Prepaid Mobile Plan for All of Europe?

[simonhill]

I would have thought you could just buy a SIM in Iceland or Sweden, put it in your phone and then use around Europe, why would there be an issue?

It's not like purchasing in the UK. You have to register the SIM against a local ID card or your passport. The number of locations who deal with passports is limited.

Wouldn't any outlet at an airport be able to do that. After all they deal with tourists all the time.

However in my experience (albeit Asia) tourist SIMs are usually considerably more expensive than normal ones.

For me, it's usually a small time overhead to seek out an appropriate store to get my SIM set up on first day.

[jimster99]

Smarty (an MVNO hanging off Three) does free roaming across most of Europe with very cheap packages (I think I'm on like £8/month) and they do very cheap monthly PAYG SIM cards, so you can't accidentallly run up any charges whatsoever (unless you preload the sim card with funds, in which case the most you can lose is the preloaded amount). If you try and make a chargeable call once the preloaded funds are gone, it just won't connect, and then you can either load the necessary funds or just find another way.

You could take several Smarty SIM cards and then if one hits a limit just load up another one.I spent 1/2 yr across France, Germany and Netherlands a couple of years ago with one Smarty SIM and it worked absolutely fine the whole time. Not sure if it works outer fringes of Europe.

There are other cheaper providers but you'd have to check if they offer (i) PAYG monthly (to avoid any risk of surprise charges) and (ii) sufficient free roaming across Europe.

Smarty is here: https://smarty.co.uk/ (if you know someone who has smarty you & the referrer can get some kind of minor referral bonus if you contact them - feel free to PM if you'd like my referrer code (assuming that's allowed?)).
Also worth checking here for other alternative providers as the cheapest is always changing: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap ... /sim-only/

[st599_uk]

I would have thought you could just buy a SIM in Iceland or Sweden, put it in your phone and then use around Europe, why would there be an issue?

It's not like purchasing in the UK. You have to register the SIM against a local ID card or your passport. The number of locations who deal with passports is limited.

Wouldn't any outlet at an airport be able to do that. After all they deal with tourists all the time.

Some European countries require a visit to a government office. I think Sweden requires a visit to a major electronics store as smaller stores don't have the terminal equipment.

[Steve X]

It's not like purchasing in the UK. You have to register the SIM against a local ID card or your passport. The number of locations who deal with passports is limited.

Wouldn't any outlet at an airport be able to do that. After all they deal with tourists all the time.

Some European countries require a visit to a government office. I think Sweden requires a visit to a major electronics store as smaller stores don't have the terminal equipment.

This link suggests that one can buy a SIM at Rekjavik Airport.

https://www.traveltomtom.net/destinatio ... foriceland
though I think he is trying to sell E Sims

For the OP, if they had said where they are coming from, and where they are going, much better advice could be given, particularly as this is a UK based forum.

I find Lebara great, roamed all over Europe from France to Bulgaria, with no problem. In Turkey, where tourist SIMS are expensive, I just bought a Lebara add on for a tenner.

Possibly the OP could look at what their home provider offers for roaming packages, I recently walked the Camino Santiago and did not get the impression SIM cards and access to Data was an issue for any of the many nationalities I met.

[roubaixtuesday]

Maybe get them to activate it and use it for a while in UK, even as a second SIM on their phone.. Going straight to roaming might (??) cause problems

UK roaming plans generally have a "fair use" policy.

Typically this means you pay extra if
(1) you go beyond a time limit, I think normally 30-60 days
(2) if you use more roaming than you do at home

Any attempt to use a new UK SIM to roam in Scandinavia is likely to fall foul of (2)

https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/help/roamin ... WlEWl7_4cU

The Roam-like home scheme is designed for customers who primarily live in the UK and make short trips to other European destinations. To safeguard against abuse, if your roaming usage is greater than your usage in the UK over any continuous 120-day period, you will be subject to a surcharge of 0.20p/MB (equivalent to £2/GB) for data, 0.04p/sec (equivalent to 2.4p/min) for outgoing calls, 0.01p/sec (equivalent to 0.6p/min) for incoming calls and 0.8p for sending an SMS. The surcharge is deducted from your pay-as-you-go (PAYG) allowance. You will need to top-up if you don't have any pay-as-you-go (PAYG) credit on your account. Similarly, all our plans and unlimited allowances are subject to fair usage policy - click here to know more.

my bold

https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/roaming/roa ... inder.html

[Navrig]

UK roaming plans generally have a "fair use" policy.

