bills

UK tourists have been told common errors can lead to boosting their phone bills when they’re abroad. To avoid the travel mishap, it’s wise to do a few things before you jet off

We all look forward to going on holiday but, as well as being enjoyable, it can be expensive, which is why it’s always handy to know how you can try and save on your phone bill. After all, most of us use our phones while we’re on holiday, but there are ways to ensure we don’t come home with growing bills.

Little you may know, there are some mistakes you likely make with your phone while travelling, but if you take action hefty bills can be avoided. Some travel tips have been shared to help people out, as nobody wants to come home to mounting bills to have to deal with after an already expensive trip.

With major networks having brought back EU roaming charges, and other travel destinations sitting outside standard roaming agreements, using your handset while overseas can prove seriously expensive. Fortunately some expert advice has been shared to help people out, as people often get stung by roaming charges abroad.

Take action before you leave

“Roaming policies vary,” explained Oleksii Pimenov, mobile data and SIM expert at global data eSIM provider SIMBUSTER. “The best way to protect yourself is to check what your plan actually includes before you travel. Don’t rely on the ‘new customer’ ads.”

Oleksii pointed out that some UK plans still include EU roaming, while others charge a daily fee of up to £2.50. Beyond Europe, that charge can climb to as much as £8 per day, which adds up rapidly.

Accidents happen

The most infuriating thing about daily roaming is that on most networks, an accidental search when the hotel’s Wi-Fi drops out can trigger a full day’s roaming fee. According to the expert, ten accidental days during a fortnight adds up to £25 squandered on absolutely nothing – or £80 if you happen to be in Egypt or anywhere else beyond the EU.

With EE, out-of-plan data abroad can set you back £13.90 per gigabyte, according to Oleksii, though the cost varies depending on where you are. For context, downloading a film can eat up 2GB and streaming a live football match would gobble up even more!

“If you’re not using a travel SIM, switch off data roaming and background app refresh until you actually need them,” advised Oleksii. “It can save you more than you think.”

eSIMS may help

If your phone supports eSIMs, it’s another smart way to slash costs. Rather than shelling out for an overpriced SIM at the airport, you can download and activate an eSIM before leaving home, giving you affordable data the instant you land.

“With an eSIM, you know exactly what you’re paying upfront, and you can have everything ready before you even board the plane,” explained Oleksii.

What’s more, if you’re visiting multiple countries, you can get an eSIM that covers a whole region – Europe, for instance – rather than a single country SIM.

Preparation is key

A bit of forward planning can also make a real difference in reducing expenses. Download everything you need – maps, children’s entertainment, music – before you leave.

Hotel Wi-Fi isn’t always reliable enough for hefty downloads and, if you’ve already got everything saved on your phone or tablet, you won’t need to worry about it.

Tips for cruise lovers

Cruise and ferry passengers also need to be vigilant. Maritime mobile networks operate separately from standard roaming, and the charges can be eye-watering.

“Unless you can use the ship’s Wi-Fi, I’d always recommend switching your phone to Airplane Mode while at sea,” added Oleksii.

Extra advice

If you do replace your UK SIM for travel purposes, you risk missing vital messages, including bank verification codes or unexpected calls. By keeping your UK SIM active alongside a data eSIM, you won’t miss anything important.

And, if you travel to a specific destination frequently, whether for work or pleasure, it’s often far more sensible to get a virtual local number.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Noah Goldberg and David Zahniser, with an assist from Melissa Gomez and Connor Sheets, giving you the latest on city and county government.

The city of Los Angeles will shell out $120,000 for outside lawyers to fight a lawsuit filed by a councilmember challenging an ethics fine.

On Wednesday, the City Council voted unanimously to hire the law firm Hecker Fink LLP to represent the city’s Ethics Commission as it defends its decision to fine Councilmember John Lee $138,000 for allegedly violating city gift laws during a notorious 2017 trip to Las Vegas. Lee recused himself from the vote.

The city attorney’s office has said it can’t represent the Ethics Commission in Lee’s lawsuit because of a conflict of interest.

Lee was chief of staff to then-Councilmember Mitchell Englander when the two were plied with meals and alcohol, as well as hotel stays and gambling chips, by people seeking business with the city.

Lee, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley, has claimed that he made a good faith effort to pay his own way. At a nearly $2,500 dinner that included Kobe beef, Maine lobster, Peking duck and sea bass, the only thing he ate was a spoonful of bird’s nest soup, he said at a hearing in his ethics case.

