On Universal Credit? How you can save £100s on your summer phone bill
But with many major mobile networks reintroducing expensive daily roaming charges for using your phone in Europe, the cost of a simple holiday can quickly spiral.
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For a family of four, a two-week trip could add £100s in roaming fees alone.
However, a little-known secret could save you a fortune.
If you're receiving Universal Credit or other benefits, you could be eligible for a special 'social tariff' on your mobile plan, slashing your monthly costs and letting you use your phone abroad for free.
These 'social' or 'essential' tariffs offer the same service as regular packages but at a significantly lower price.
They typically come with no long-term contracts, a guarantee of no mid-contract price hikes, and two of the three providers even include free roaming in Europe.
For example, O2's Essential Plan costs just £10 a month and gives you 10GB of data with unlimited calls and texts.
Crucially, you can use up to 10GB of that data in the EU at no extra cost.
The plan is a flexible 30-day deal, with no upfront costs or price rises.
Meanwhile, SMARTY's Social Tariff provides unlimited data, calls, and texts for £12 a month.
For holidaymakers, it includes EU roaming with a generous 12GB data cap.
Easy ways to slash your mobile bill
Like O2's offer, it's a flexible one-month plan with no annual price rises.
Choosing one of these tariffs means you can avoid the daily roaming charges now levied by most major networks since Brexit.
Many providers, including EE, Three, and Vodafone, may charge around £2 to £2.57 per day to use your UK allowance in Europe.
That could add up to £35 to your bill for a two-week holiday.
Providers like EE and Voxi also offer social tariffs, but be aware that their roaming policies may include extra charges.
To apply, simply contact your chosen provider.
They will ask for some basic information and carry out a quick, confidential check with the Department for Work and Pensions to confirm your eligibility before setting up your plan.
The regulator, Ofcom, provides a comprehensive list of all the available social tariffs on its website.
Before switching mobile plans, check if you're still in contract to avoid high exit fees.
Over 33million people are out of contract, according to Uswitch, so it's worth checking if you can upgrade or switch to avoid paying more than necessary.
To check your contract status, text "INFO" followed by your date of birth (DDMMYY) to 85075.
You'll get a text confirming if you'd need to pay an early termination fee.
These fees only apply if you're still in contract.
If no fee is mentioned, you're likely out of contract and free to switch.
Which mobile networks don't charge roaming fees?
Asda
Asda will let you roam for free in 46 European countries.
You don't need to tell Asda if you're going away, you can simply carry on texting, calling and streaming as you would at home.
However, customers a have a data roaming limit of up to 5GB so make sure you don't go over.
After this, usage will cost 10p per MB. The provider says it will let you know when you reach 80% and 100% of your data limit.
BT Mobile
BT Mobile's 'Roam Like Home' offering lets its customers roam for free in 47 destinations.
You can use your mobile plan allowance to use data, make calls and send texts back to the UK as well as to receive calls and texts for free when you're roaming in these zones.
GiffGaff
GiffGaff plans can be used in the EU and some other destinations at no extra cost.
However, there is a cap of 5GB and if you go over it'll cost 10p/MB.
If you're a pay as you go customer, the provider will charge you at the usual UK rates.
iD Mobile
Roaming comes as standard on all iD mobile phone and SIM only plans.
Customers can use their UK monthly allowances of minutes, text and data in 50 destinations worldwide up to 30GB.
Lebara
Lebara customers can use UK plan allowances while roaming in the EU or India for no extra cost.
There is a fair use cap of up to 30GB on the unlimited data plan.
O2
O2 is the only major network provider that has not brought back roaming charges.
If you're travelling in what it calls its 'Europe Zone' which covers more than 40 destinations, you can call text or use data like you would in the UK and for no extra cost.
There is a cap of 25GB.
Smarty
Smarty lets its customers roam in the EU for no extra costs. If your plan includes calls and texts, they'll also work as usual.
However, there's a cap on data of up to 12GB.
Talkmobile
Talkmobile offers free EU roaming to countries in a list of 'zone A' destinations.
This includes France, Spain, Portugal and other popular European spots.
Outside of these zone A countries, you'll be subjected to charges.
You can check the list of countries covered by zone A on its website at talkmobile.co.uk.
There is a fair usage of 5GB or 15GB depending on when you became a customer.
