Single holiday snap could cost you £50 in data charges, holidaymakers are warned

TAKING just one holiday photo on a mobile and unwittingly uploading it to the internet could land Brits with a £50 bill, warns a report into roaming charges. Which? checked data costs in ten non-EU destinations and analysed how common tasks can quickly rack up charges. The research of 13 networks found a Virgin Mobile […]

TAKING just one holiday photo on a mobile and unwittingly uploading it to the internet could land Brits with a £50 bill, warns a report into roaming charges.

Which? checked data costs in ten non-EU destinations and analysed how common tasks can quickly rack up charges.

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The research of 13 networks found a Virgin Mobile customer in Dubai could be billed £52.70 — the provider’s daily data cap — by sending a pic to a cloud service.

Plusnet users uploading a 5MB photo could hit their daily data cap of £40 in all ten destinations — including the US, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand and Australia.

BT Mobile customers risk hitting their daily cap of £35 by taking and uploading one photo.

Which?’s Natalie Hitchins said: “Even a simple photo could knock a carefully planned holiday budget off course.

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“Holidaymakers should look at roaming packages offered by their providers before they travel to guard against costs. Or for peace of mind, consider turning off data, or auto sync, altogether.”

Streaming a Stormzy song in Dubai could set Virgin Mobile customers back by more than £30 — enough to buy three albums from the Google Play store.

The same song could cost more than £20 with Plusnet in Turkey, and almost £19 with Asda Mobile in the US.

Even a few glances at Google Maps add up.

Asda Mobile customers are charged £3.75 for five minutes in the US, and Plusnet users £4 for the same time in Turkey.

Downloading 50 emails with Plusnet in Australia could take a user to their £40 cap.

Yet it is free with plans eligible for Three’s Go Roam service — or 10p otherwise.

Which? is also warning about apps eating up data to deliver notifications, synchronise emails and refresh social media.

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