Using Your Mobile When Abroad: Roam For Less Article Discussion Area

redux

webkami wrote:

Thats great info.

I am about to setup a call forwarding on my Orange mobile to this IoM sim card and will take IoM sim with me abroad. Hope I dont run a big bill there.

Not so fast -

Call diversion on Orange is different - only diversion to landlines or Orange numbers comes from inclusive minutes. Other mobiles chargeable.

If you have O2 as well, use that - they include diversion to all mobiles. What's more, their 35p My Europe tariff is actually cheaper than using the IoM SIM straight to UK mobiles

drek

why dont u leave a message on your uk mobile giving new SIM number overseas... & so you wont incur ANY charges - even for call forwarding or 'lose' any of yr incl minutes.....

easypeasy_2

My husband needs one of these as he regularly travels around Europe, Ireland and the UK. He currently has vodafone passport and his bills are extremely high. I have come to the conclusion that an International Roaming Sim Card and keeping his vodafone for the UK only would be the best way ? Am I correct in thinking that ? Does anyone know the best or cheapest International Roaming Sim Card ?

The carphone warehouse do one which is new. £29.99 and the calls are 37p per minute (still seems expensive to me). Any help would be really appreciated. Thank you.

drek

i got one from https://www.simplytravelsim.com and was delighted. [hads a problem & c.service was gr8]

mobilegossip

easypeasy wrote:

My husband needs one of these as he regularly travels around Europe, Ireland and the UK. He currently has vodafone passport and his bills are extremely high. I have come to the conclusion that an International Roaming Sim Card and keeping his vodafone for the UK only would be the best way ? Am I correct in thinking that ? Does anyone know the best or cheapest International Roaming Sim Card ?

The carphone warehouse do one which is new. £29.99 and the calls are 37p per minute (still seems expensive to me). Any help would be really appreciated. Thank you.

Have a read of Martin MSE article on this subject here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1119870249,48922,

fonesaver

Have a look at this one. I've not used it myself but have used Story Telecom's Text and Talk which works fine.

It costs £25 and you get £25 call credit! Costs vary per country/network but it works out something like 25p ish/min to call a UK landline. Calls to mobiles cost more so it's not so good for that. Also SMS is cheap compared with many other cards 25cents (US).
e.g Ireland back to UK landline approx 19p/min

http://www.storytelecom.com/roaming/

inmypocketnottheirs

I use a Lichtenstein mobile when roaming abroad from https://www.sim4travel.com as recommended by Martin on this site. It costs about £30 for the card and you can top up online or using the handset. In the majority of EU countries roaming is free, the only place where I have paid to receive calls in Europe is Malta. All outgoing calls are 30p per minute and 10p per text.

What I do is when I am about to board the plane or ferry to leave the UK is put my o2 contract mobile on divert to the Lichtenstein number. This costs 19p per minute using the 02 international calling option. Cheaper than paying o2 roaming - at the moment. o2 are changing next year to charging a flat £5 per month to receive calls in 35 EU countries, Spain I believe is immediately on this basis.

I have not had any problems with the sim4travel service and recommend without hesitation.

HTH

millie

I am with O2 and was in Lanzarote last week and was paying 35p per minute to call Uk landlines, the only mobiles I called were my sons and they are both on O2 and that was 35p per minute too. They give you the 1st minute of each week free and 1 freet text per week. The tarriff is My Europe and I think its available on PAYG and contract phones.

redux

easypeasy wrote:

He currently has vodafone passport and his bills are extremely high.

Are the calls mainly fairly short, so that there are lots of 75p connect fees?

mobilegossip wrote:

Have a read of Martin MSE article on this subject here:

And also read the discussion thread relating to it [edit - above, now merged], which already has quite a bit more detail, in which it's pointed out that using separate callback with these global SIMs or local ones can mean cheaper tariffs


If your husband is likely to change UK network in the near future, then O2 might be interesting, as it can be diverted to the Isle of Man SIMs from inclusive minutes.

It's pretty likely though that the roaming market still has more changes in the near future, after the EU's moves and the networks actually starting to respond at last (though they are pretending that isn't the reason).

If O2 spread the free incoming calls option throughout Europe, which they've said they will, and outgoing calls are 25p a minute, it might tend to make many of these global SIMs a bit redundant at their own tariffs. And the other networks are bound to come up with similar ideas.

easypeasy_2

Thank you for that. I suppose in the meantime then a Global Sim is the answer until such time that O2 change their tarrifs. Do you know when this is likely to be ?