Forum Discussion

LesleyC_1438579's avatar
LesleyC_1438579
SMARTY Maverick
12-03-2023
Solved

Switzerland charges

I travel to France very close to the Swiss border every few months. I’m confused by the text message I get from Smarty when I unknowingly connect to a Swiss provider - it contradicts itself. Is it fr...
  • MSF's avatar
    12-03-2023

    The problem here is that Switzerland is not one of the EU countries as far as the network is concerned.

    When your phone connects to a Swiss network, you will need to pay for all use from credit that you put onto your account i.e. your standard Smarty plan will not work. If you connect to a French network, you will be able to use EU roaming i.e. use your standard Smarty plan for calls, texts and data (12Gb limit while roaming though).

    The price guide: https://cdn.smarty.co.uk/files/SMARTY-Price-Guide.pdf shows on p18 & p19 that usage in Switzerland costs 2p per Mb of data and 10p per minute to make a call back to UK or in Switzerland. While on a Swiss network, calling anywhere else e.g. France will cost 40p per min. Receiving calls while on the Swiss network will not cost you.

    One possible solution may be to stop the 'automatic network' on your phone and change to a manual connection to only the strongest French network. Thus would keep calls, texts and data within EU roaming on your standard Smarty plan.

    Phew!! It is a bit complicated, but a quick read of the Price Guide should sort it for you hopefully.