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Virgin SMS cost

Is this the way roaming charges will go? According to its website, Virgin Mobile may charge to receive SMS when roaming (at the same cost as to send a roaming SMS). One of the few free communications in life is no more (except of course the sender always has to pay) for Virgin subscribers.

Let's hope it doesn't become widespread among the other networks. Is this the future of roaming?

We certainly hope not!

Of course our vSIM is free to receive SMS with, no matter where in the world you are.

Travel

Save fees and taxes

Airline passengers are losing millions of dollars a year by not reclaiming the tax and duty paid on cancelled flight tickets.

Airlines, particularly some budget carriers, have made it difficult for passengers to reclaim the tax portion of their ticket in the event of cancellation. Technically, any passenger who is unable to board a flight should be able to reclaim the tax portion of the ticket cost by either making it unduly complicated to reclaim or by charging administration fees to do so. As a result, many passengers drop the matter and forfeit the money (even more are unaware and do not even attempt to reclaim the fees). This is costly - fees and taxes for a trip to London range from $354 to over $1100 (they vary widely between airlines - mostly depending on whether a fuel surcharge is included in the ticket price or the "fees and taxes" total.

Some airlines charge an administration Reclaim taxes on cancelled flights fee that may exceed the cost of the refund. Administration charges by different airlines have been quoted as running to GBP30 (about AUD52) in the case of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Not all passengers are aware of their rights on the matter – and those who are aware often consider it all just too much hassle. Britain’s APD is paid upon booking but not collected until an occupied seat flies. If a passenger is unable to fly they have a right to claim the paid tax back from the airline.

If travellers book with travel agents, in most cases the taxes can be refunded easily, with no paperwork or problems and few fees if any. Booking direct with the airlines and over many web-sites leaves travellers powerless and lacking in the knowledge required to cope with refunds or amendments.

Incidentally, most airlines will not refund fuel surcharges which can be a substantial part of the ticket, despite that fact that the cancelled passengers have used no fuel.

Mobile phones

Forgetting phone numbers

Can you remember your significant other's mobile number? Or those of your parents? Or your siblings mobile numbers? How about your best mate? No? Well, you are not alone. More than 50% of people suffer from "numerical amnesia".

A new survey shows that 38% of a population can’t remember their partner's mobile number off by heart, 50% can’t remember their best mate's mobile and 37% have forgotten their parents’ mobile numbers.

And things get worse. An online memory test, designed to assess the population's ability to remember sequences of numbers, shows 80% of us routinely forget a mobile phone number after just five seconds.

Interestingly, fixed line numbers seem to Keypad - forgetting numbers stay lodged firmly in the brain for much longer. Perhaps it's the hard-wiring, but 92% of adults can remember their home phone number and 60% can even remember their parent's numbers.

Why this mobile amnesia? Well, it seems we are relying more and more on the memories embedded in mobile devices to do all that for us - which is fine until we lose them. And, of course, mobile owners are fretting that they might lose the precious data and numbers they can't remember anyway if their handsets are lost, stolen or break.

More than 67% of respondents to a survey admitted to anxiety about the possible loss of numbers and other details stored on their handsets. A mere 18% ever get round to storing them on a home or work computer. And what about simply writing them down somewhere? Too much like hard work.

People are so heavily reliant on their mobile phones that they’d be lost without them. And even if not caught in an emergency situation, research shows that four in 10 people have lost total contact with friends when they’ve had their phones stolen or lost.

It highlights the unthinking reliance we now place on technology. For example, it shows that while the potential loss of phone numbers is our primary concern, 40 per cent of the mobile-owning population also worry about losing text messages. The answer is simple: get into the habit of backing-up all this stuff. It's really not that hard.

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