What do I need to do before I take my iPhone on hols so It doesn't cost me a fortune?

[GheeDeMaupassant]

Going to Portugal in a couple of weeks and I vaguely remember that you can run up enormous bills unwittingly. So do I need to change the settings or something?

I'll want to use it, probably mainly for texts, but maybe the odd tiny phone call eg to DP when I've lost him or whatever. I doubt I'll need tinternet/e-mail. I can live without MN for a week right?

Can you get a local sim card?

woah, sorry for rogue capital letter...

Can you do that then?

Make sure you have the push setting switched to manual so it is not constantly connecting to the internet to check for new mails.

Aah, thanks Mme. Is that the main thing that costs extra £££?

If you are not going to use it much then it will probably not be worth getting a local sim card, your phone is probably locked anyway so it would not work.

It is the internet connection that is really expensive but you can save on that by using free wifi when you are in cafes/hotels that have it. And by switching off push notifications.

Contact your provider to see if the offer a travel bundle. Some of them do.

Thanks for that. V helpful.

I had a eu300 phone bill last time I was in UK, learnt from that experience.

Not as bad as my friend who came home from Dom Republic to a 900eu bill.

what network do you use?

Just that you might be better off
a) buying a cheap PAYG phone from Asda to put your SIM into,
b) diverting incoming calls to voicemail before you leave home
c) leave iPhone at home, switched off.

it means no browsing, no incoming calls (they get charged too, though EU roaming is meant to be much cheaper these days) and no iPhone to damage / lose / have stolen while you are away.

OK, hope nothing would happen, but nice to know iPhone is safely tucked up at home. Use a 50 - 100 quid digital camera if holiday snaps will be important.

I took my iPhone to France in feb, and switched off roaming(in settings) for general use. I'm on o2 and they do a £20 for 10 mb data (Internet, emails etc)

was handy to have to look up alternative hotels !

I'm on O2.

How do you get at the sim?

Have a look in your box, should be a wee silver key thingy in there. At the top of the iPhone, there is a small hole. Poke the key into there and she sim card should come out.

Is your phone not locked though? I doubt you will be able to change your sim card.

Oh, yes, I remember putting that key thing Somewhere Safe.

But yes, I suppose it will be locked as I've not taken it to any dodgy market stalls. Yet.

How do you lock it? Mine has never been

You need to stop it checking your emails. DD's iphone ran up a bill of over £300 during three weeks away. I couldn't really be cross with her - we didn't know about this problem before we went either.

Nymph, I may have misunderstood, but I think they come locked and then some people take them to dodgy market stalls to get them unlocked so they can use any network sim. or maybe it's not even remotely dodgy and quite the done thing now.

I tend to use the 'locked' phones with appropriate SIMs and have so far not gone to any market stalls, dodgy or otherwise, to get some phone unlocked.

GDM - some places sell unlocked phones. Asda Living charged me about 30 quid for one of the Nokia models which was unlocked.

However, if you get a "Phones" booklet from Carphone Warehouse, it will become very clear that for many of the phones which they will sell locked or unlocked, the unlocked ones are hundreds of pounds (from memory CPW don't do unlocked phones below 150 quid anyway).

"I'm on o2 and they do a £20 for 10 mb data (Internet, emails etc)"

Youch ! I thought paying 7.50 a month (Three mobile) for 5 GB (5120 MB) was expensive - that sounds like a ripoff and I bet the EU has proposals to change the cost over the next year or two.

Or was that 10 GB of data, not 10 MB ?

I know checking for new mail could easily take only 2 to 10 kilobytes, but if some fool friend had sent 10 big photos of their DC you could use up all 10 MB in downloading just that one e-mail ! That's mean those pix cost you 20 quid and wiped out the allowance you'd bought...

Was in the smallest room and spotted the Carphone Warehouse glossy from mid-Feb and was wrong - they have some unlocked phones from 35 quid {to 230 quid, but I know Tesco sells the iPhone for over 300 {on a contract}, so CPW only showing some of the lower prices on their back cover, not whole range... feel sure they'd be happy to sell pretty much any phone unlocked, at the right price).

Ah I misunderstood I was thinking like password locked not sim locked .

You need to:

turn off push notifications
turn off data roaming
turn off MMS

I went to Turkey last year and my bill for the 2 weeks we were there was £6 for telephone calls. I used the local free wireless to access the Internet.

Thanks y'all