Typically this means you pay extra if
(1) you go beyond a time limit, I think normally 30-60 days
(2) if you use more roaming than you do at home

Any attempt to use a new UK SIM to roam in Scandinavia is likely to fall foul of (2)

https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/help/roamin ... WlEWl7_4cU

The Roam-like home scheme is designed for customers who primarily live in the UK and make short trips to other European destinations. To safeguard against abuse, if your roaming usage is greater than your usage in the UK over any continuous 120-day period, you will be subject to a surcharge of 0.20p/MB (equivalent to £2/GB) for data, 0.04p/sec (equivalent to 2.4p/min) for outgoing calls, 0.01p/sec (equivalent to 0.6p/min) for incoming calls and 0.8p for sending an SMS. The surcharge is deducted from your pay-as-you-go (PAYG) allowance. You will need to top-up if you don't have any pay-as-you-go (PAYG) credit on your account. Similarly, all our plans and unlimited allowances are subject to fair usage policy - click here to know more.

my bold

https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/roaming/roa ... inder.html

That's interesting. I wonder how they implement it given that payment for their monthly service doesn't allow additional charges to be recovered.

[roubaixtuesday]

https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/help/roamin ... WlEWl7_4cU

The Roam-like home scheme is designed for customers who primarily live in the UK and make short trips to other European destinations. To safeguard against abuse, if your roaming usage is greater than your usage in the UK over any continuous 120-day period, you will be subject to a surcharge of 0.20p/MB (equivalent to £2/GB) for data, 0.04p/sec (equivalent to 2.4p/min) for outgoing calls, 0.01p/sec (equivalent to 0.6p/min) for incoming calls and 0.8p for sending an SMS. The surcharge is deducted from your pay-as-you-go (PAYG) allowance. You will need to top-up if you don't have any pay-as-you-go (PAYG) credit on your account. Similarly, all our plans and unlimited allowances are subject to fair usage policy - click here to know more.

my bold

https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/roaming/roa ... inder.html

That's interesting. I wonder how they implement it given that payment for their monthly service doesn't allow additional charges to be recovered.

Your service stops until you've topped up your account (I had a Lebara Sim but bought an esim in the knowledge it wouldn't work after a certain time)

[Steve X]

That's interesting. I wonder how they implement it given that payment for their monthly service doesn't allow additional charges to be recovered.

You can add a set credit to the account, not something I use but there is a mechanism for spending above your monthly allowance, I assume it allows you to over spend to a certain amount and for Lebara to collect by D/D.

[Navrig]

I assume it allows you to over spend to a certain amount and for Lebara to collect by D/D.

I don't think so. Prior to Lebara I was with Vodafone (for many years) and I could over use data and VF would change the D/D. Similarly I could make charity donations with V/F (SMS messages). Lebara don't seem to do that.

[Steve X]

I assume it allows you to over spend to a certain amount and for Lebara to collect by D/D.

I don't think so. Prior to Lebara I was with Vodafone (for many years) and I could over use data and VF would change the D/D. Similarly I could make charity donations with V/F (SMS messages). Lebara don't seem to do that.

I think you are correct. After looking again think what the deal is, the subscriber can hold a credit balance, to allow overspends on the plan, therefore Lebara will not need to change D/D. I suppose this avoids the need for credit checks and the freedom to cancel as when the user wants.

[roubaixtuesday]

I assume it allows you to over spend to a certain amount and for Lebara to collect by D/D.

I don't think so. Prior to Lebara I was with Vodafone (for many years) and I could over use data and VF would change the D/D. Similarly I could make charity donations with V/F (SMS messages). Lebara don't seem to do that.

You have to add credit to your account before doing these things with Lebara.

Leaves you more in control (no unexpected bills) but less flexibility,

I prefer it personally, but I can see why others wouldn't

[Navrig]

I assume it allows you to over spend to a certain amount and for Lebara to collect by D/D.

I don't think so. Prior to Lebara I was with Vodafone (for many years) and I could over use data and VF would change the D/D. Similarly I could make charity donations with V/F (SMS messages). Lebara don't seem to do that.

You have to add credit to your account before doing these things with Lebara.

Leaves you more in control (no unexpected bills) but less flexibility,

I prefer it personally, but I can see why others wouldn't

I did that in Canada earlier this year. Lebara doesn't include Canada in their roaming package so the data was very expensive compared to my monthly tariff but still cheaper and easier than buying a local SIM. Canadian mobile plans are very expensive compared to the UK.