In 2020, Englander pleaded guilty to a single count of providing false information to the FBI and was sentenced to 14 months in prison. Three years later, he agreed to pay $79,830 to settle an Ethics Commission case focused on his own gift law violations.

The commission levied the fine against Lee in December, finding that he committed two counts of violating the city’s law against accepting gifts above a certain value, three counts of violating a law requiring that such gifts be disclosed to the public and five counts of misusing his city position.

David Tristan, the Ethics Commission’s executive director, had asked the council to provide at least $120,000 to defend against Lee’s lawsuit.

Lee declined to comment on the vote. In his lawsuit, he claimed that the statute of limitations had expired on the matters that were investigated by the Ethics Commission. He also accused the commission of overvaluing the share of gifts he partook in.

Lee is seeking to get the fine overturned.

More churn in the Karen Bass campaign

Turns out the shakeup in Mayor Karen Bass’ campaign did not end with the departure of Douglas Herman, her top strategist.

Herman told The Times on Wednesday that he stepped down due to “strategic differences” over the Nov. 3 runoff campaign against City Councilmember Nithya Raman. Bass’ team said on the same day that they had replaced him with Julie Chávez Rodriguez, who was campaign manager for the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris presidential campaigns in 2024.

A day later, political consultant Larry Grisolano confirmed that he too is no longer with the Bass reelection effort. His company, Thematic Campaigns, had been providing media and digital strategy.

On Friday, Berkeley-based research consultant Mike Rice told The Times that his firm, VR Research, had also left the Bass campaign, effective Wednesday. He declined to comment further.

Bass campaign spokesperson Alex Stack declined to discuss the departures. Asked if the campaign is in disarray, he said no, adding that Chávez Rodriguez’s hiring “is a really big get for us.”

“We’re getting a lot of positive feedback,” Stack said.

Still waiting on eviction defense contracts

In March, it appeared that a battle between City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto and the nonprofit running L.A.’s eviction defense program was over.

At the time, Feldstein Soto said she had concerns over awarding funds to the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, which has sued the city successfully over homelessness issues on multiple occasions. Feldstein Soto argued that contracts should not be awarded without rigorous reports and invoice review from Legal Aid and other nonprofits.

The City Council awarded the contracts anyway, funding the initial portion of a three-year, $177-million deal for Legal Aid and three other nonprofits to provide eviction defense, short-term rental assistance, tenant outreach and more as part of the city’s Stay Housed L.A. program.

But months later, Feldstein Soto’s office still hasn’t executed the contracts, frustrating tenants rights advocates and the nonprofits, which are struggling to pay their staff without the funds from the city.

“We’ve been really in a state of purgatory for over a year,” said Mike Dennis, senior director of housing justice at the Liberty Hill Foundation, which does tenant outreach as part of the city’s program.

Dennis said the failure to execute the contracts has created planning and operational uncertainty for the community-based organizations that Liberty Hill works with. Soon, some of them may face serious issues.

“We’re quickly approaching a point where the organizations are not going to keep being able to pay staff and absorb those costs,” he said. “The longer this goes on, the more likely we are to see contractions in the work.”

Earlier this month, Councilmember Ysabel Jurado put forward a motion asking the city attorney to explain why the contracts have not been executed. Jurado said the delay has left $17 million in funds unused.

“At the same time, the selected contractors struggle to maintain staffing without this funding, placing services for those at risk of homelessness in jeopardy,” she wrote in the June 2 motion.

Feldstein Soto argued in a June 15 response that Legal Aid has failed to agree to the “accountability and reporting requirements” needed to execute the contracts. She said those requirements were designed to make sure that taxpayer funds are spent properly.

“This office will continue to work with proposed contractors until the concerns are sufficiently addressed,” she said in a statement.

State of play

— UNHAPPY MEMORIES: Bass was out of town when the Boyle Heights warehouse fire erupted, which is giving voters a fresh reminder of her absence at the start of the Palisades fire. The situation could have an impact on her reelection campaign against Raman.

— HEADING TO THE BALLOT: A half-cent sales tax hike that would generate $345 million annually for the Los Angeles Fire Department will go before voters in the Nov. 3 election. The measure has been spearheaded by the city’s firefighter union, which gathered the signatures to qualify it for the ballot.

— D.A. DENIED: A judge has rejected Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman’s request to freeze payments in the $4-billion sex abuse settlement approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The ruling boots Hochman from his brief stint in a civil courtroom as he moves forward with his criminal investigation into lawyers, recruiters and medical practitioners who may have submitted fraudulent claims.

