The mobile data / international roaming thread

[Whisper2]

From the chat thread ….
Thank-you to everyone who gave me suggestions yesterday for a mobile SIM (I can’t use eSIM) for the US and Canada next month. I thought a quick summary of what I found and did would be good.

O2 – I could not find clear information on the travel Bolt on for my PAYG. One page suggested £1.99/day but was unclear what it provided outside Europe.

EE – Roam Abroad Pass looked excellent, for £15/month on top of your standard monthly cost you get to use your UK allowance in a lot of countries including US & Canada. I then investigated what contract I needed, but it was only available on a minimum of 12 month contracts, so my idea of a 1 month contract and then cancelling was no good.

THREE – As a few people said, 3 PAYG is excellent for the US. You can use up to 12GB of your UK allowance for no extra cost, and a 10GB data pack is £10, but it doesn’t include Canada (£6 per MB!).

SIM CORNER – I ordered a 15GB 30 day sim for £30 from SIM Corner (thanks for the pointer @Strickers) which covers US and Canada. I did a little Googling and it’s easy to find a code to GET10 percent off the £30.

Thank-you everyone for the advice.

[Mick S]

THREE PAYG is what I use for the US, just remember it only covers calls back to the UK.

I had to make a few local calls when last over there, one was to ring the hotel to request the shuttle bus. Was put on hold immediately and the call last several minutes. My bill had £1.40 per minute (rounded to nearest minute), it would have been cheaper to have booked a taxi.

[dougzz99]

Mick S wrote:

THREE PAYG is what I use for the US, just remember it only covers calls back to the UK.

I had to make a few local calls when last over there, one was to ring the hotel to request the shuttle bus. Was put on hold immediately and the call last several minutes. My bill had £1.40 per minute (rounded to nearest minute), it would have been cheaper to have booked a taxi.

That really bugs me, not the charges, but the need to phone. At Denver there must have been 100 different buses continually circling going to hotels, car rentals and offsite parking. All 3 of these things were located in basically the same place, and could have been handled much more efficiently with a few shared ride buses doing a few stops each. Simpler, greener and removes the need to call a particular hotel.

Apologies for off topic rant.

[duggie1982]

FYI I used a company called Monty eSim and found their prices better than others I have seen with other esim providers I have used in the past, its an app I downloaded on my iPhone and compared to what I bought before the prices were in half for some of my destinations. Got my Dubai friend to use it wen he was in the UK a few weeks ago and he said it worked flawlessly and he aint so great with things like this

[Lady London]

Ladyshopper wrote:

@Michael C, yep, it’s bonkers!

Husband has just got a Three PAYG sim and activated it and used his PAC code from Lebara (he went there after Three did the above to him, and he got it for £2.49 a month and wasn’t tied in to a contract. Good job as signal was absolutely terrible at home, whereas no problems with Three).

I’ve been with Smarty for a week, should get the £10 voucher from my daughter referring me after 2 weeks. Once this is sorted, I’ll be going back to Three PAYG.

Insane is a good way to describe it though, I just can’t understand why Three have taken away free Go Roam from loyal pay monthly customers, but you get it on PAYG (which you can set up a monthly auto-renew on).

I’ve switched to PAYG a few times with Three at the end of a contract while I decided what I was going to do with that phone number. They’ll do it if you just call them.

If however you are looking for vouchers and deals such as the one you mentioned, or just want to send Three a message that they are a dishonourable company after they stated they wouldn’t charge for roaming after Brexit would allow them to, then they did in fact promptly remove free roaming from their customers’contracts, it’s worth keeping a monthly eye on MSE mobile offers section as there’s usually something interesting within each month or two.

[Cat]

I’ll be giving Airalo a go in Colombia soon and will report back.

If anyone wants a referral code – CATHER8813

[Mikeact]

Cat wrote:

I’ll be giving Airalo a go in Colombia soon and will report back.

If anyone wants a referral code – CATHER8813

Fine,as long as you don’t want minutes. I guess you’ll use WhatsApp or Skype if so.

[soloflyer1977]

Mick S wrote:

THREE PAYG is what I use for the US, just remember it only covers calls back to the UK.

I had to make a few local calls when last over there, one was to ring the hotel to request the shuttle bus. Was put on hold immediately and the call last several minutes. My bill had £1.40 per minute (rounded to nearest minute), it would have been cheaper to have booked a taxi.

To get around this, I would use Keepcalling app. You can use the app to call offline (using your UK mins) to call the US etc. US calls are 1p per minute. Call quality is great. It’s my go to app calling internationally from UK from my mobile or when I am away without a roaming package.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

I’m pretty sure EE Roaming Pass is selectable as a perk PER MONTH. As in, on months when you know you won’t need it, you can switch your preference to another perk, e.g. Apple Music.

[eveee]

I gave Textr eSIM a go on my US trip. It’s pretty cheap and convenient! Highly recommended! https://esim.textrapp.com/plans/UnitedStates

[Wally1976]

Hi folks, we’re heading to Turkey (Icmeler) soon. Probably going to get Airalo eSim for my wife’s phone but mine doesn’t do eSims so any recommendations on a physical SIM? TIA

[Skywalker]

I’ve been looking into the three SIM card, and before I topped up, noticed that it had a £2 per day charge for EU roaming, and £5 per day elsewhere – is this correct, or am I looking at the wrong SIM package?

