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I was recently charged for Easy Roam when traveling out of the country. When checking with the staff at the Telus/Koodo Kiosk upon return to Canada, they informed me that the country I traveled to was not listed under the selected countries for international roaming add on with my account. I thought that I had International Data Roaming, International Voice Roaming, Easy Roam, and international long distance calling add on's promotions from the initial contract signed 6 months ago when upgrading my phone and monthly plan.  There was no mention in the contract that I signed about the selected countries. 

The bill was not ready yet so they directed me to wait and call koodo with any billing questions. When checking the bill statement today there were no additional charges for data, calls or text, just $16/day roaming charges, even on days I did not make any calls or receive any calls. I did use my data daily for transit map routes, paying for tickets, ordering/paying meals, private online banking, etc.

I was not able to reach a person when contacting koodo by phone. In my contract there is mention that there is a $100 data cap for international data roaming usage per billing period. I did not go over my Canadian data plan and even had some data rollover at the end of the billing cycle. 

I do recall now after signing the contract 6 months ago that there was an issue when applying the promotional add ons, only being able to choose one promotional add on option, so I went with the roll over data. However at the time of travel I still thought everything would be incuded, since I thought I had the international travel add ons perk, which was one of the deciding factors to continue my phone plan with Koodo when my contract was up for renewal. I also would have considered using wifi over my data plan instead or purchased a sim card in the country I traveled to instead of receiving additional phone use charges, had I known prior. 

Is there anyone at koodo who can help me sort this out? 

I’m not sure what you’re asking… you used your cell phone abroad and got charged for Easy Roam. Sounds correct to me… so what exactly is the issue?

I think you might be misunderstanding add ons that are used to call other countries from Canada free of charge - they are not used to call while you are outside of Canada. If you used data every day you are charged Easy Roam which is triggered if you text, call or use data.

 


 

Yes, thankfully I checked and I do have the add ons to make International calls within Canada 🙂 1000min International LD Add-on perk for $0 (US, IND, GER, CHINA, HK, TW, BD, ITALY, MEX, AUS). However realized that it doesn't include one of the countries that I need it for, so I'll have to add that one on to my account. 

Further reading when looking into what the add ons are and what they offer to answer my own question:

"Easy Roam To access pay-per-use rates anywhere other than the U.S., you'll need to add the International Voice Roaming and International Data Roaming add-ons to your account for your phone to work."

So regardless the International Easy Roam fee applies for the days I used my phone with no additional fees. The $100 International data cap won't apply in this situation, since it used my monthly phone plan rates. 

 

I don’t like how Easy Roam circumvents the 100 dollar cap. I’m still not convinced that reasoning is sufficient. Unfortunately, as you saw, these are the things to look out for before making international calls or roaming, as these costs can be quite high.

I read under the CRTC’s Wireless Code, service providers cannot charge more than $100 for roaming per billing cycle unless you explicitly agree to pay more. 

They also recommend contacting the service provider first before traveling to get the best plan. 

Since you mentioned the Wireless Code, it does say:

“ Any amount that the customer pays in data roaming fees, whether via a roaming add-on (before use) or via overage fees (after use), counts toward this cap. “

I would consider easy roam to be under the roaming add-on. I’d recommend follow-up on that basis for the amount over 100 dollars.

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