Ever been overseas and returned home to find your mobile phone bill is as expensive as your plane ticket? You’re not alone. You may get a chance to have your say on what the telcos should do to stop bill shock and curb the excessively high data roaming charges which can see you in debt and threaten your credit rating in a new public consultation seeking to lift the telco industry.

By Graham Doessel, Founder and CEO of MyCRA Credit Rating Repair www.fixmybadcredit.com.au, https://www.facebook.com/FixMyBadCredit.com.au.

The Government is welcoming public consultation on new standards to help Australians avoid bill shock while using their mobile phone overseas.

As part of new guidelines for Telcos, set out through the new Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will begin consultation on developing an industry standard to help Australians best receive timely information about international roaming costs when they travel.

Minister for Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, said in a media release late last week that Australian consumers are being price gouged by telecommunications companies every time they want to make a mobile call, send a text or go online, when overseas.

“The industry standard will be an important transparency measure. People will receive clear information about pricing, allowing them to better manage their spending and avoid bill shock.

“We also expect that the extra scrutiny provided by the standard will encourage telecommunications companies to reduce their obscenely high prices and give consumers a better deal when they travel.”

“I encourage everyone to have their say during this public consultation, which ends on 25 January,” Mr Conroy said.

Here’s what the current draft standard proposes:

A traveller receives two SMS messages when they switch on their phone when arriving overseas. The first would be sent within 10 minutes, warning the customer that extra charges will apply and allowing them to switch off international mobile roaming services.

The second would arrive within 1 hour and must detail the cost for a standard call, an SMS, and 1Mb of data.

The standard also requires mobile phone companies to develop cost effective monitoring tools for consumers to use when they travel overseas.

The new standard is expected to be in operation by the middle of next year.

In the past, we have found many times the telco customer has had difficulty disputing their phone charges before they are issued with a credit default. These credit listings can be hard to fight. Often the customer will say what they had first understood the plan to be for, or what they wanted the phone to do, was not what eventuated. This can come down to a he-said she-said situation, and the telcos – with all the power on their side can often come out on top.

As credit repairers we see many telco customers for various reasons – in fact almost 26% of our credit repair clients have telco credit listings they need removed. Many complain of confusion over bills, date allowance and plans and also difficulties with resolving disputes – which see customers with bad credit even though they had been attempting to sort out the bill discrepancy.

The multitude of official complaints in the area of ‘bill shock’ resulted in a major inquiry by the ACMA and the report – Reconnecting the Customer. This examined the root causes of the industry’s poor customer service and complaints-handling performance. The telco industry was asked to regulate or be regulated – and so the TCP Code was developed by the Communications Alliance (CA), and a final draft was registered in late July.

That TCP Code came into effect on 1 September 2012. If the code proves to be effective, there will be significant positive changes for telco customers. This public consultation and is one such proposed change coming to fruition.

So get in and have your say,

ACMA public consultation: http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_600133