Tesco Mobile
Tesco Mobile has once again extended its free roaming offer until 2026.
That means that you can use your text, call, and data allowances at no extra cost in 48 destinations
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We feel this massive solar farm will engulf this village, swallow it up and it will not have any benefit for the village in any way despite any promises being suggested.' The 68-mile British leg of the sacred route stretches from Reading to Southampton before restarting in the Pyrenees and eventually finishing in northwestern Spain. Monk Sherborne has a rich history, first getting a mention in the Domesday Book, and Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Louis later rented a house there. Concerns have also been raised about how the plant will affect the village's local wildlife, including skylarks, hares, owls and badgers. Company director Bryony Crowther, 51, said: 'This is just an unbelievable proposal for this little village. It's removing active farmland and the tenant farmer will not be able to farm it. 'It's a foreign company using panels imported from China with all of the associated carbon footprint, needing over 4km of 3m high fencing, many tons of concrete and digging up the road in Monk Sherborne to connect to the site at Morgaston Road. 'Nothing against solar per se, but this is not the right village to destroy by putting up a solar farm in it which is bigger nearly than the entire village itself. Please, please see sense and help protect our English villages and communities. 'There is plenty of land available to use which would not have as destructive an effect on a village which is meant to be conserved for our future generations.' Monk Sherborne Parish Council's objection letter stated: 'While we acknowledge the role of renewable energy in meeting national sustainability targets, this proposal is unsuitable for its intended location due to the significant and lasting harm it would cause to the local landscape, ecology, and heritage assets. 'This proposal represents an unacceptable intrusion into a nationally valued landscape, with serious implications for biodiversity, agricultural land use, and heritage conservation. 'The cumulative harm outweighs any perceived local benefit of renewable energy generation in this instance.' The planning, design and access statement said: 'Careful site selection has been undertaken in order to ensure that an efficient, technically and economically viable solar farm can be developed without causing significant adverse environmental impacts.' A spokesperson for Solar2 said: 'Viewed within the context of the climate emergency, energy security, environmental degradation, and growing risks to UK food production, this proposal is a necessary and urgent response. Many complaints mention St James's Way. The 68-mile British leg of the sacred route stretches from Reading to Southampton before restarting in the Pyrenees and eventually finishing in northwestern Spain 'Solar farms are one of the few scalable, immediate tools we have to tackle these interconnected crises. 'We believe the need for projects such as Stokes Lane Solar Farm outweigh their minimal and localised impacts-a view that we explain consistently through our engagement strategy. 'This is not just about energy generation-it's about resilience, decarbonisation, and leaving future generations with a liveable planet.' Queen's College, Oxford has been approached for comment.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
We live under Britain's most complex motorway junction...the constant noise and smog is awful - but there are upsides
For motoring enthusiasts, the Gravelly Hill Interchange has become an unlikely tourist attraction in recent years, with guided tours held beneath its bridges. Known more commonly as Spaghetti Junction, its the UK's most complex motorway junction and gets its infamous nickname from its unique, tangled design. The interchange, which connects Birmingham to the M6, has become a vital route for those travelling out of the city and sees more than 200,000 vehicles including almost 26,000 lorries passing through it every day. But while for most, their only interaction with the junction will be travelling through it on their commute, the experience is entirely different for those residents who live underneath the notorious labyrinth of bridges. There is no escaping the noise from the endless stream of traffic and the smog from vehicles constantly fill up the air. When the Daily Mail visited neighbouring streets on Tuesday, the smoke was so heavy you could almost taste it. But residents told of how they love living beneath the junction, with one even joking 'there is nothing wrong with a bit of soot in your lungs'. Terry Hopper, 64, has lived beneath the junction on Lichfield Road for 30 years and owns an engineering site a few doors down. One of the junction's many busy roads runs above from where he stands in his front garden as he speaks to the Daily Mail. He said: 'Yes it's noisy but it's a bit like living near an airport, you get used to it. 'But it is quieter at night time, and it's good, you've got the motorway one side and got the canal at the back of our home. 'We've lived here 30 years now so we're used to the noise, we can hardly hear it. 