data roaming off, cell data off, yet being charged!!!

I've removed my sim chip which removed the cellular connection bars and the name of the unwanted carrier from the upper left corner of the screen on my iPhone 7. I think this could be a solution for the "unwanted carrier problem" should turning off cellular be not enough.

This is happening to me now with Vodafone ( Portugal to be specific). I currently on vacation in Bangkok and my phone is doing this, ALL data and roaming off.

15€ flew in 3 days, without making a single freaking call/text/data usage. It only stops charging when my SIM card has reached 0 of credit (prepaid), at least it doesn’t go negative.

I now understand that every time the phone boots, it tries to send a text message, probably related with iMessage ( even when desactivated) because I’m getting a warning saying that it’s not possible to send the message due to low credit. The same happens ocasional every 2/3 hours and also overnight.

Network suggests nothing except for a temporary block, which is not ideal if I want to pull data for an emergency.

Could this be related to the network selection option? Anyone else with this?

Ae you sure that you're not being charged the $4.99 to be allowed to roam at a lower cost? My carrier in the U.S. has a feature that costs about that much that will lower my voice/texting costs while traveling abroad. It's called the "International Value Plan". Data roaming is generally much, much more expensive than that.

If it's a feature, it should be something that Fido can turn off so that, the next time you travel abroad, and turn off all of your data, you won't be charged that. It sounds as if you may have to escalate this with Fido.

Best of luck.

I would tend to agree with Meg on this one. It doesn't sound like you're actually "using data" it sounds like you're on a plan that charges you a fixed rate when roaming for 'up to' a specific amount of data.

Eldor wrote:

Yes I'm sure.

I'm USING DATA even though everything that should be is turned off. And I'm being charged $4.99 for 50mb of data.

It sounds, again, as if you have a feature where, for $4.99, your carrier is allowing you 50 mb of data roaming, whether you use it or not. My carrier charges me $25/ 100 mg of data (if I request that feature) when I travel to Canada. I would be charged that $25 whether or not I used the data. I could turn the phone off and leave it at home and, if I had that feature on my account, would be charged for it in that billing period.

Sorry. Don't know what else to tell you. Next time you travel. After you turn off cellular data entirely, reset the usage statistics. Then, you can look under Settings>Cellular, and find out exactly what is using the data...

I can't think of how it could happen unless, maybe, if you've shut the phone off, when you turn it on, it uses some minuscule amount when you next turn it on before the setting to turn cell data off "kicks in"...

Obviously, that shouldn't happen.

Try: Settings>General>Reset>Reset Network Settings.

Test it.

If that fails, try Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings.

Test it.

If that fails, the next step would normally be to Restore iOS and restore the backup, but I have a feeling that will be a waste of time.

Restore iOS using iTunes on your computer. Set it up as a new device. Do NOT restore your backup.

Test it again. It's likely that whatever corruption has occurred is now resident in your backup as well.

If setting it up as new doesn't fix it, make an appointment at the genius bar. You can obviously replicate the problem for them.

I as well am a regular US traveler.

I spend 2 to 3 days a week in United States and every single time I travel with data roaming and cellular data switch to off I am charge 4.99 by Fido for data usage that I did not use or approve. nothing new to all of you on this forum. One discovery I do believe that I have made is that my in-laws who are also on Fido were down here with us and were not charged data roaming.

we all have iPhones we are all on Fido, however the two phones did did get charged for data roaming were UNLOCKED apple iPhones. The other two Fido phones that were not charged were iPhones locked to Fido.

Are the rest of you experiencing this problem using unlocked iPhones?

If so maybe were being punished by Fido or not giving them iPhone dollars.

One of our guests that were not charged just unlocked her iPhone this week. We will see if she gets charged for data charge when she comes here on her next visit.

by the way I just got off the phone with AppleCare and they told me that the data usage should be taken up with the carrier and that they are not doing anything to incur the data charges for me.

Other thing that I noticed is that this problem only started occurring for me when Fido introduce their new automatically charged data packages. Maybe fido's US partner thinks of these bogus charges as a new revenue stream that they can scam.

Fido has told me that I have exhausted my goodwill dollars in having these charges removed from my bill. I love that they are offering me Goodwill for a mistake on their part. For the meantime I now pull out my Fido Sim completely from the phone.

I now use a T-Mobile chip that cost $10 to purchase and only two dollars a day for unlimited calling texting and 200 MB of data. Which I am told is 200 MB at full speed then throttled after 200 so essentially unlimited.

Only thing with this solution is that I now lose iMessage connectivity to my Canadian number and cannot be phoned in an emergency from Canada On my normal phone number unless I forward those calls at a cost from Fido once again

sorry I know this post is long but I have been dealing with this for sometime now.

I must also mention that I have been incurring these data charges while on Wi-Fi at my US home and on my US Mobile hotspot on the Sprint network

you can see that I've done everything within my power to avoid Fido roaming charges yet they still seem to find a way to charge me.

I found out my next step is to contact the office of the president at Fido. If this resolves nothing then it's the ombudsman next.

I am having the exact same problem, since Sept 27th when I travel to the states I am charged $4.99 by Fido even when my Cellular data is turned off. i get a text message which says "Simply turn data roaming ON to activate..." followed by a text message which says "You're using data at our exclusive promo rate of $4.99/day...". this has happened on my last four trips to the states and each time I have to call Fido and tell them I am not paying for it. This only happens on my iphone6 but not my daughters iPhone5 who has accompanied me. I always have data roaming turned off and in the past (before iphone 6 and IOS8) I never had any issues nor did I have to turn my cellular data off only data roaming. I am really frustrated that every time I make a trip to the states I have to follow up with a call to Fido to dispute the charge. The last time I was charged the $4.99 my cell data was turned off and I never took my phone off of lock screen.

I've had the same problems as those listed above since September. However, Fido has reversed the charge every time I've called about it.

Today when I called FIDO about my latest invoice, I was told they have been having this issue since late September (likely caused by an iOS update) and it continued until Nov 16. If you call, they will review your data transfers on those days and if each transfer is under 4KB then they will consider it part of the "glitch" and credit you.

****The CSR who I just spoke with said they are supposed to be reviewing all the accounts and providing credits to those who qualify automatically but apparently they missed mine 😉.****

And update your iOS to 8.1.1 to hopefully fix the problem if you haven't already.

My iPhone6 is running IOS 8.1.1 however this happened again yesterday when I popped across the border.

After a long conversations with both Fido and Apple this is what I was told.

From Fido

- i am not turning off data roaming and cellular data correctly and/or my phone is still using data (ie: data leak)

- this is not automatic charge it triggers when my phone uses data via a cellular network

- in addition to turning both off I should also call Fido customer service before my trip and have them block data during my trip

- in addition to all the above I should reset my network settings before traveling across the border

- if can prove I did not use any data during my trip I will be refunded what I was charged, apple has to confirm this for me (according to Fido)

From Apple

- this is not the first issue they have had with Fido and data roaming

- there is no such thing as data leak, if cellular data is turned off my phone is restricted to Wifi only

- they confirmed I did not use any data on my visits across the border and gave me a verification letter to give to Fido (something they say Fido could have easily confirmed)

- the only step necessary to avoid data roaming and Fido charges is to turn off data roaming