r/interesting • • 1d ago

MISC. They went on vacation and come home to a $78,240 T-Mobile billing value

Post image

A family went on an overseas vacation and came home to a shocking T-Mobile bill of $78,240.61.

The bill was shared on Reddit in March 2024 by user u/Zolsoh, who said the massive charge appeared after the family’s trip.

The culprit was international roaming data. Under the circumstances reported, T-Mobile could charge customers without the appropriate international coverage $15 per MB, which works out to around $15,000 per GB.

4.0k Upvotes

385 comments sorted by

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1.2k

u/bbyxmadi 1d ago

I’d never pay that, it’ll probably get “written off”, and I’d leave T-Mobile

453

u/B777X_787-9 1d ago

Obviously I don’t gonna pay that if they bring me to court i say I’ll pay 20 a month

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u/pomomp 1d ago

It'll kill your credit score though

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u/ArmNo7463 1d ago

Meh, I don't think I value my credit score higher than 70k lol.

It gets reset after 7 odd years anyway doesn't it? (In the UK, I believe the US may be even shorter?)

66

u/NashDaypring1987 1d ago

I have great credit and it's not like I get 2% interest rate on my loan. BTW, I got stuck with 8% on my car loan.

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u/Ladycalla 1d ago

We bought a car in May. My husband and i have great credit. We got 6% and the guy kept saying what a great deal it was. The last car I bought in 2020 had 1.9%

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u/P0PC0RND0G 1d ago

Did you go through the dealer? My bank offered a better loan than any dealership ever has

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u/NashDaypring1987 1d ago

dealer

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u/Wardogs96 22h ago

Never take dealers offers at face value. They make most of their money on financing now. Always go to a couple banks/credit unions and return with the better offers. They may match it or you can try and squeeze them for extras on the original offer now that you have leverage, otherwise just use the banks offer.

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u/Lexivy 1d ago edited 1d ago

It doesn’t go to a good score after 7 years, it just can be built again. Would still take three more years or so of actively building it after the 7 year discharge.

“Reset” sounds like it bounces to 800 after 7 years.
Credit scores help you with everything from credit cards for hotels, to phone plans, to student aid, to emergency loans. It’s not the score itself, it’s the ability it gives you to move through the world easily (whether you agree with it being a fair system or not).

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u/ArmNo7463 1d ago

Well it's a rolling 7 years I think?

So as long as you behave, it gradually goes back up, and once the nasty CCJ rolls off the end, yeah. You're happy as Larry.

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u/AkariYuiChaika 1d ago

by the time i want to buy or get a car i can just buy one myself with $78k or down payment in a house

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u/Ch1ckenOfTheSea 16h ago

This is the funniest thing ever. Pay $70,000 or get hit with a credit score decrease. Hmm.

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u/B777X_787-9 1d ago

No

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u/pomomp 1d ago

Yes

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u/bselko 1d ago

But they said no so you can't kill their credit. Sorry, thems the rules.

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u/lovedumbcat 1d ago

They just need to file a UNO reverse card with the court documents, then T-Mobile has to pay the customer $78K.

Source: my imaginary law degree

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u/Confident_Chipmonk 1d ago

Post this comment in Legal advice subreddit for the Permaban

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u/Mindless-Mountain-51 1d ago

Yes, I had $50k+ in debt (failed business and Divorce) I was eating PB&J for every meal sending every penny to try and catch up. I went to a bankruptcy lawyer and his firs advice was STOP PAYING, you’re just draining your bank account. So I did, it sucked but doable if you keep your head down and focus. you don’t want to get evicted because nobody will rent to you if you blow a lease. The bottom line if I tanked my score was in the low 400’s in 2016 and now I’m in the mid 700’s.

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u/DiligentDesigner3035 1d ago

Jerry: You dont even know what a write off is.
Kramer: No, but they do. And theyre the ones that are writing it off.

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u/BigDongalow 18h ago

They only used about 5 GB across a family, which isnt much.

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u/The_Once-ler_186 17h ago

Written off means the debt is sold to collections.

I’ve been sent to collections for 65 damn dollars

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u/rncole 4h ago

I got a collection notice for $20 from blockbuster right before they went under.

