I'm using Three too with the same plan, but when I'm in a Feel At Home destination, I still pay if I send a texts to a local number. It is not included in my general texts allowance. Am I doing something wrong?
The data itself is free though, which is the most important for me. It is definitely better than having to go to a phone store and get a cheap sim.
Yes, this is annoying. However the fees are way less than calling from UK->country.
EG: when in the UK calling the US costs 56.2p minute, which is a complete ripoff as it should be cheaper than calling a UK mobile (virtually nil cost to do these calls). However, when actually in the US it's 15.6p. Same price differential for SMS.
Feel At Home basically means that your mobile will act the same as if you were in the UK.
Sending a text from the UK to a (for example) Spanish number incurs a cost outside of your allowance.
So that same text would also incur a cost when you are in Spain.
I've set up Google Voice -> US SIP -> UK SIP -> 3 Mobile. This gives me a US number to give out to Americans (who don't want to dial my UK number) that they can text/call. I can then make calls when on Wifi or using a Phonecard app which automatically dials my UK SIP and forwards the call via the US SIP provider. I don't have to switch SIMs or give up my UK number.
This works well for me (since I travel between the US/UK often)
The data itself is free though, which is the most important for me. It is definitely better than having to go to a phone store and get a cheap sim.