Smarty looks much better in terms of EU roaming as it just comes out of your UK data allowance with no additional charges (noting fair usage).

[AndyGWP]

Skywalker wrote:

I’ve been looking into the three SIM card, and before I topped up, noticed that it had a £2 per day charge for EU roaming, and £5 per day elsewhere – is this correct, or am I looking at the wrong SIM package?

Smarty looks much better in terms of EU roaming as it just comes out of your UK data allowance with no additional charges (noting fair usage).

I think you need an old Pay as You Go (pre-Oct ‘21) tariff, or be on a plus or premium pay monthly plan

Might be worth at an O2 Pay as you Go? (Please double check tho)

Also Lebara do inclusive minutes for roaming

I guess it depends on your planned destination and usage

[AndyGWP]

soloflyer1977 wrote:

It’s my go to app calling internationally from UK from my mobile or when I am away without a roaming package.

These are a decent numbers to use for free when you’re in the UK wanting to call internationally using your free mobile minutes:
0333 555 8800
0330 117 3872
0161 311 3111 (This might no longer work / be as good)

While since I’ve used them but normally work for me calling BA offices in other countries (do a test call though to make sure it works ok for you before panicing at midnight 😆)

[Ladyshopper]

Skywalker wrote:

I’ve been looking into the three SIM card, and before I topped up, noticed that it had a £2 per day charge for EU roaming, and £5 per day elsewhere – is this correct, or am I looking at the wrong SIM package?

Smarty looks much better in terms of EU roaming as it just comes out of your UK data allowance with no additional charges (noting fair usage).

I think you’re looking at the wrong thing? The three PAYG sim definitely has no charge for roaming. Monthly contracts do.

Smarty are great (we moved to them from Three), and if you only need EU roaming that’s fine. I’ll be going back to Three PAYG in October as we’re cruising to USA, so want the free roaming there. Will then go back to Smarty after that.

[AndyGWP]

Ah. I see ladyshopper beat me to it. I came across the following re: Three PAYG SIM cards with free go roam

https://www.three.co.uk/pay-as-you-go/payg-data-packs

[AndyGWP]

Some other options here (from the BeCleverWithYourCash website)

BT Mobile – free European roaming remains
Giffgaff – free European roaming remains
ID Mobile – free European roaming remains
Lebara – free European roaming remains
Plusnet – free European roaming remains
Smarty – free European roaming remains

[davefl]

Ditto Tesco mobile and O2.

[Michael C]

Just to confirm, roaming this week on Three PAYG in Singapore and Indonesia and all fine.

[Skywalker]

AndyGWP wrote:

Ah. I see ladyshopper beat me to it. I came across the following re: Three PAYG SIM cards with free go roam

https://www.three.co.uk/pay-as-you-go/payg-data-packs

Unfortunately it isn’t free post-2021:

From the website:

https://www.three.co.uk/support/roaming-and-international/roaming/go-roam

“Daily roaming charges
Unless stated otherwise, there’s a daily roaming charge to unlock your UK allowance for 24 hours in Go Roam destinations. You’ll be charged as soon as you use any of your plan’s allowances in a Go Roam destination.

Europe
£2
a day

Around the world
£5
a day

If you’re on Pay As You Go, or your Pay Monthly plan started before 1 October 2021, these charges won’t apply. Republic of Ireland and Isle of Man are excluded from the daily charge. Our Fair Use Policies apply in Go Roam destinations. Check out our FAQs for more info.”

[davefl]

Anyone tried esim.me? Looks an interesting way of getting the esim functionality on a non-esim phone. Hard part is deciding what plan type to go for – am I going to change phones or phone brands in the future dictates the price of it, which is wierd.

Going to a few countries this year outside the EU where having data on landing by preloading an esim would be advantageous.

[e14]

Skywalker wrote:

AndyGWP wrote:

Ah. I see ladyshopper beat me to it. I came across the following re: Three PAYG SIM cards with free go roam

https://www.three.co.uk/pay-as-you-go/payg-data-packs

Unfortunately it isn’t free post-2021:

From the website:

https://www.three.co.uk/support/roaming-and-international/roaming/go-roam

“Daily roaming charges
Unless stated otherwise, there’s a daily roaming charge to unlock your UK allowance for 24 hours in Go Roam destinations. You’ll be charged as soon as you use any of your plan’s allowances in a Go Roam destination.

Europe
£2
a day

Around the world
£5
a day

If you’re on Pay As You Go, or your Pay Monthly plan started before 1 October 2021, these charges won’t apply. Republic of Ireland and Isle of Man are excluded from the daily charge. Our Fair Use Policies apply in Go Roam destinations. Check out our FAQs for more info.”

Huh, it is included, the terms and conditions you quoted even state that

If you’re on Pay As You Go, or your Pay Monthly plan started before 1 October 2021, these charges won’t apply.

[strickers]

Has anyone used Airalo in China? It looks like the regional one will cover me for China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong. Next job, set up WeChat pay!

[JenT]

We had a physical SIM for China so can’t help with Airalo unfortunately. The advantage of getting one in the UK which was good for China meant we could still access Google, etc – not sure what Airalo will let you do. Never managed to sign up for WeChat services as we didn’t have a Union Pay account, but things may have improved since we were there just before March 2020…

[strickers]

@JenT Thanks. Looks like WeChat Pay now allows foreign Mastercard linking.