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Her SIM card was out, her home eSIM was not: a EUR 900 bill from Australia
A German consumer centre has published a case of calls billed on an eSIM the traveller thought was gone. Two protections did not catch it.
A family in Lower Saxony was billed more than EUR 900 for calls in Australia on a German eSIM their daughter did not know was active, the consumer centre Verbraucherzentrale Niedersachsen said on 2 October.
She had bought a local Australian SIM and taken the German SIM card out, expecting to call only on the local line. The consumer centre thinks the German number was converted to an eSIM when she set up a new phone. Some phones offer a quick transfer during setup that turns a physical SIM into an eSIM, without the provider having to be involved. Taking the card out changed nothing.
Two protections missed. Australia is outside EU roaming, so the provider's own non-EU prices applied. And the EU's EUR 50 cost cap covers mobile data only, not calls. The contract promised a warning text at EUR 150 a month, and the consumer centre says none arrived.
What it means in practice: when you add a second line abroad, check which lines are active, not which cards are in the phone. Your phone's SIM or mobile settings list every line, eSIMs included. Choose the line for calls yourself, because labels such as "Primary" or "SIM 1" are easy to misread, the consumer centre warns.
A SimFuse eSIM works the other way round. It carries data only and is paid once upfront, so there is no bill at home. Set it as your line for mobile data, turn off data roaming on your home line, and your home SIM stays in the phone for calls and WhatsApp.
Already holding a bill like this? The consumer centre's advice is to dispute it within eight weeks, ask for an itemised bill and a technical check, and keep screenshots of your phone's SIM settings.
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