Holiday iPhone bill gives nasty shock

A Queenstown man has a warning for iPhone users: beware crippling data roaming charges.

Richard Donald, 36, took a 10-day break over Christmas-New Year on the east coast of Tasmania, where he sent or received 50 emails and visited six web pages - and was charged $343.

"As a cautious consumer and new to the XT network, I was terrified of using either text messages or phone calls while overseas. Little did I know that the real danger is data roaming."

He said those charges represented checking emails and visiting the occasional web page.

"Our advice is don't turn it on because Telecom's data roaming charges will break you ... it's another case of the Kiwi consumer being screwed."

He got a "huge shock" when the bill arrived, especially because it was not clear what the charges were for.

"It's definitely a warning for the Kiwi consumer because at that cost it's just prohibitive."

Mr Donald, a film producer, said he had sent only one text message and made one phone call.

He believes there needs to be more awareness of the data roaming charges.

"Most people who just turn on their phone won't know it would have an effect on their bill ... You might not realise it but the data roaming just chews through the data whether you like it or not."

He knew there was an option to disable data roaming but he needed to check his business emails regularly.

Telecom public relations manager Rebecca Earl said people were advised to check data roaming charges before they went overseas.

She said Telecom had arrangements with over 200 companies that allowed Kiwis to use data roaming overseas but Telecom could not determine what the costs were.

"It's not something that we can reduce," she said.

"If customers want clarity before they leave they should look online to check the cost of data ... It's something to be mindful of."

Different parts of the world had different pricing structures and Australia, at $8 a megabyte, was the cheapest.