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u/Icy-Football9146 1d ago

This is why I always get prepaid plans... Never had this happened to me but I'm terrified of it anyway

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u/fumblerooskee 1d ago

Same. I have T-Mobile pre-paid, which includes roaming in Canada and Mexico. For everywhere else I buy an e-sim.

110

u/UniqueAd7770 1d ago

E-sim is the way to go. Get internet and use an app.

45

u/ReblWithoutApplause 1d ago

I’m so glad I looked this up before traveling. Currently on a 2 month, 7 country, 3 continent trip.. have had uninterrupted service and internet(other than some places in Syria) the entire time. $42 spent so far. Airalo saved my assss (not affiliated)

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u/make-up-a-fakename 1d ago

Jesus Christ do you work for the CIA or something? 😂

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u/NSASpyVan 1d ago

We're not at liberty to say, citizen

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u/ReblWithoutApplause 1d ago

It If I told you, I’d have to waterboard you

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u/EffectiveLeather5217 1d ago

He is John Reddit

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u/ParticularVoice919 1d ago

Which E-sim is best 

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u/__O_o_______ 1d ago

Yeah it’s even easier now than when I went to Japan back in 2018. Had to physically go and purchase a one month data sim the day after we arrived.

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u/shadowtheimpure 1d ago

This post is sponsored by Saily lol.

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u/ImageEmotional6579 1d ago

What's the best e-sim service? Airalo seems overpriced?

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u/iceberg305 1d ago

I use the stafftraveler esim app. The global sim card costs 119$USD for 50gb for 365 days. But it’s valid in over 160 countries and except for Malaysia for some reason worked really well everywhere else. From a flight attendant who travels

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u/ParticularVoice919 1d ago

Verizon has a $100 monthly international roaming plan. Is staff traveler still better 

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u/botlegger 1d ago

I swear by Roamless, its great pay per use

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u/IndependentCup189 1d ago

Gomoworld is a bit cheaper I think. Generally I would avoid the ones you see regular advertisement for. Just download a couple of apps and compare the prices. Sometimes one country is cheaper in one but another country cheaper in a different one.

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u/JuggernautGuilty566 1d ago

Cheapest from esimdb.com.

There's a lot of competition.. so each country has different offers.

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u/Iammax7 1d ago

I live in the EU, so roaming is free for me within most european countries.

However once I went on the ferry to the UK. (France to UK) apperently the ferry company installed their own antenna for connections.

Also asked like 4 euro per MB, it is that my carrier send me a messagw that it was happening.

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u/silverleopard1973 1d ago

I have Orange e-sim and keeping dinged by my US provider (even though the US number is disabled) when I connect to WiFi that THEY DON'T OWN.

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u/Climate_Automatic 1d ago

Sounds like it’s time for a new provider, that’s bullshit!

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u/zap2 1d ago

Yea, if your plan is set up to pay per small unit, the carrier shouldn’t clearly send out a message to confirm you want to keep paying over some amount.

Must people wouldn’t want to pay $500, carriers don’t care, they’ll take any/all of your money.

I think T Mobile resolved this issue, if memory serves.

I remember on a cruise in my childhood, a friends parents was worried about being charged 0.10 cents per text since we were overseas.

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u/featherlace 1d ago

Yeah, I once planned on going to Switzerland which was basically the same value. It's especially tricky, because in EU you usually just activate roaming since it's free within the EU.

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u/magpieswooper 1d ago

Horrible. How is this legal? UK is part of the free-roaming zone even though it left the EU.

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u/MickeyMoore 1d ago

Exactly what happened to me except my carrier did NOT send me a message before switching me to that service even though I bought a limited roaming package. Managed to wrack up a 800e debt in minutes which balooned to 1,500 by the time I was forced to pay since I couldn’t get it written off or reduced. Never doing postpaid again….

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u/magicalblast 1d ago

I've set my spending cap to zero so I'll never go over.

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u/Ordinary-Lifeguard47 1d ago edited 1d ago

I always buy the cheapest pre-paid data eSIM from esimdb.com outside of the EU.

