Best deals for roaming?

[simonhill]

Ian, I find EEs website labyrinthine. Nonetheless:

If you go to the link you posted. Go to below the list of countries and you will find a link to "changes to EU roaming charges" go there.

You will see that pay monthly are charged £2 a day. Lower down it says "if you have smart benefits" you can get the £10 a month.

I don't think the more basic options have smart benefits - but I could be wrong. My EE PAYG certainly doesn't.

[Psamathe]

Ian, I find EEs website labyrinthine. Nonetheless:

If you go to the link you posted. Go to below the list of countries and you will find a link to "changes to EU roaming charges" go there.

You will see that pay monthly are charged £2 a day. Lower down it says "if you have smart benefits" you can get the £10 a month.

I don't think the more basic options have smart benefits - but I could be wrong. My EE PAYG certainly doesn't.

I would doubt PAYG has the £10 option available but my brother has a "low-end" contract without "Smart Benefits" and he is currently using the £10 per month. But as it does not affect me I've not researched so cannot be categoric on this.

Ian

[mjr]

When I re-negotiated my EE contract earlier this year I negotiated EU (and loads of other countries) roaming as well as a price reduction.

The person being booted off a good 3 deal did try to negotiate and is an experienced trade negotiator. 3 wouldn't budge, or at least no-one in the office that day would budge. I suspect they are about to lose a customer to whichever virtual operator offers the best deal.

[Cowsham]

I found a work around a few years ago when IOM wasn't in the 'home' list of countries with 3.

I'd be there about 3 times a year so quickly figured out that buying a sim card over there was the way to do it but then I discovered that if I ran out of credit by doing too many texts (10 at 50p an SMS text ate up the credit ) to phones back home I'd also lose any data I had left as well. ( IOM is considered an international destination )

So to get around that problem I put what'sapp on the phone with the Manx sim in and got my wife, brother etc put what'sapp on theirs ( this was when the app first came out )

Two great advantages I discovered by doing that.

1. I could text all I wanted back and forward with whatsapp using a tiny fraction of the data which at that time was probably about 1 or 2 gb ( for £5 )

2. When I got back home and put my 3 sim back in whatsapp kept the Manx number it was registered with. This meant I could see who of my contacts joined whatsapp -- very useful when you don't want all your contacts texting you on whatsapp and Facebook didn't automatically suck up all your contacts from your phone when it bought over the app.

So when I put a new communication app on my phone I use a different sim to register it.

Anyway in conclusion the best way is to buy a payg sim in that destination at then use your cross platform communication app for texts and phone calls.

[Jdsk]

MoneySavingExpert, updated last week:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobil ... ing-calls/

Jonathan

[Sweep]

May have posted before, but quoting from the Asda mobile current page:

>>Roam like you're home in 36 European destinations

on all their monthly bundles.


there's even a £4 a month bundle for unlimited texts and minutes.

runs on Vodafone.

[st599_uk]

Anyway in conclusion the best way is to buy a payg sim in that destination at then use your cross platform communication app for texts and phone calls.

The UK is one of the only countries not to require ID to register. Some countries require you to go to a government office and register the SIM. It's not always an easy process.

[Jdsk]

Anyway in conclusion the best way is to buy a payg sim in that destination at then use your cross platform communication app for texts and phone calls.

The UK is one of the only countries not to require ID to register. Some countries require you to go to a government office and register the SIM. It's not always an easy process.

"Timeline of SIM Card Registration Laws":
https://www.privacyinternational.org/lo ... ation-laws

lists the requirements by country.

Jonathan

[Cowsham]

May have posted before, but quoting from the Asda mobile current page:

>>Roam like you're home in 36 European destinations

on all their monthly bundles.


there's even a £4 a month bundle for unlimited texts and minutes.

runs on Vodafone.

Thanks Sweep That's an even better work around if the country you're going to is on the list.

[Cowsham]

Anyway in conclusion the best way is to buy a payg sim in that destination at then use your cross platform communication app for texts and phone calls.

The UK is one of the only countries not to require ID to register. Some countries require you to go to a government office and register the SIM. It's not always an easy process.

"Timeline of SIM Card Registration Laws":
https://www.privacyinternational.org/lo ... ation-laws

lists the requirements by country.

Jonathan

All good info but it doesn't really matter whether you have to register it or not ( I have nothing to hide or need to hide ) all I'm saying is it'll be a sim for the country you're in at the time making data very cheap. ( as long as you don't use the number to phone or text home -- only use the cross platform app )

[st599_uk]

The UK is one of the only countries not to require ID to register. Some countries require you to go to a government office and register the SIM. It's not always an easy process.

"Timeline of SIM Card Registration Laws":
https://www.privacyinternational.org/lo ... ation-laws

lists the requirements by country.

Jonathan

All good info but it doesn't really matter whether you have to register it or not ( I have nothing to hide or need to hide ) all I'm saying is it'll be a sim for the country you're in at the time making data very cheap. ( as long as you don't use the number to phone or text home -- only use the cross platform app )

Some countries require proof of local address (Germany, Austria) or proof of residence (Sweden) or your tax code (italy).

[Cowsham]

Jonathan

All good info but it doesn't really matter whether you have to register it or not ( I have nothing to hide or need to hide ) all I'm saying is it'll be a sim for the country you're in at the time making data very cheap. ( as long as you don't use the number to phone or text home -- only use the cross platform app )

Some countries require proof of local address (Germany, Austria) or proof of residence (Sweden) or your tax code (italy).

That's tight!

[wheelyhappy99]

Any EE customers? I upgraded my EE Sim only deal to 5G a few weeks ago, and found for an extra £2 per month (I think it's an additional £5 on some deals) I could have EU roaming as an add on 'Smart Benefit' benefit. A bargain compared with £2/day or whatever. The data allowance is massive, more than I use tethering a laptop for hours. First trip.in two years ends next Friday and have already recouped the extra cost.

[MrsHJ]

My daughter did the same this weekend. We didn’t entirely see eye to eye on the need for a phone upgrade (which she’ll be funding) but the £2 a month seemed decent.

[simonhill]

Just saw that Tesco are "quietly" dropping roaming from next year. Apparently no announcement, just not in new plans.

I could only see the headline behind a paywall so don't know details. Those affected may wish to investigate.