When Nurul Basher flew home from his family holiday, he returned to a shock that would make any holidaymaker’s blood run cold.

Nurul, his wife and their three children had enjoyed three weeks in the US from July to August introducing their children – aged ten, 16 and 18 – to relatives.

The family, who live near Wokingham, in Berkshire, hopped from New York to Atlanta before finishing their trip in Florida’s Disney World.

But in September – two weeks after returning – Nurul received a phone bill from his provider for an eye-watering £86,273.

At first, he thought it must have been a mistake. He was aware of holidaymakers facing gigantic roaming charges for using their phones abroad to browse the internet or make video calls.

But he had taken a major precaution to stop this happening: he had bought a special Sim card – which connects your mobile to a phone network – specifically for the trip.

His normal phone contract is on the O2 network, which he took out as a Currys Business deal.

Ominously, that was who the bill came from – not Airalo, the supplier of his temporary Sim card.

‘I thought I misread the bill when it first came through,’ says Nurul. ‘I was on a Zoom call at the time and the people on the call saw my face go pale. There were two invoices as it went over two months.

‘The first was for £72,000, which I thought said £720 originally. Then the next bill said an additional £16,000. It’s ridiculous – that’s more than the deposit for my house.’

To make matters worse, calls to and from his mobile number were barred. He says: ‘Without any notification, they have been shutting down my actual mobile number – I had not been told. People said they tried to call me but it just stopped.’

Nurul was forced to get a new mobile so he could contact clients.

He disputed the charges with Currys Business and asked for them to be placed on hold while an investigation took place. 

What followed was a two-month battle with two telecommunications giants for the charges to be scrapped.

For his trip, Nurul purchased an eSim. These do the same job as a regular Sim, but don’t need to be put in the phone – you load them digitally.

They are popular among travellers as they allow you to connect to a local mobile phone network in the country you’re visiting to use mobile data, rather than using roaming with your normal provider.

Using mobile data abroad is usually expensive because providers must pay foreign carriers to use their networks. For the eSim to work you usually need to switch the Sim in your phone’s settings.

Nurul previously purchased one for his son’s school trip to China. It worked well, so he opted for a 20GB bundle from eSim brand Airalo for £38.

He was sent a QR code by Airalo to download the eSim.He scanned it which installed it on his phone’s settings app.

Nurul ensured he made the eSim his primary Sim on the settings page so calls, texts and data usage would be made through it. 

However, he stopped short of removing his physical Sim card as it is not necessary to do this for the eSim to work.

There are common slip ups when installing an eSim, but Nurul is adamant he did not make any of them. 

These include not selecting the eSim as the one you want to use for data in the phone’s settings, not fully activating the package, and trying to use an eSim when your device is ‘locked’ into one network so it won’t accept an eSim.

He received no notification to let him know the eSim wasn’t working, which should happen if it is not connected.

Plus, he knows the eSim did work for some of the time as a small amount – 0.05 pc of the 20GB data he bought – had been used. Airalo has also confirmed the package had been activated.

Even if the eSim didn’t work, most mobile networks have a spending cap that blocks you from racking up roaming charges without your knowledge.

But while Nurul thought he was opted in to a spend cap, Currys says he agreed to opt out.

Also Nurul says he wasn’t sent the ‘Welcome to the USA’ roaming message, unlike his wife and children. 

New Ofcom rules which came in October 2024 – one day before Nurul took out his business mobile contract – require mobile providers to notify customers when they start roaming.

He says he would have immediately realised the eSim had failed had he been sent this message.

As Nurul usually spends no more than £250 a month, he wonders why nobody picked up on the charges until more than a month after they started.

‘Why weren’t the high bills flagged earlier when they first started to rack up?’ he says. ‘On the first day of our trip I had been charged some £1,662.20.’

He received no warning texts or emails to let him know how much data he was using.

Nurul claims his network operator O2 at first refused to engage despite being included in emails he has sent to Currys, which sold him the contract.

However, O2 did take £13,231 from Nurul’s account in October when the charges were supposed to be on hold.

Nurul was blindsided by this payment and has since claimed it back via his bank’s direct debit guarantee.

‘Everyone is passing the buck between each other. O2 sent me a letter saying we have an unpaid bill and they will pass me on to a debt collector within five days.’

Airalo later said no data had been consumed but as it wasn’t contacted at the time for installation or troubleshooting, it can’t determine what prevented the e-Sim from being used on Nurul’s trip.

It provided written confirmation of this for Nurul to share with O2 and refunded the £38.

After Money Mail intervened, O2 agreed to drop all of the charges.

It says: ‘Unfortunately after an eSim supplied by a third party failed to activate, Mr Basher was subsequently charged roaming fees while travelling in the US. 

We believe that Mr Basher acted in good faith and, as a gesture of goodwill, have agreed to waive all charges on this occasion.’

Nurul says: ‘This is such a relief and I’m just so pleased this is over.’ He adds that his phone has now been reconnected.