Anyone travelling to the World Cup in South Africa have be warned about their mobile phone use, making sure they don’t use it too much otherwise you may face bill when you get back home that cost more than your World Cup ticket.
Watchdog Consumer Focus said “fans could easily pay more than £100 to make calls and send texts and data on a match day, more than the £55 to £80 face value of a ticket.” Also their figures showed that users could also face huge charges when uploading pictures or videos to social networking sites on top of their internet packages.
According to the Watchdog the cost of using mobile internet of £1.25 to £8 per megabyte could leave customers paying up to £80 to upload 10 photos to Facebook and charges to make calls ranged from 80p up to £1.50 per minute and texts cost from 25p to 50p.
Unlike in the EU where charges are capped to 37p per minute and 9p for a text for UK travellers, those visiting SA will face added costs.
Consumer Focus urged mobile phone users to check their provider’s deals for travelling abroad and to shop around, Nick Hutton who is the group’s telecommunications expert, said: “England fans need to be on the ball to make sure they don’t get caught out by hundreds of pounds of hidden mobile phone costs at the World Cup. We want to see mobile phone firms play fair by customers travelling abroad and cut these extremely high fees. In the meantime consumers should check their network rates before they fly and look into the add-ons or bundles on offer, which could save them much-needed cash.”