Mobile phone in rest of Europe - what do I do?

[MaggieW]

I'm going to Spain on Friday with a phone (HTC) that has mail and data capability. Don't want to rack up big charges unwittingly so what should I do please? I heard on news that charges have come down today but still want to avoid being caught out.

Can I still access email through hotel wifi without charge, or is there a charge anyway? Happy to go without email all weekend, but will need to send some texts. Thanks.

I understand if you want to switch voicemail on, you should do so before you leave the UK.

As for not clocking up charges, then probably best to set phone to 'airplane' mode (which should disable all mobile network access. On some phones (have tried this on some of my Samsung phones) Android allows wireless (to access local wi-fi router) to be on while keeping mobile network off.

Whether there is any charge (applied by hotel for using wi-fi) is for you to check on arrival. Then when you want to send a text, disable 'airplane mode' and you can send and receive texts and voice calls.

If you want certain people to be able to call you, decide on a time and turn the phone on for (say) 15 minutes at that time each day, or maybe twice a day (eg 9am and 7pm UK time - but remember to adjust for time difference).

[You will need to disable 'airplane mode' during this 'contact window' but make sure you don't have e-mail or any other apps that usually use the internet running... if someone sends you several photos in an e-mail it could end up being many times the 69p/MB limit (I think that's the capped price now)]