0.49c/MB for EEA/UK roaming possible for ex-O2 customer?

[NFH]

I am an ex-O2 customer who currently pays €2 for 200MB per day used, including when roaming in the EEA and UK according to the 3 Essential roaming price guide.

I live in the UK where I am a prepaid customer of Three UK, which costs me 1p/MB (or 0.5p/MB given that I buy my credit at half price). I will shortly start using my iPhone's eSIM for my Three UK number, which will free up my iPhone's physical SIM card slot for other SIM cards to use on a dual SIM basis. I would like to put my Three Ireland SIM card into this physical SIM card slot for the following purposes:

• Pay 0.49c/MB while roaming in the UK (e.g. on O2 UK), particularly where Three UK doesn't have a signal (as it has the worst coverage of all four UK networks).
• Receive calls on my Irish mobile number.

The problem is that the Prepay price guide, which shows an EEA/UK data roaming price of 0.49c/MB, does not apply to 3 Essential, which has separate roaming prices. Is there any way that I can opt to pay the data roaming prices in the Prepay price guide as an ex-O2 customer without losing all my credit?

Also why, almost six years after the Three and O2 networks merged, are Three and ex-O2 customers still segregated with different pricing?

[LauraH]

@NFH Hi there and thanks for posting. Let's see what we can do here 😃 Did you know that you can change to one of our newer Prepay Price Plans and this won't affect any credit that you have on your account? You can make the change on My3 👌

[NFH]

Thanks @LauraH, but it lets me change from 3 Essential to only to 3 Prepay 15, 3 Prepay 20 or 3 Prepay 30, all of which have a monthly charge. As I explained above, I want to pay the incremental charge of 0.49c/MB, not bundled charges of €2/200MB or €15/1GB etc. How can I switch to 3 Prepay with standard incremental charges?

[LauraH]

@NFH On the 3 Prepay 15, 20 and 30 plans you can choose to not top-up by the required amount. This simply means that you won't receive the benefits of the plans like free calls, texts or data. You will then be charged the pricing outlined in the pricing guide 😃

[NFH]

Thanks @LauraH, but if I already have more than €40 of credit, won't it immediately charge me the monthly fee as soon as I switch to one of these three plans?

[Three_Deborah]

@NFH  I've had a look at this thread and the good news is moving to 3Prepay 20 means that you'll have an EU data allowance of 10GB  while you're within the 28-day plan and then charged less than 1cent when the plan expires or if you go over the allowance 👍 As mentioned earlier, you can change to this plan but you'll need to activate it with a top-up to complete the change request. If not, you'll be charged for all usage. Once you've successfully changed to the newer plan, you can decide whether you'll top-up every 28 days or not. This plan ( 3Preypay 20) deducts €20 for the allowances. This means that your current balance is not taken for plan activation 😊

[NFH]

Thanks @Three_Deborah. When you say that "you can change to this plan but you'll need to activate it with a top-up to complete the change request. If not, you'll be charged for all usage", if I change to this plan but don't activate it with a top-up, how much will I be charged for EEA/UK data roaming? 0.49c/MB?

[Three_Deborah]

@NFH I've tagged you in another post that you might find useful. To ensure your plan is activated and your data roaming cost is .49 cent per MB, you'll need to activate the plan the first time, then to make sure your number stays active, remember to top-up every 6 months 👍  

[NFH]

Thanks @Three_Deborah. I'm glad you mentioned the requirement to top up every 6 months, which reflects paragraph 3 at https://www.three.ie/pdf/three_prepay_plans_terms_and_conditions.pdf, which says "Any unused credit shall expire 180 daysfollowing voucheractivation or application of credit to your account. This 180 day expiry period also applies to any credit on your account which has been accumulated on other Three prepay plans if you move to the Plan".

My credit currently has no expiry, and I don't agree to add more credit in order to keep my existing credit. Imagine if banks did this with account balances; there would be uproar by consumers! Therefore I won't be switching to Prepay.