Cost to callers calling a roaming mobile

dahig

I am from the UK will be staying in the Netherlands for two months this summer, and then probably living there permanently next year. From my initial research on roaming mobiles Ithink I would be best to buy a sim card to use for the two months that I am away. Although with most companies this would be an international cost to the person calling me if they were anywhere other than the Netherlands. However, when I move to the Netherlands permanently I will also be receiving business calls and would not want those callers to be charged international rates and wouldn't want them to know they were calling outside the UK. The only company I can find who seem to offer this service is MaxSIM. Can anybody advise? Does anybody have any experience of MaxSIM? and if so what was it like?

chriswuk_2

Not sure on Maxsim - but if you were roaming abroad, the ppl calling you would not be charged anymore - only you would be charged roaming incoming calls.
If your on O2, you can request the MyEurope 2 service (£5 per month), and you can receive calls FOC anywhere in Europe )

redux

There are several others similar to Maxsim, some also with Isle of Man numbers, and a few other countries like Liechtenstein, Estonia, Iceland.

Read Martin's article about roaming, and the discussion thread arising from it which has plenty more detail.

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

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=2530781#post2530781

dahig

chriswuk wrote: »

Not sure on Maxsim - but if you were roaming abroad, the ppl calling you would not be charged anymore - only you would be charged roaming incoming calls.
If your on O2, you can request the MyEurope 2 service (£5 per month), and you can receive calls FOC anywhere in Europe )

Thankyou for that. I have contacted some of the other companies i.e. Sim4Travel who tell me that callers will be charged by their provider for an international call (probably because they are calling Lichtenstein). That is useful information about 02 because I assume you then keep your UK number. I am currently with 3 so I will need to check if they offer the same.
thanks again

redux

3 do have a good roaming deal, called Like Home, but only when you're on a 3 network in other countries - not Netherlands, but Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Hong Kong and Australia.

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/coverage_/going_abroad_/like_home_details.omp

As for calls to the IoM SIMs, I think you'll find that 3 might charge for forwarding to it, depending on the number prefix, and so do some other networks. Keep an eye on the discussion thread, as the two IOM prefixes are charged differently, and there is another network due to launch soon which also will have good roaming. To work around 3's charges, it might be worth setting up separate forwarding with a VoIP provider

dahig

I have now found another which seems as good if not better than MaxSIM. It may just be that there website is much clearer but thats good enough for me. They are Story Telecom. I think I will go with them .. unless somebody here tells me different.

redux

With these IoM SIMs, the resellers have some control of the tariffs and other conditions.

There is quite a bit of variation in the terms for keeping the SIM valid, either annual renewal fee, requirement to top up every so often, or just make or receive a call every few months. As a rough approximation, the lower tariff ones seem to need more top-ups. I can't say I remember all the various ones, but I think Story might need topping up more often than some others, so it's worth checking.

Also, note remarks on the discussion thread about using separate callback. I've got a higher tariff IoM SIM that won't expire if I use it within any 6 months, have never topped it up, and make calls for pennies a minute. In fact I've still got a United Mobile (Liechtenstein) one where the same remarks apply, but added the IoM one for the inclusive forwarding from O2.