FAQs: Data roaming spend caps

Data roaming spend caps give you increased control over costs for accessing email or internet abroad. This is done by capping your spend at defined levels. In order to spend more than the value of the cap you have to make a conscious decision to extend past the cap.

If you’re a prepay customer you will receive a spend cap of €60.50 (inc vat)

For pay monthly customers there are two spend caps available, €50 and €300 (ex vat).

• If you pay per MB for data roaming initially you will receive the €50 spend cap and if you continue to use past this spend cap you’ll then receive the €300 spend cap.
• If you are on one of our data roaming price plans, only the €300 spend cap applies

The spend cap will apply to your billing period if you are a Pay Monthly customers and each calendar month if you are a prepay customer.

Once you access email or the internet when abroad we can track how much you spend.

We’ll send you a text when you have spent between 50% - 80% of your spend cap and another text once you’ve reached the spend cap.

You will receive the spend notifications via text message. If you are using data on a handheld device the text will be sent to the inbox of your phone or if you are using a mobile broadband modem or data card the text will be sent to the SMS inbox of your mobile broadband software.

When you reach the spend cap, you will be barred from roaming, unless you have already chosen to extend past the cap. You can choose to extend past the cap at any time and how to do this is included in both spend notifications you receive.

If you choose not to extend past the cap you will remain barred for the remainder of your billing period.

Yes, all of your data roaming spend is included in your spend cap. For example, if you are on a data roaming price plan the rental for this plan along with any spend you accumulate should you use outside your bundle is all included in the spend accumulation towards the cap. This means that when we send you a spend notification the amount represents your total spend on data roaming to date in that monthly billing period. This means there should be no surprises on your bill at the end of the month.

No. We have implemented the spend caps and notifications across the board for simplicity and to give you a consistent user experience so regardless of where you travel outside of the Republic of Ireland the relevant spend cap will be applied to your account for data roaming usage.

Yes, you should, but the notifications may not flash up on your screen, you may need to proactively check the SMS inbox on your mobile broadband dashboard.

No. At the moment the spend caps and notifications do not apply to any Vodafone Live usage.

No, unfortunately not. But if you move to a newer version of the plan you are on, you will then automatically have spend caps and notifications applied to your account.

Data roaming spend caps and notifications only apply to our standard data roaming offers.

You will receive a text to the inbox of your phone or to the SMS inbox of your mobile broadband software letting you know that you have reached your spend cap.

Yes you can. You can still use your phone to make and receive calls and to send and receive text messages. And if you are using a modem you will still be able to send and receive text messages.

To continue using data beyond the pay monthly €50 spend cap, text PASS EU CAP to 50193. If you are not the bill payer, please remember to ask their approval to continue spending. The same command applies to the prepay €60.50 spend cap.

To continue using data beyond the pay monthly €300 spend cap, text PASS UPPER LIMIT<PIN> to 50193. The PIN is the last 4 digits of your customer number. If you are not the bill payer the PIN can be sourced from them along with their approval to continue spending.

For prepay customers, the €60.50 spend cap is the only cap and so if you extend past it you will receive no further spend caps or spend notifications.

For pay monthly customers, if you extend past the €300 spend cap you will receive no further spend caps or spend notifications

Yes you can, however we do not recommend it as you may then inadvertently run up a higher than expected data roaming bill. We strongly recommend that you avail of the spend caps and notifications so that you’ll always know what your costs are.

Should you choose to opt out you do so at your own risk.

Yes you can, as long as you don’t opt out of notifications as well. However once you choose to opt out of the spend caps you will not be barred for data roaming and you are potentially leaving yourself open to accumulating high usage charges.

Should you choose to opt out you do so at your own risk.

Unfortunately if you are in the middle of a download and you reach your spend cap, your usage will be cut off and you will lose this data. This is why we are notifying you as early as possible so should you need to extend past the spend cap you can choose to do so when you receive your first notification.

If you change your data roaming price plan there may be an impact on which spend cap is applicable to you.

For example, if you are a pay monthly customer and you move from paying per MB for data roaming to signing up to any of our data roaming price plans, the €50 spend cap will no longer apply to you.

However if you cancel your data roaming bundle and move back to paying per MB for data roaming then the €50 spend cap will be automatically re-applied to your account.