— SOCIALIST SURGE: L.A.’s democratic socialists are looking to expand their power at City Hall yet again, setting their sights on the races for mayor and city attorney. Raman and city attorney hopeful Marissa Roy, both members of the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, are heading into the runoff after strong showings in the June 2 primary. (DSA-LA endorsed Roy but not Raman in the primary.)

— A BLOWOUT ELECTION: Property owners across the city voted overwhelmingly against increasing the assessment they pay to maintain streetlights. City leaders had hoped to use the funds — an additional $80 million a year — to speed up repairs and upgrade the city’s 225,000 streetlights.

— CLEARING THE LAND: Overgrown lots razed by the Eaton and Palisades fires pose an increasing wildfire threat to surrounding properties. The county Board of Supervisors recently passed a motion calling on county departments to develop a plan to clear vegetation in Altadena and Sunset Mesa.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to combat homelessness went to the area around the Wiltern Theatre in Koreatown this week. The area is represented by Councilmember Heather Hutt.
• On the docket next week: On Tuesday, the council takes up a package of ballot measures that would rewrite the City Charter. The changes cover topics such as voting rights for noncitizens, expanded park funding and City Council oversight of policies at the Los Angeles Police Department.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

HANGING up the phone after her landlord told her he’d be selling her home, Melanie Bentley-Moore looked out at the pouring rain and decided to leave the UK.

The mum-of-one, from Manchester, has now packed her bags to move across the world. Her rent will be half of what she pays back home, and she can eat out for just £1 a meal.

“I got a call from my landlord saying he’s selling, and I said, ‘Do you know what? I’m just going to leave the UK,’” Melanie, 33, tells the Sun.

“I’m scared, but obviously I’m doing it anyway.”

She has booked flights to Thailand in early September, and is staying at a friend’s house until then.

Explaining why she’s so desperate to move overseas, Melanie explained how Asia is much more affordable than the UK.

“Petrol, energy, food, you notice the food goes up in price; however, they decreased the packaging sizes,” she says.

There, she explains, she will be paying significantly less rent, with a “really nice apartment” costing around £400 a month, compared to the £750 she pays at home, and an evening meal just £1.

Melanie left the UK in 2017 to travel around Asia, using Vietnam as her main base.

But she returned to the UK two years later because she was missing chip shops and Nando’s.

Then her son Antares was born in 2020, and she decided to stay.

But astrologist Melanie claims she has wanted to “get back out there” ever since.

And she has slammed those who also yearn to leave the UK for sunnier shores, but just “talk” about it, and never move.

She has now sold all her belongings, and she and her son will be jetting off to Asia to live their “best lives”.

“Here it feels like we’re surviving; however, I know in Asia, where I’m heading, I’d be able to thrive instead,” she says.

“I wouldn’t get anxiety paying for a food shop, the contrast is massive.

“Your money goes a long way.

“I could stay on the beach somewhere, and it would cost half my rent.

“When I used to live in Vietnam, I wasn’t really doing food shops there because it’s so cheap to eat out. I was having my tea for £1.

“After looking now, it will be around £400 rent per month, that’s for a really nice apartment.”

But the cost of living isn’t the only reason she’s quitting the UK.

“The energy here just feels heavy, it’s dark,” she says.

“There’s no room to grow. The majority of people are miserable because of all the stuff that’s going on, the cost of living, everything’s rising.

“I just don’t feel alive here, and I think that’s not just a ‘me’ problem either; everyone that I’m speaking to just feels soulless.

“I’m just bored, I can’t live ‘Groundhog Day‘, I can’t just continue this way.

“Just hearing everyone else complain, that weakens my spirit.

“Most people are miserable, and they’re always complaining; it seeps into everything.

“It’s like an infinite cycle of ‘rinse and repeat’ complaining. It’s just a feeling, I just don’t feel alive. It sucks the soul out of me.”

Explaining how she chose her destination, Melanie says “I lived in Asia for two years, so I’m very familiar with that area of the world.

“I was only meant to go for three months, but I ended up staying out there for a couple of years, travelling around Asia.

“My main base was Vietnam, I did some English teaching out there and came back home because it’s something random, I really wanted chippy and Nando’s.”

According to the single mum, she also wants to show her son “real life”, and she prefers the values in Asia.

And she has taken Antares out of school, as she prefers education systems where children start school later.

Discussing how she believes the move will positively impact her son, she says: “I’m going to do some charity work and volunteering with him. There is no better learning than real life.

