Unexpected Roaming Charges from 2degree

Juju123 on 19/10/2022 - 21:16
Last edited 22/10/2022 - 08:27

**Update 22 Oct:
I've got a message from 2 degree that they have charged me incorrectly for those international roaming charges due to technical issues. They will reverse the charges now. Thanks all for your replies.

I went overseas to attend my dad's funeral last month. I got a bill from 2degree recently charging me $8 roaming charges almost everyday when I was there. My mind wasn't at the right place so I forgot to turn off the mobile data, but I was mostly home connecting to home wifi, and definitely didn't do any browsing when I was outside.

I was on a call with 2degree just now, and found out that most of the charges are for receiving premium text, e.g. payment reminder from After pay! $8 to receive a text!!
There are some data activity too for other days which they couldn't tell me the activity as they don't hold these information due to privacy.

I was shocked and requested for the fees to be waived but I had no luck. Just thought it's a good reminder for anyone going overseas, and any tips on getting these fees waived would be appreciated.

Thanks

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Comments

  • Alan6984 on 19/10/2022 - 23:29
    +1

    $8 per day for data roaming in a foreign country seems fairly reasonable to me?

    • Juju123 on 20/10/2022 - 06:12

      I am not expecting any fees as I wasn't subscribe to international roaming service, it was a mistake to not turn off the mobile data. The $8 was for receiving a premium text…

      Anyway, just a reminder for everyone who is planning to use their nz sim card overseas about this premium text.

      • Alan6984 on 20/10/2022 - 09:14
        +1

        Fair enough - $8 for one premium SMS is steep. I thought you meant it was a fee for having access to roaming data.

        For what its worth, I would suggest just paying off AfterPay immediately, or alternatively, setup all the payments in advance, rather than relying on reminders by SMS, especially if AfterPay is making money off you from the SMS too!

  • bigcheese on 19/10/2022 - 23:49

    Yes roaming charges can add up.
    Generally cheaper to buy a local sim and prepay plan when overseas but means you need to use a different mobile number for the time you’re away.
    I’ve recently come back from Oz and used data on the Oz Kogan starter plan - cheap as chips with 20Gb of data for AUD $2.90 valid for 30 days and available on eSim.

    Spark have pretty reasonable roaming rates if you want to use a NZ number at $30 for 14 days which gives 300 inbound and outbound minutes, 300 txt, 2Gb of data.

    • Juju123 on 20/10/2022 - 06:14

      Thanks, yes I usually swap to a local.sim card when I'm home for holiday. This time it's for a funeral and it's only for 10days, so my mind wasn't at the right place to do all the planning. It's a good lesson learnt for sure.

  • Senior Mouse on 20/10/2022 - 00:05

    One of the advantages of prepay I guess.

  • kiwijunglist on 20/10/2022 - 07:48

    I had a similar problem, premium messages when I had data turned off on the 2 degrees Sim (receive text message only nothing else) and was using a local SIM for everything else. This was in Vietnam, using a galaxy s22, over a 2 month period, but I only got charged about 3-4x or something

    They refunded me.

  • Happydays on 20/10/2022 - 09:59

    FYI, we are over in Aus at the moment. Bought a sim card from Coles for $10 with 15gb data, when activating it you need an aus credit card for id purposes they say. As I dont have an aus cc it was not possible to use it, a request for a refund denied as not company policy, so a lengthy backwards and forwards discussion with customer services over 5 days eventually got refunded.
    Would recommend finding a phone shop and getting sim from there as you can produce passport or other id. Lesson learnt.

    • bigcheese on 20/10/2022 - 10:10

      All of the providers require ID in Australia for SIM activation but not all require an Oz Credit Card.
      The Kogan plan I referred to above was activated online using my NZ Credit Card. I used my passport as ID and the address I was staying at in Australia.

      Good point to highlight though.

  • Happydays on 20/10/2022 - 11:03

    How did you supply passport details?

    • bigcheese on 20/10/2022 - 11:10

      It's all entered online.
      First you purchase the starter pack online and choose SIM or eSIM (I got both as one of my kids wanted data and had an old phone with eSIM).
      The SIM was sent to the address I was staying at (family) and the eSIM details are emailed straight away.

      When I arrived in Oz I then went to the Kogan Activation page and you enter the passport details online there.

  • Alan6984 on 20/10/2022 - 11:15

    Maybe easier (less hassle) to use one of the 'Travel SIMs' like this?

    I haven't tried them personally, but maybe someone here has and can let us know whether that would be a good alternative to a local SIM in Aus (or elsewhere)?

  • ace310 on 20/10/2022 - 11:33

    I have used Flexiroam like this last time I went out of country. Very useful to have data while in transit at the airport. It was very reliable.

    Used the eSim as my phone had it and was immediate activation. They also send in physical sim if you want.

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