Is Three forcing existing customers to lose free roaming?

Customers on old “Go Roam” tariffs will likely have to leave or accept a new contract.

If you’ve been with Three for more than a year and are out of contract, then be prepared to get moved over to a new tariff and lose access to the benefit of free international roaming.

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What was “Go Roam”?

A big selling point for Three was not just free roaming in Europe (something all networks offered under EU rules), but also in countries such as USA, Canada, Australia, Vietnam and Chile.

If you were travelling outside the EU this could prove a huge money saver, beating incredibly expensive charges to use your data, minutes and text allowances from these worldwide destinations.

When the mobile network updated its terms for new contracts last autumn, this free roaming, in all non-UK destinations, was removed for new customers or those renewing existing contracts.

However, if you signed up for a deal before 1 October 2021, or just let your contract move onto a rolling 30-day deal, you’d remain on the old terms, and therefore keep access to free roaming in the 71-qualifying destinations.

What’s changing?

Officially, that policy remains the same. Old contract equals old terms. But I’ve seen a few comments on Twitter over the course of the last year where some Three customers claim they were being forced to move over to a new contract under the new terms.

Same here. I was forced to upgrade my contract, which handily now puts me into the “new customer” category with these new Go Roam charges, despite being a three customer for nearly 10 years.

— Christopher (@chrisdb89) May 5, 2022

@ThreeUKSupport Guys, your phone system is horrible.

You’ve told me you won’t support my current contract after mid July and given alternative options. If I accept one of the three options you’ve given is it treated as extending existing agreeent (meaning I keep go roam)?

— James O’Flynn (@jamesoflynn) June 23, 2022

…contract on a monthly basis, but for double the price and without Go Roam. I’ve just rung up and was told that basically there is nothing that can be done, so I’ll be shopping round and leaving Three after seven years.

— Michael Harmstone (@mjharmstone) October 10, 2022

This has seemingly been going on all year, though I’ve not seen anything official about it from Three. And as a Three customer myself, there was nothing to indicate I couldn’t carry on with my current deal.

Well, late last month I got the following email from Three with a similar ultimatum. Choose a new contract at a lower price or be moved automatically onto an alternative rolling contract (at more than double what I pay now). In both cases, it’d be a new tariff under the new terms. And therefore without the Go-Roam benefit.

What Three say

This email showed that Three had gone back on its word to protect the contract for at least some existing customers. But would it apply to everyone on the old terms?

I got in touch with their press office for confirmation, asking very simple questions:

• Will all legacy customers at some point be transitioned onto a new contract?
• If so, what would the timeframe for the above be?

Talk about getting blood from a stone. The agency themselves were helpful but seemed to struggle to get an answer from Three. After two weeks of chasing I eventually for the following:

“We are in the process of contacting our legacy customers and many will be moved on to our newer plans at some point after their contract end.” And in terms of timelines… “This varies depending on the individual plan that a customer is on.“

So what does that actually mean? Well, I can’t say 100% that this will happen to all older customers, but we can infer that it’s incredibly likely to happen at some point.

What it means for your Three contract

If you get the email

If you get this message, you’ve got two choices. Stick with Three on worse terms and potentially a higher price, or ditch them for another network. Sadly there’s no way you’ll be able to stick to what you’ve already got (I tried!).

If you decide to stay and do want to use your phone abroad, you’ll be faced with an automatic £2 daily charge in Europe or £5 elsewhere in the world (but still only in the countries covered). This will be activated the moment you use your phone outside the UK, and lasts for 24 hours (rather than a calendar day so it doesn’t matter what time zone you are in).

Outside these countries, you’ll pay whatever (no doubt massive) roaming charges are set for that destination.

If you want to leave, then hunt around for the best price at a different network. If you want to keep Three’s signal then look at Smarty and ID Mobile. Both have inclusive EU roaming (though watch for fair usage limits).

Once you’ve found a decent deal you can request a PAC (port authorisation code) from Three by SMS. This will bring your number with you to your new network.

You’ll likely be offered some deals from Three to stay. As appealing as these might seem, don’t forget to factor in potential extra charges for overseas use. A 10-day trip to Europe will cost you £20 extra, for example, whereas another network might be the same or less each month but include those charges.

You haven’t had the message

I think you will get this same message at some point. If you’re still on a contract signed before 1 October 2021 then you’l have at least until that ends, which could well be another year or two (depending on the contract length). If you’ve moved onto a rolling contract then there’s the potential for Three to send something at any time.

But until you get a message like this, then you don’t need to do anything. And if you plan to travel abroad soon, especially to non-EU destinations, it’s likely a good idea to do nothing.

Though do use this as an opportunity to check how much you’re paying each month, and how much it compares to other networks. It could be you’re overpaying massively.

You’re already on the new terms

Anyone who took on a new contract after 1 October 2022 (whether by choice or forced) will already be under these terms and face the charges mentioned above. If you’re tied into a long contract you won’t be able to leave for another network until this expires.

Alternatives for free roaming

Inclusive EU-roaming

It’s mainly just the main networks that brought back roaming charges for Europe. So if you avoid Three, Vodafone, and EE, as well as Sky, Voxi and Tesco, you should be OK. Just check before you sign up.

Inclusive worldwide-roaming

If you want to roam beyond the EU then there’s a hack for people who have both an O2 SIM and Virgin Media broadband. You’ll get access to something called Volt that’ll give you free worldwide roaming (to limited locations) as well as access to O2 Priority, double data on your phone and a hike in your broadband speed.

This could work out cost effective for anyone going to those destinations, as long as you’re getting a good deal on your O2 SIM and Virgin media broadband.

Or, and this is the strange bit, you could move to a Three Pay As You Go Sim. It’d likely cost you more money each month than equivalent SIMs, but it might be worth getting one just for when you go abroad as worldwide roaming is covered up to 12GB a month.