“He’s only five, I prefer the Scandinavian way.

“In Scandinavia, there’s a reason why their children are the happiest and most successful because they don’t start school till they’re seven.

“With the values and stuff, life’s just better over there. It’s slower, it’s sunny, the scenes are beautiful, and you realise there is so much more to life than what I’m used to. It’s a completely different culture as well.”

Melanie has also said that she wants people to “follow their hearts”.

“It’s no good talking, there’s a lot of talkers out there – I ‘do’.

“I refuse to stay here in a life of struggle and misery. The energy is dark, it’s always raining, it’s grey.”

“I feel so soulless and miserable in this place, and I’m not doing it anymore, and I thought f*** this.”

“Life is for living and feeling joy and love and wonder, I don’t feel any of that here.

“There is something about England energy-wise that is just so off.”

MILLIONS of families will be able to enjoy discount meals and days out this summer, the Chancellor announced today.

From June 25 to September 1 the Government is temporarily cutting the VAT on attractions and children’s meals in restaurants from 20% to just 5%.

The cut will apply to theme parks, zoos, museums, soft play, fairs and even cinema tickets.

The full list of businesses participating has not yet been announced but several major firms including Merlin Entertainments and Odeon Cinema have confirmed they will be taking part.

If a business chooses to pass on the full benefit then the total saving for a family of two adults and two children could be: 

• £20 off the family’s tickets to a theme park  
• £2 off entry to soft play  
• £6 off the family’s tickets to a farm attraction 
• £17 off the family’s tickets to a wildlife park
• £1.50 off the children’s tickets to the cinema 
• £9 off the family’s tickets to the circus 
• £2 off the children’s meals on a lunch out 
• £11 off the family’s tickets to the aquarium

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The Government said it expects qualifying businesses to pass these savings on to families by lowering the prices people pay on eligible children’s meals and tickets.

As a result, the VAT cut will be directly reflected at the till.

It added that passing on the full saving should help businesses attract more customers over the summer, which could increase footfall and support local economies.

The reduced rate will apply in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The plans are part of a package to help households with the cost of living.

Meanwhile, throughout August all children aged between five and 15 in England will be able to travel for free on any local bus service.

Among the attractions taking part are Alton Towers, Legoland Windsor, Warwick Castle and Cadbury World.

Fiona Eastwood, chief executive officer of Merlin Entertainments, said: “Merlin will be applying this VAT cut to both admission tickets and children’s meals, adding more value to days out and short breaks at our 20 UK attractions.”

Meanwhile, Mark Way, president AMC Europe & managing director at Odeon Cinema Groups, said: “We’re excited that our guests will be able to enjoy the big screen for less over this blockbuster summer.”

THE GREAT British break might not be so great very soon after it was announced that the overnight ‘holiday tax’ is set to be pushed forward.

Included in the King’s Speech was the dreaded new levy on staycations and one Butlin’s boss has hit back saying it will have big ‘consequences’ for families.

Follow The Sun’s award-winning travel team on Instagram and Tiktok for top holiday tips and inspiration @thesuntravel.

Plans to introduce the ‘Overnight Visitor Levy‘ for staycations in England was first announced late last year, and was spelled out again in the King’s Speech two days ago.

Essentially, the government’s plan is introduce levy overnight accommodation like hotels, B&Bs, campsites or holiday homes.

It would allow local authorities in England to charge visitors an additional fee on overnight stays which is similar to systems already used in parts of Europe.

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According to UK Hospitality, the new tax could add £100 to a two-week family stay based on £2 per person per night.  

Unsurprisingly, the plans have not been met with positivity.

Matt Rake who is a resort director at Butlin’s in Bognor Regis – said the tax would have “consequences”, especially for working families.

He said: “It’s disappointing that the government is pressing ahead with the holiday tax despite how clear businesses, consumers and the hospitality sector have been about the potential consequences.

“In the Spring, the government said families being able to pay for a holiday should never be too much to ask, yet today they’ve confirmed the introduction of a measure that will hurt working families hard.

“We know how important domestic tourism is for Bognor Regis and the local businesses here. Holidays and short breaks support jobs and investment across our community throughout the year.”

He added that in a recent poll, 73 per cent of people would reduce or cut back on holidays in England if extra costs were introduced.

The ‘holiday tax’ was formally announced in the Autumn Budget in November 2025.

And two hundred bosses from firms including Butlin’s, Haven and Parkdean Resorts have written to the Chancellor hitting out at the plans.