Best Mobile Deal for European Travel

Victor_Delta

My daughter, who has an O2 PAYG mobile, will shortly be travelling with a friend for a few weeks round a number of European countries (France, Italy, Greece etc). She will probably make and receive 5-10 minutes of calls per day (mainly to/from the UK). OK, perhaps a bit more!

If she were staying in any given country for some time I believe the best advice is to buy a local SIM card. However, they will probably not stay in any single country for more than a week a most.

Can anyone recommend the best way of minimising her call charges please? (If it involves a number change, that's not a problem by the way).

Thanks.

seanparkin

O2 do an ITS (international traveller service) addon. Its not the cheapest way to do it, but it is simple and cheaper than standard mobile contracts.

madnlooney

i would say get a cheap PAYG sim from the countries you travel too if your there for awhile. i know vodfone do the 75P passport but not totally sure what its about really

turbodiesel

the easiest option would be to use her existing o2 payg sim (so no need to worry about unlocking handset etc) and to purchase the o2 payg euro bolt-on.
It costs £1.99 per month (taken from your calling credit) and can be cancelled at any time.
The cost of making calls drops from £1.49 or 99p per minute to 69p per minute.
The cost of receiving calls drops from 99p per minute to 49p per minute.
Also all o2 payg customers receive 1 free 1 minute call per week back to the UK
The ITS service mentioned above only applys to pay monthly o2 connections.
But as previously mentioned, by far the cheapest option afaik is to buy a prepay sim card in the country where you are at the time.
A 1 minute call from europe using a local sim card, typically costs 40 - 45 euro cents per minute (30p) and no charge for receiving calls

Victor_Delta

Many thanks - I'll pass on all the excellent advice.