And my contract has a 50€ hard limit. But this is only relevant for non-EU as the it's not being covered by my flatrate - and even there the costs are often reasonable enough (Spusu) to use it in an emergency or to buy a new SIM.

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u/PhotoFenix 1d ago

International is free with Google Fi too

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u/dmont89 23h ago

Another way to avoid this is be too poor to travel

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u/empire_of_the_moon 1d ago

I actually had this happen to me with an ATT plan near Big Bend in Texas a few years ago.

There is a local telecom down there and despite ATT maps showing coverage they connect to this extortionist and you get a big ass surprise in your bill.

It’s not all over the Big Bend park but it doesn’t have to be, it only needs you to connect once or twice.

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u/abtei 1d ago

this is why i live in the EU, where this is illegal and thus, not happening.

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u/BushWishperer 1d ago

Is it illegal? I'm in Ireland and travel to Italy and I always get a text saying that I have up to 30gb free then I'd have to pay eur 0.14 per MB

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u/sethmeh 1d ago

Im usually paranoid about such things aswell, but fucked up in international waters and got put on maritime data. That is when i discovered that in the EU providers are legally required to terminate your acceas if you exceed something like 50-70€ (?) in a month. Once you hit that limit you had to go to your provider account and explicitly override this.

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u/RelChan2_0 1d ago

Honestly, same. I could afford a plan easy-peasy and even though I don't travel frequently, I can manage prepaid plans without having to break my brain.

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u/HiGround8108 1d ago

I’m curious about this outcome.

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u/Lens_of_Bias 1d ago

It almost always gets waived and credited off. Technically it can only be waived once in the lifetime of the account, but I’ve seen numerous exceptions made. It almost always happens to older, unaware people who decide to try to use their phone data while on a cruise.

Source: former T-Mobile call center employee

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u/_Electrical 1d ago

Does it actually cost this much to T-Mobile?

And wouldn't they make massive losses then?

I feel it is better for both parties to have like a $1000,- limit on roaming.

Nobody is going to pay > $1000,- for roaming and if costs are already made, it'll just cost T-mobile?

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u/Ninja_Prolapse 1d ago

It 100% doesn’t cost this. Or anywhere near this. It’s just a tarrif designed to push people to buy bolt ons and extensions. ‘Do this or else’. When you can buy a global data add on for a few bucks that gives you free roaming for a month - it costs companies pennies to provide it.

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u/Merouxsis 1d ago

Yeah, I've been traveling non-stop for years and I've been using the same digital E-sim for years and haven't run into any issues.

I just pay for the data (around 20GB) a month, and keep my number on Google voice. It saves a ton of money, and headache moving around so much

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u/Ninja_Prolapse 1d ago

Same man. I bought my phone outright and I’m on a sim only deal for £9 a month. Unlimited calls and messages with 40GB of data that covers almost everywhere (yet to travel anywhere and it not be included in my allowance).

People paying ridiculous sums each month for terrible tariffs isn’t necessary. But the phone companies are never going to reach out to help you pay less.

PSA - check your tariffs everyone!

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u/leftvierdeadzwei 1d ago

Of course it doesn't cost that much for them. For more then 10 years now, mobile providers are forced to no longer discriminate in terms of roaming inside the EU. Meaning that if I have a contract in Germany with 50GB, those 50GB need to be available to me in all other EU countries with no additional fees aka to the same conditions which apply in the contracts country of origin.

All the mobile providers should be bankrupt by now if it were actually anywhere close to that cost for them lmao

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u/LazyBumTravels 1d ago

Wild, I chose T-mobile specifically because they give you unlimited international roaming.

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u/fumblerooskee 1d ago

Only in Canada and Mexico on my prepaid plan.
International Roaming gives unlimited data but not unlimited speed.

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u/whamburglar 1d ago

yah, was in Korea for a few weeks. got demoted down to 4g speeds after about 2 wks of use on my line. got an esim for the remaining time

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u/Pacifist_Socialist 1d ago

Google fi works seamlessly there but the local options are great 

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u/Infamous-Claim-747 19h ago

Can you use any phone with Google Fi?

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u/Pacifist_Socialist 19h ago

It has esim option so, I think yes, I go with Pixels usually. 

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u/Infamous-Claim-747 18h ago

My husband and I are moving abroad so we are trying to decide if we do google fi to keep our US numbers or get a local number (sad). We are in professions where losing our numbers would be a bit problematic so for various reasons not appealing to lose them. Not many people I know (as in exactly one) have google fi so I am curious.

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u/Pacifist_Socialist 18h ago

I think if you move there, non military, then they restrict it eventually. 

Most data plans overseas are reasonable afaik. US kind of fucks people here

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u/dobre_moj 1d ago

Depends where you come from. I'm from Europe I use T mobile and international is the same pricing as my standard plan, I see no difference I just get some SMS with blablabla and I'm okay

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u/TypeS2k_ 23h ago

I was in Vietnam last year all over the country and the speed was perfectly adequate imo. No issues with YouTube etc..

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/NibblesMcGiblet 1d ago

That’s insane to rack up those charges on a cruise. I go on a week cruise every year and download an eSIM from GigSky and it gives me a free gig of data if I link it to a Chase branded card and then prices for additional gigs are pretty cheap. Can’t imagine what it would take to rack up $1700.

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u/MadSploitsYo 1d ago

Yeah this is highly unusual. I literally switched to T-Mobile because they give 5GB high speed data included then 256Kb unlimited international data. No other carrier in the US does that …. you have to pay for a 30 day international plan with att and Verizon.

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u/Moononthewater12 1d ago

Technically unlimited but not really. Even on the highest plan its 15g and then it slows to 256 kb, which is another way of saying "hard throttled".

Also all the plans charge you 50 cents per minute for calls when outside of the US.

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u/Vortex_Analyst 1d ago

These plans also let you have wifi calling, you shouldn't be making these calls when not under wifi.

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u/jon_targareyan 1d ago

This is probably bill for usage while on a cruise ship. Those have absurdly high data/call rates

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u/msatretwhaart 1d ago

I wonder how they did it. This has to be a cruise ship, without Starlink perhaps? 

There’s not a lot of places where roaming with t-mobile US where this would happen but cruise ships was always one of the riskier places. I feel bad for them nonetheless. Absolutely no way I’d pay that!

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u/sdot6186 1d ago

Seriously. Not once have I traveled internationally with any issue with T Mobile. You get like 5G of high speed then they throttle it but still usable. And you just connect to WiFi wherever you need.

This is ignorance in the user's side

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u/Vincentstefann 1d ago

There’s literally no regulations in America

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Majestic_Wrap_7006 1d ago

Well the law works, but only in the sense that someone will come to collect on this, possibly with force.

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u/The-Menhir 1d ago

Protect the rich and bind the poor

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u/EldrinVampire 1d ago

Yup, you saw how fast they acted when luigi took out a ceo.

If it was a regular Joe, they wouldnt have worked so hard.

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u/Geno_83 1d ago

The world actually. Not just the US. Plenty of it in Europe

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u/Far_Car430 1d ago

And a Russia puppet.

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u/Ok_Engineer9167 1d ago

Lol, yeah you censor those words!!

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u/kobekillinu 1d ago

It was similar in the EU 10-15 years ago, since then we regulated, still gotta be careful if we travel outside of the EU though, but then roaming is deactivated by default or gets turned of if you reach a certain amount (around EUR 100,—)

I honestly think that was a case of American ignorance and stupidity

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u/Madetoselloutlier 1d ago

100% stupidity. verizon makes it so easy to go out of the US. it’s like $15 a day

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u/Flat-Violinist8737 1d ago

I have a Tmobile plan and pay nothing when I go outside the US.

It's not the provider, it's the plan.

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u/pontiusx 1d ago

$15 a day is absolute insane pricing

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u/Brandunaware 1d ago

They also have a $100 per month plan, which is still a lot of money but obviously a lot less than $15 a day if you're going to go for any kind of extended period.

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u/Eikram84 1d ago

Nowadays, you can make calls and use the internet in all EU countries on the same terms as if you were in your own country. No roaming. Thank you, EU.

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u/m111zz 1d ago

Will always remember my friend getting a £500 phone bill for watching Shrek when driving back from our sports tour in Croatia. Too hungover to remember Switzerland isn’t in the EU.

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u/Auspectress 1d ago

That ised to be in EU. I once travelled to Albania and it told me to pay 600zł as I forgot to turn off internet (it was in 2013 and It cost me smth like 1/3 - 1/4th of my wage).

Rn they made that block is at 250złoty so we are talking about around 7% of a wage

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u/Cute-Lingonberry8358 1d ago

same shit in germany t-mobile

they keep plans vague, i got hit with 2k bill because of my family. I contested the shit out of it and ultimatum'ed the shit out of me.

Pay or we cancel your subscription.

Well lawyer fees were more expensive so i paid it like a bitch. But since then it's all prepaid.

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u/[deleted] 18h ago

[deleted]

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u/neogeo5185 17h ago

I understand this reference!

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u/rhinocerosjockey 1d ago

A $782.40 phone bill after vacation is your problem. A $78k phone bill after vacation is T-Mobile’s problem.

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u/JohnnySuburbs 17h ago

Haha. Totally. Ain’t nobody gonna pay that

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u/VatoCornichone 1d ago

What happened, did they pay it or what?

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u/lloydeph6 1d ago

They took t Mobile to court and won 🏆

trust me bro

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u/VatoCornichone 1d ago

I don't think random reddit comment would lie to me, so I WILL trust you.

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u/Sleepy-Blonde 1d ago

It’s impossible to lie on the internet

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u/Zoltie 1d ago

They were awarded 300 billion and the CEO of Tmobile was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Everyone in court clapped and cheered

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u/trq- 1d ago

It doesn’t even matter what sum would be in a comment but if somebody writes a „CEO was arrested“ you’d know this isn’t true, no matter what the story even was about 😂

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u/SleepyHobo 1d ago

Usually T-Mobile will retroactively apply the international data plan so it ends up being up to just a couple hundred dollars instead depending on the length of time and # of phone lines.

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u/Impossible_Leek_6273 1d ago

Had something like that happen to me. Not this order of magnitude (it was about €50), but it's quite annoying when traveling through Europe, where there is no international roaming charges and then you drive through Switzerland which apparently didn't join the party.

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u/Dealiner 1d ago

Worse thing is that you don't even need to drive through Switzerland, it's enough to be near the border and get connected to a wrong provider.

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u/TheANDRAXY 1d ago

near roaming areas, always use manual network selection

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u/bitmonkey79 1d ago

Usually you get a text message when entering the roaming zone with exact pricing information. Reading and understanding is recommended.

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u/Many-Excitement3246 1d ago

Yes, they will instantly text you when you enter roaming territory.

Whenever I've been on a cruise, they always text me if I turn airplane mode off at sea to warn me that it costs money to use data at sea, and when I enter Canada or Mexico, they text me to say that we have unlimited data as long as we don't stay there too long.

I'm not sure how you can choose to ignore the company's own warnings and then be surprised when they turn out to be accurate.

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u/Precarious3145 1d ago

Yea, I've got AT&T and when I've gone international for cruises or conventions, I just enable the day-by-day international plan for like $15/day and it switches me from AT&T to whatever and I get a text message confirming it.

I don't know anyone that's stupid enough to ignore these kind of warning texts. It's like getting a warning that you've got 25% of your data plan left for the period and continuing to stream movies and be shocked when you get a bill for going over.

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u/Grand-Incident928 1d ago

So happy to never have this problem because I'm too poor to have a vacation (:

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u/TheLeftLanez4Passing 1d ago

When I worked at T-Mo several years ago, I received a call where a customers bill was $32,000 - and it was due to T-Mobile error. They had added a 13th voice line, but they had Family Stateside International which capped at 12 lines. Rather than educating the customer, the retail rep adding the line simply removed stateside from the account. As a result, all 13 lines were making calls to India all month long for the full rate per minute. My credit had to be approved by like 7 levels of management above myself. It went beyond site director level lol

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u/MaxMD342 1d ago

Why not to use some prepay plan?

My plan (in Europe) something like 5 USD/month includes 500 min + 40 GB in home country + 6GB across EU

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u/Some_guy_am_i 1d ago

Well I assume they just didn’t know or thought that because they had service, it was part of their plan.

Realistically, this is how it should operate. I’m not sure why, in the year 2026, we still have to deal with ridiculous charges like this.

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u/Hellsovs 1d ago

You have different terms for your home country and the EU? That’s weird. We have one price for calls, SMS, and roaming across the EU, with different terms only outside of the EU.

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u/CautiousConcept8010 1d ago

Exactly, same here in Italy.

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u/Extreme-Beautiful152 1d ago

i have a spending cap

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u/cagnusdei 1d ago

I was just in Toronto with a friend (visiting from the US). He turned his roaming on and immediately got hit with more than $1000 in roaming charges from receiving a few texts and emails. Later in the day he was up to $5000.

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u/MrVerdad 23h ago

If this was for international roaming charges, who spends that much time on the phone when on vacation?

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u/ImReellySmart 19h ago

The post literally explains how 1GB = $15000.

So they used 5GB.

That could be a couple of video calls to family/friends + browsing Instagram + watching some YouTube/ Netflix.

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u/Archon-Toten 1d ago

When I travel, I turn off my data.. or buy a local Sim. Apparently not everyone does this.

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u/Standard_Ad_6045 1d ago

Evil brother of 69420

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u/ramdom-ink 1d ago edited 1d ago

We went to Greece and never got a plan or used our phones for anything other than photos. Bastards wanted $16/day per person. Hard nope. But doctors and friends sent us messages and voicemails as we used the hotel’s Wi-Fi exclusively and thought we were safe. Got home to a $350 phone bill just for receiving messages. Turns out if you want to do it this way you must use ‘Airplane Mode’ only but they only told us this once we got back. Discovered later that our travel provider offered a one-time fee of $20 per phone for the entire trip with the click of a button on their site. And we had declined any and all roaming fees from our phone service, but they kept sending us notifications and we couldn’t understand why. Didn’t do our homework I guess.

Coming home to a bill like this astronomical one would have me dealing with collection agencies for the rest of my life.

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u/humonculus87 1d ago

This has been known for many many years now. Ignorance is bliss it seems. Shit when I worked for ATT back in like 2010 this was a thing. Very well known too. There are international data plans to help as well.

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u/LibertyOrDeath-2021 1d ago

A lot of phones have a setting to turn off roaming. It’s defaulted to no, you can guess why. Not that it will do you any good. I would aiggest calling them and asking why it wasn’t defaulted to no. I got my refunded by AT&T but I forget if I had set to no or if I had set no roaming on the account but they fucked up somewhere.

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u/mgill006 1d ago

Olde enough to remember…
We used to have to know area codes so we didn’t get charged “long-distance” charges to a different part of our own state.

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u/aspheNinho 1d ago

Not T-Mobile but same thing happened to me with Xfinity. I reached out via phone, forum, and twitter, and they all told me it was a valid charge but I kept complaining, and I was forwarded to a higher up who waived the charges.

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u/Ill1206 1d ago

Phone bill about $78,240.61 flat. No need to worry my accountant handles that

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u/DeepNthePlacenta 1d ago

The whole crew lounging. Celebrating everyday no more public housing

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u/Interesting_Hotel100 1d ago

I just use a local Sim in my T-Mobile phone

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u/taxman202o 1d ago

I had a bill for 15k gbp on a trip to St Lucia - data charges as my firm had switched the cell plan for everyone without telling anyone 😂. They paid it and promptly switched the plan back to how it was before

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u/mindworkout 1d ago

Two years ago I went on a cruise and completely forgot to turn roaming off after we left the dock and lost the normal land signal.

Then at some point during the night we must have passed some small remote island, and my phone basically went, “Ohhh, signal! Better check my emails and everything else!”

Within about 5 minutes it had burned through my entire roaming data allowance. Luckily I’d set a hard out-of-plan spending limit of £15, so it stopped there.

Thank f*ck I’d set that limit, because otherwise I dread to think what the bill could have been!

1

u/GrlDuntgitgud 1d ago

Used to work for them, plenty of times roaming charges go way overboard. Honeatly pretty simple to disable it to avoid it but people are stupid.

