Andrew Alty and his family had been hoping to taking in the breathtaking sights of Morocco but were left with a brutal sting in the tail when they were hit with a huge roaming bill
A family almost went bankrupt when the daughter racked up a £42,000 phone bill after using TikTok abroad. The resulting fines caused a near total financial crash for the family, and was only discovered after the family came home from their trip away.
Andrew Alty nearly lost his business after his daughter used the social media app for eight hours on a holiday in Marrakech, Morocco. The disaster happened as the contract for the phone, bought from Currys and provided by O2, contained a clause that left data roaming uncapped outside Europe.
In the following weeks, O2 sent two bills that amounted to £42,000 over the course of the holiday. That’s more than £5,000 per hour of use on the app.
The bills left Mr Alty stunned, and his five-person business in danger of bankruptcy. He said: “There’s no way they should be able to charge that.
“They made no effort to inform us, and just allowed the charges to accrue,” Andrew continued, clearly baffled at how the phone company could charge the family so much money. “I don’t understand how they expect any small business to pay that sort of bill.”
The charges were eventually waived following a two-month battle after Telegraph Money contacted Currys and O2. A spokesman for O2 said: “We’re aware of Mr Alty’s complaint, which the ombudsman ruled was a sales process dispute with his account provider Currys.
“We understand that this is now resolved.” Currys declined to comment, but told Mr Alty that it had conducted a full internal review.
The electronics retailer said the charges were removed “given the scale and circumstances surrounding the case”. But Andrew and his family are not the only ones who have been left stung as a result of high roaming fees.
A study in 2024 found that 63% of people who owned a mobile phone were stunned at just how much using their phone abroad was costing them. This included how much the price could shift once in another country and whether texts and calls would be charged by their provider.
Just over half of people (54%) were unsure on whether roaming charges would be included in their mobile plan. The confusion on how much extra is charged means that on average, 59% of people have ended up shelfing out some £24 in order to use their phone abroad on one single trip.
But more shockingly, one in every 20 Brits ― 4% – were also stung so bad they had a bill totalling over £120. Researchers have since called for travellers to be aware of roaming charges both in and out of the EU, as these rates could vary drastically.
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