'And we've got double glazing so you can't hear it at all if you've got your windows closed. It's not a problem. 'I think it's absolutely brilliant living just here. 'Anywhere I want to go, I can go. The motorway is right here, I can get the M6 down to London, up north, down to Cornwall.' He added: 'The pollution can be quite bad at times, all the smog off the motorway. 'But there's nothing wrong with a bit of soot in your lungs. 'It doesn't affect my health or nothing, it doesn't.' Across the maze-like junction on Minstead Road, father Olly Bradley echoed Mr Hopper's views. The 58-year-old told the Daily Mail: 'We've been here for more than 30 years and we're used to it. 'It's a good location. You can walk from here to the city centre in under an hour. 'When I moved here at the time with my little boy, my dad who was a dentist was worried about pollution here especially for my son. 'I wasn't particularly worried but it did make me think about it. 'But it's not been an issue. If you start worrying about that you've got to start worrying about all sorts of malarkey and you'll never be able to do anything. A view of houses on Lichfield Road which sits under the junction. Residents said the 'pollution can be bad' but one joked 'there is nothing wrong with a bit of soot in your lungs' 'Here, you've got easy access to everywhere, like my brother lives in Bearwood and he had to drive all the way round to get here, but for me I can get around easily. 'My mother-in-law lives in Newquay and the motorway is right here so it's just straight down, it's very handy. 'I can still remember when it was being built, I was only a few years old.' For some however, despite being so closely located to the motorway, they still felt the noise was 'awful'. One father who was loading his children into the car told: 'It's awful. 'Too much noise and smog. It's constant noise.' Bash, whose house directly looks over at the pillars beneath the bridge, said: 'We've lived here since 2003. 'I still find it very, very noisy. 'It's not good.' Joe Quinn, who has lived at his house by the junction for the majority of his life, says the area has gotten worse since the interchange was constructed. The 63-year-old said: 'I lived here before it was built. It's all changed, it's gotten worse. 'There were houses all across there, they were all demolished. 'It used to be family community, now all the remaining houses are all rented out. 'There's only a few of the original ones here. 'The junction didn't make it any better, put it that way. 'All it is is druggies down here, I take no notice now. 'There's a lot of it about, you don't see it all, they drive up here and do their deals. 'There's a very big change compared to 50 years ago. There used to be two-way traffic. 'The petrol garage there was a pub.' 'I have to go somewhere else for a pint now', he joked. The junction, which was opened in 1972 after 160 houses, a block of flats and the Erdington Arms pub were demolished to make way, is among the most well-known interchanges in the country. It was central to the Midland Links project designed to connect the M1, M5, and M6 motorways. Tour companies began running guided walking tours beneath the junction last year, with tourists paying £13.50 for a 1 hour and 45 minute experience exploring the canals, rivers and parks that lay under the bridges. Marites Tabiolo, 62, has lived beside the junction for 13 years. While she struggled to fall asleep when she first moved to the area, she says she is now, like many other residents, 'used to' the noise. She said: 'It is noisy at times. 'But I've lived here for 13 years. I'm used to it. 'At the beginning I could not sleep because it was noisy, and it gets busy even during the night. 'But it's quite nice, at the back we've got the canal. 'And I just find it safer. It's always quite bright, you have cars going past, and we've got CCTV round here. 'It is rare for something to happen here. I think it is safer because my colleagues who live in the centre say there people burn their bins and stuff like that. 'People have access there, no one really comes up here. There's no access at the back and people don't really come up this way.' Another man on Minstead Road, Gerry, told the Daily Mail said there was a lot of 'dangerous driving' in the area in the evenings. He said: 'The noise itself isn't too bad, you get used to it. 'But in the evening you get stupid drivers, people driving at 50mph into the pavement. 'There's a lot of dangerous driving. 'And it's getting rough here and you at night you can hear police sirens driving past.' While the surrounding street by the junction are predominantly home to garages and businesses, Minstead Road, Copeley Hill, and Lichfield Road have houses which sit beneath the interchange. Tamika John, 35, said from an off-road from Copeley Hill: 'It's not bad at all really. 'It's not noisy inside my house, I can only hear noises when big trucks beep their horns. 'The pollution can be bad but it's just Birmingham, pollution is everywhere. 'I like being so close to the motorway, it's easy to get to places. 'The motorway goes straight to London, and then north or south as well. 'I've lived here since 2017, I didn't really mind it then either.'