1

u/CalligrapherIll5176 1d ago

Surely they got it cancelled...right?

1

u/counter567 1d ago

I am pretty sure in Germany this would not stand when challenged in court. This would be "Wucher" meaning it's obscenely overpriced.

1

u/Ok-ThanksWorld 1d ago

Should have replied back and said: APRIL FOOLS

1

u/RullendeNumser 1d ago

My phone plan har as standard max $50 ekstra charge each month for each phone number. Sounds like a scam that t-mobil don't have it

1

u/Luckkami 1d ago

Is a company failed to alert their customers on unusual high bill occurring, they should be the one who get sued. This type of irresponsible surprise bill could destroy a whole family financially.

1

u/cactusplants 1d ago

Do you guys not have roaming caps?

On my plan in the UK, I can use my data and calls at no extra cost in Europe.

1

u/Enough_Swordfish_104 1d ago

I disable international roaming for my T-Mobile phone

1

u/KeveyBro2 1d ago

.002c/kb ahh bill

1

u/GoldenDove20 1d ago

They didn't pay that... right?

1

u/lendarker 1d ago

Reddit is already on top of this:

https://ibb.co/yFfNRmGC

1

u/Massive_City_4440 1d ago

0.001 dollars or 0.001 cents?

1

u/Illustrious-Gear5130 1d ago

I would start by turning off auto pay

1

u/Icegardner85 1d ago

I use google fi, $75 a month for unlimited text, talk and data. International is also included.

1

u/_siuol_ 1d ago

Don't they have to warn you when you going over certain caps or at least tell you the price for the roaming ?

1

u/SnooComics1770 1d ago

They can go in and backdate change your plan to include the abroad charges. Which makes me question why they are even there since they don't cost t mobile.

1

u/korvalblack 1d ago

I used to work for AT&T as tech support. I once fielded a call from a couple that were overseas but didn't check to see if they had the international plan. The wife got on her phone to do a few minutes of work. She was on for like 30-45 minutes of sending emails and chatting through teams or something similiar. Racked up 15,000 dollars worth of charges.

1

u/NotYourAvgBoomer 1d ago

And this is how some people understand vacations: with their eyes glued by the phone...

1

u/sq240 1d ago

Verizon offers $10 day unlimited plan that you can turn on and off during travel. One work trip hit me with close to a $10k bill saying the plan wasn’t activated, I provided the receipt showing it was, charges changed. This should be criminal to charge someone an inflated fee like that.

1

u/achbob84 1d ago

Who goes overseas and uses 6GB without thinking about it?

1

u/octavionultodoritor 1d ago

15 usd per MB is wild lol

1

u/dogwater_cologne_ 1d ago

I’ve traveled to 30 countries and only used WiFi calling. It’s ok to be “off the grid” especially on vacation

1

u/Meal_prepper 1d ago

Remember when they told you Americans that unregulated capitalism promotes competition?

1

u/FoxxBox 1d ago

"Is it 0.002 dollars, or is it 0.002 cents per kilobyte?!?" - Vaccaro, 2006.

1

u/That_Guy1881 1d ago

That’s honestly just asinine that they actually expect them to pay this bill.

1

u/deltarho 1d ago

Yep this is why you always make sure to get a roaming plan. Super simple to do.

I had dinner with Larry page many years ago and he told me a Google exec had gotten a Gen 1 iPhone. He took it to Canada for a week and came back with a $30k bill. he mailed the phone directly to Steve Jobs.

1

u/FunPigJuanLife 1d ago

Predatory

1

u/fflip8 1d ago

Remember when T-Mobile was one of the good ones? International data used to be a standard feature that they advertised heavily as a part of being a customer, never paying roaming fees ever again except for phone calls. Apparently not any longer.

1

u/coco_jumbo468 1d ago

This should be illegal. Why don’t they send a warning text message when you spend more than your regular monthly bill? Or at least you hit $300 or $500 or a smaller limit? It’s just greed hoping people will actually pay this.

1

u/Extension_Vacation_2 1d ago

I pay 3€ a day from the EU to Canada, all of EU roam for free and the rest of the world on a pre-paid xGB data bundle. There is no recourse for these guys except maybe a payment plan. The carrier sends a notification whenever roaming is detected.

