With eighty five percent of the UK population now owning a mobile phone, the MaxSIM.co.uk survey reveals that the 16mn UK holiday-makers who are expected to use their phone abroad are at risk of running up phone bills of up to six times higher than necessary and overpaying by more than £800mn. Of those people who used their phone overseas, a third admitted to not knowing what they pay for calls or texts made when abroad, with 73% stating that they changed their communication habits, sending texts instead of making calls to help manage prohibitive overseas call charges. The survey revealed that 83% of overseas mobile users make up to 10 calls per day, with 67% receiving up to 10 calls per day. The average number of calls made and received per day is four, with this number rising to seven for those aged 18-24. Based on an average user going out to Germany for a 7 day holiday, making two two-minute calls each day and receiving two two-minute calls per day, they will typically run up a bill of £42 on a prepaid Vodafone1 tariff, a staggering £55.44 with O22, but just £7.88 if they had used MaxSIM, a saving of 85% compared to O2.

Based on the results of the survey, MaxSIM have calculated that an expected 16.1mn people are set to use their phone abroad this year and, based on average calls made and received over a one week period on a pre-paid tariff for Germany, the nation's international phone bill could be as high as £1bn with O22, compared to £134mn with MaxSIM - a saving of more than £800mn. MaxSIM is a prepaid mobile phone service that enables users to make calls abroad with their existing handset without incurring expensive charges. Users simply purchase a MaxSIM SIM card, compatible with many handsets, load the credit needed and they can then make cheap mobile phone calls in over 115 countries worldwide and receive calls free in more than 65 countries including the UK.
www.maxsim.co.uk