At the end of June, a number of post-Brexit consumer protection measures came to an end. As a result, phone networks are no longer required to send customers a message with billing details when they start roaming, nor limit the maximum data roaming charges that can be charged monthly. Networks also no longer need to provide protection against inadvertent roaming. In an age of data-hungry smartphones, consumers can run up huge bills in minutes without even knowing they’re using their phone at all, as apps connect to the internet to check for updates after a flight or during of a journey. Lewis, who heads consumer group MoneySavingExpert.com, warned that mobile networks had shown that self-regulation was unreliable and after Brexit, some providers had pledged not to bring back roaming charges, only to renege on those promises. The only option was for the government to intervene, he said. “I don’t believe mobile phone companies will self-regulate. When we left the EU they promised not to bring back European roaming charges… yet most of the big networks broke that promise,” he said. Martin Lewis: “We need to bring back formal, mandatory consumer protection”. Photo: Antonio Olmos/The Guardian “So our report calls on Ofcom not to trust voluntary promises – we need to bring back formal, mandatory consumer protection.” In addition to imposing large top-line costs, mobile networks were exploiting ambiguities that individual consumers are rarely aware of. Many cap daily roaming charges, for example, but each defines a ‘day’ differently, with some counting the 24-hour period after first use, but others simply ending it at 23:59 UK time, regardless of where the traveler is actually located or when they first used the data. Even worse, operators rarely set their terms in texts sent on arrival in foreign countries. This means that a traveler who arrived in Greece, which is two hours ahead of the UK, at 1.58am. he could be charged a whole day’s worth of roaming for one minute of phone use before his allowance runs out, without ever being specifically warned that this has happened. . “We need to ban the daily roaming charge that is charged for use ‘until 11.59pm’ without even mentioning what time zone,” Lewis said. Instead, we recommend that all providers define a roaming ‘day’ as a period of 24 hours from first use, explain this clearly in the arrival text and notify customers at least one hour before daily charges end.” As well as campaigning for greater regulation of mobile phone roaming charges, Lewis has been heavily involved in the ongoing cost of living crisis, warning Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak that whoever becomes the next prime minister, they are about to inherit a country on the brink of a “national financial disaster” as a result of skyrocketing energy bills. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST “The winter will be bleak,” he said. “I believe that if action is not taken, we are facing a potential national economic disaster,” which may require providing “heat banks,” “warm spaces in public buildings” such as libraries and recreation centers, where people who cannot afford to heat their houses they can shelter. The energy price cap is expected to rise in October, and then again in January, to more than £3,300 a year, from its current level of £1,971.
