4. Personally clarify with your service provider all charges you might incur while on data roaming.
Verify what services are free, and how much the actual cost of the services you might be using like, text messaging, voice calls, etc. These conversations are mostly recorded and you may use this as evidence against the telecom company just in case it turns into a “he said, she said” scenario down the road.
5. Buy yourself a local sim card from the country you are travelling.
Most of the time, local sim cards are cheap and are easily available from convenience stores. This will allow you to load local credits on your sim card and have local charges deducted on your data services rather than international roaming charges. Unfortunately, if your phone is not unlocked and open to all sim cards, this may not work with you. Alternatively, you could also look for prepaid local pocket Wi-Fi devices for sale, they maybe more expensive but definitely better than coming home only to learn that you need to sell your house to pay for your cellular phone bill.
Do you have tips you want to share? Tell us below.
Photo from MorgueFile
