If you’re planning a leisurely cruise around the Mediterranean or even further afield, such as The Caribbean, then take care when using your mobile phone on board to call or send photos back home to family and friends. Cruise liners now actively promote their own network services available on board for making calls, or using mobile data, but they come at a hefty premium – as much as £2.00 per min to make a call and as much as £10.00pMB for mobile data.

The simplest way to avoid these huge charges is to make sure that you don’t locate the cruise ship network when using your device. If the cruise ship network is located then it’s effectively as if you were roaming in a different country and the price will be a lot more than you usually pay. Your device may find the network automatically, if you are at sea, but you can manually de-select it or simply switch off.

The best option is to adopt a global SIM card or a country specific SIM card for your destination, then make sure you use it when the ship is in dock, or when you disembark, so that you obtain a local network signal with reasonable rates. This way you can roam more cost effectively and still stay in touch. With a global SIM card call rates start at just 10p/min in many EU countries. However, it’s when you travel further afield to places like Barbados – normally call rates when roaming or on board ship can be £1.50-2.00p/min but with the global SIM you’ll pay just £0.60p/min.

For more details; www.0044.co.uk