We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Mobile options for a lenghty time abroad
From December I'm going to be working in France for 6 months. I'm on my gap year, so I'm spending most of the next 12months out of the country one way or another. My contract with Vodafone has just come to an end, I was on £20pm, 125mins and 250texts, STC and VP (Vodafone Passport). I ususally went over on calls and texts.
I've been looking at the Roaming thread, and thought that my best option was to cancel with Vodafone, get a cheap SIM until I go, probably O2 simplicity, and then in December move to a basic PAYG to keep my number, use Skype as much as possible, email instead of text, and get a French SIM for in-country calls. Realistically, I'll probably call the UK for a long call about 6 times a month, and rarely text. For the other times abroad I'm likely to text more, say 30per month from abroad.
Predictably, Vodafone are desperately trying to retain me and sign me up for another 12months. They've offered 600mins, unlimited texts and VP for £12.50pm. I recognise this is a good deal in the UK and have accepted with 14 days to cancel, but have reservations:
If I'm only in the UK for around 4 of the next 12 months, is there any point me committing to £12.50pm tariff? When I'm away I can't use the bundle, apart from VP calls for 75p each to call/recieve from home. I could just make those on Skype. Vodafone charge 25p for texts abroad with VP. Annoyingly, they won't do the same as O2 and take 4 texts off your bundle rather than the extra cost, so those unlimited texts will be unused most of the time. The call centre woman was advising me to use Vyke when abroad, which seems like a good option although i'm not sure how it works out cost per text when data roaming is taken into account?
To complicate things further, I ordered a £15 simplicty SIM last night so I've already bought a month, which was pretty stupid. I'm assuming they don't let you cancel...
So my dilemma is whether to keep things simple and accept the £12.50pm for 12months with the main advantages being the good UK deal and Vodafone Passport, or to play around more, with the main advantages being to save money on my long time abroad, to have no long term commitment and the chance to take advantage of the O2 text abroad system so I won't have to pay extra.
Any thoughts much appreciated!
I've been looking at the Roaming thread, and thought that my best option was to cancel with Vodafone, get a cheap SIM until I go, probably O2 simplicity, and then in December move to a basic PAYG to keep my number, use Skype as much as possible, email instead of text, and get a French SIM for in-country calls. Realistically, I'll probably call the UK for a long call about 6 times a month, and rarely text. For the other times abroad I'm likely to text more, say 30per month from abroad.
Predictably, Vodafone are desperately trying to retain me and sign me up for another 12months. They've offered 600mins, unlimited texts and VP for £12.50pm. I recognise this is a good deal in the UK and have accepted with 14 days to cancel, but have reservations:
If I'm only in the UK for around 4 of the next 12 months, is there any point me committing to £12.50pm tariff? When I'm away I can't use the bundle, apart from VP calls for 75p each to call/recieve from home. I could just make those on Skype. Vodafone charge 25p for texts abroad with VP. Annoyingly, they won't do the same as O2 and take 4 texts off your bundle rather than the extra cost, so those unlimited texts will be unused most of the time. The call centre woman was advising me to use Vyke when abroad, which seems like a good option although i'm not sure how it works out cost per text when data roaming is taken into account?
To complicate things further, I ordered a £15 simplicty SIM last night so I've already bought a month, which was pretty stupid. I'm assuming they don't let you cancel...
So my dilemma is whether to keep things simple and accept the £12.50pm for 12months with the main advantages being the good UK deal and Vodafone Passport, or to play around more, with the main advantages being to save money on my long time abroad, to have no long term commitment and the chance to take advantage of the O2 text abroad system so I won't have to pay extra.
Any thoughts much appreciated!
0
Comments
-
Why not sell the upgrade? It should more than pay for the 12 months.0
-
Soz probably not read your thread properly but surely it will be cheaper to get a french sim so it won't cost you for people calling you and you can also get sim cards with very cheap calls to UK from abroad as I got some for the staff who worked on a cruise ship in germany and they called all over for next to nothing.
I think the company was E-tel? you could try a search on the net?:beer:0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 352.1K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.6K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 454.3K Spending & Discounts
- 245.2K Work, Benefits & Business
- 600.9K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177.5K Life & Family
- 259K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards