Price differences for roaming tariffs remain large
Published: Monday, Jun 3rd 2024, 09:10
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The summer vacations are just around the corner. This year too, roaming charges when traveling abroad can tear a deep hole in your wallet. The differences between providers are still huge, as a study by the online comparison service Moneyland shows.
The most important thing is to find out before you go on vacation and buy the relevant packages or options, telecoms expert Ralf Beyeler is quoted as saying in the press release. Otherwise, costs of several hundred francs could arise within minutes.
Large price differences
However, it is difficult to make a direct comparison of roaming charges between the individual providers. There are considerable differences depending on the type and location of use. In Moneyland's sample comparison (four trips abroad in EU countries with a data volume of 6 gigabytes and 120 minutes of telephony), Swisscom comes off best with costs of CHF 86.60, while the low-cost providers Yallo and Lebara are almost twice as expensive.
The jungle of tariffs is even more confusing for vacation trips outside the European Union: here the price differences are particularly large and vary depending on the destination. For example, 1 gigabyte of data roaming in the USA costs 10 francs with the cheapest provider, but 50 francs with the most expensive, as the analysis shows. In Vietnam, prices even differ by a factor of 79.
Even with the three largest providers, the differences in roaming are considerable depending on the country. At Swisscom, for example, 1 GB costs between 9.90 and 49.90 francs. The differences are much greater at Sunrise with a range of between CHF 19.80 and 139.80 and Salt from CHF 39.95 to 399.95.
Inclusive subscriptions are rarely worthwhile
To avoid this price confusion, many customers have now integrated a roaming package into their subscription. However, this is usually too expensive a solution, especially for people who rarely travel abroad, writes Moneyland. It is often cheaper to use a cell phone subscription with little or no roaming and then book inexpensive packages for use abroad.
According to the study, so-called travel eSIM cards, which can be used to avoid the roaming charges of Swiss mobile phone providers, are significantly cheaper. However, not all smartphones support these eSIM cards.
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