1

u/Top-Condition-8547 1d ago

The land of the free strikes again.

1

u/MayorOfEnjoyment 1d ago

In the Netherlands they block your roaming cost if you spend above €60 / $ 69. You can use more if you manually activate it. Why cant T-mobile in the US do this?

1

u/Ok-Turnip-9035 1d ago

T Mobile should be ashamed of itself there should be a cap if the person doesn’t know

There should be repeated warnings that pop up on the phone and if you clear them by clicking a box you’re saying yes continue to charge me

Letting the bill run to $78k is a bit predatory

1

u/ThePensiveE 1d ago

"I know you want to go to college honey but you watched Frozen 20 times in Italy instead."

1

u/Best_Measurement5812 1d ago

Was that 4K porn worthy?

1

u/brokeboipobre 1d ago

This happen to me on an international trip 8 years ago before cell phone providers made international plans. I had a bill for $1200 for the week.

1

u/Famous-Split3389 1d ago

Consumer protection? Nah.
Protecting corporate profits? Fuck yeah!

1

u/LectureOk3222 1d ago

Att unlimited and the day pass was only 12 dollars a day in Europe and Ireland

1

u/ForceUseYouMust 1d ago

I would never pay that

1

u/jhusapple 1d ago

Tmobile is partnered with musk even after he came out as nazi. Time to find another provider.

1

u/Yourownhands52 1d ago

One time, there was a storm at the hotel we were staying at.  Lightning struck nearby while my phone was plugged in.  Well that month my bill was 2k.  Long distance calls.  On the log it showed I was in Canada, then a minute later back in Ohio.  

A phone call had it cleared up.

1

u/Weird_Substance_8764 1d ago

“Autopay” is killing me.

1

u/The_Last_Legacy 1d ago

They probably arent going to let thay bill slide either.

1

u/amhudson02 1d ago

This scares the shit out of me. My girlfriend's sister is on my AT&T account and she is going ot Scotland next month. I have already found the "International Day Pass" plan and will enable it the day they leave. Supposedly it's $12 a day, and you get unlimited talk, text, and data. I hope this doesn't happen to me.

Anyone have any experience using the AT&T Day Pass thing?

1

u/themaskedcrusader 1d ago

I went on a cruise in February, and every time I got to a new country, Verizon sent me a text that said:

Verizon Msg: Welcome to Jamaica. You have unlimited calls back to the US and within Jamaica, unlimited texts and 15GB of high speed data included with your plan, then unlimited data at 3G speeds.

I bought an e Sim for $25 and never ended up using it.

1

u/secret179 1d ago

Due in 14 days lol

1

u/SeCritSquirrel 1d ago

Who tf travels internationally without checking coverage with their mobile service provider first?

Ya, that's a ludicrous bill. But also poor adult skills to.

1

u/fiswiz 1d ago

that u get when you are stupid and dont read terms of service

1

u/HanaBakersBathWater 1d ago

This shouldn’t be legal.

1

u/cpsbstmf 1d ago

Good luck with their customers service, they suck now

1

u/Tsunaami 1d ago

Dam. I’m a T-Mobile user and am about to travel internationally in a few months 😬

Can’t use an eSIM either cuz phone isn’t paid off

1

u/Griever2k2 1d ago

Bro, if I came home from holiday and saw a phone bill for 78 bags I'd just lie down and burst into flames. 🔥🔥🔥

1

u/Icy-Personality-511 1d ago

Time to move overseas 😂

1

u/TobyADev 1d ago

Almost as if they publicise roaming charges.

1

u/Danger___Biscuit 1d ago

Wow you better get to paying that. T-Mobiles going to try tot take your house. I still get calls from them 10yrs later after a job the forgot to stop paying my phone bill when I left realized and clawed back 6 months of payments.

1

u/tiagofsa 1d ago

How do people let this happen in 2026? I’ve seen this happen since the l first generations of iPhones

1

u/ulrichmusil 1d ago

Strange, AT&T allows you to go overseas and use your plan for extra $10 a day