Data roaming is not cheap, but do you really know what monsters you might awaken by turning your phone on whilst on vacation?
In the U.S., providers AT&T and Verizon charge up to $20 per megabyte. Doesn’t sound terrifying? To put that into context, a 3-minute YouTube video would cost you a spine-chilling $100 or worse still, a movie streamed on your iPad would set you back $18,000.
Forget vampires, these horrendous figures are enough to drain the blood out of you – and your bank account. In this shocking post we will be giving you a glimpse into the nightmare situations which mere mortals have been experiencing all over the world.
Our series of unfortunate events begins in Spain, where one woman unknowingly racked up a bill of £16,000 ($24k) for sending text messages whilst roaming. In Turkey the misfortune continued for Ms Mills who went away to relax but was instead greeted with a bloodcurdling bill for $34k – she was just trying to Facetime her friends and family.
Even the careful sort (who only use Wi-Fi) can get caught in a sticky web of data roaming charges as this woman found whilst visiting the States. Parents should be particularly wary of the data roaming demons, as one father experienced a nasty surprise when he received a $22,000 bill after a trip to Mexico – his son had been innocently playing with his phone. Even for businesses, roaming can be a nightmare as one employee got himself thrown into Dante’s inferno for using $15,500 worth of data in Sri Lanka – on his work phone (ouch).
Not even the Canadian government was immune to the horrors of roaming – one of their officials was billed $20,000 for just 2GB of data whilst in Poland. Music lovers be warned, a Neil Diamond album could cost you $4k, as Katie Bryan realised after she returned from holidaying in South Africa.
Are you frightened yet?
We’ve done some number crunching and figured out what a bad roam-ance could cost you. At $20 a megabyte for data-roaming:
- 15 YouTube videos just lost you a new MacBook Pro
- 4 Movies could have paid for a brand new Tesla Model X
- 65 Skype calls later and you could have been a homeowner
If our stories and statistics don’t give you the ‘hebejebes’, we’ve heard Fear Factor may be hiring. If however, you do want to save your soul from the data roaming demons we suggest you avoid going trick or treating with your mobile data plans – we checked and they don’t accept candied apples or sweets. We also recommend making sure your data roaming is switched off when you go away and getting your hands on a portable Wi-Fi device to save you from the horrors above.
To find out more about how our wireless Internet device could save you money on your next holiday.