Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

razzle7691

Hi

I currently have a rented contract with 3 (that I can break at any point). I will be living in Serbia for 5 months and want to retain my UK phone (number), but only use it for emergencies.

I would like not to be charged for the occasional call I get from the UK and send/receive the occasional text cheaply. Any ideas of good deals?

Thanks

James

J_B

razzle7691 wrote: »

Hi

I currently have a rented contract with 3 (that I can break at any point). I will be living in Serbia for 5 months and want to retain my UK phone (number), but only use it for emergencies.

I would like not to be charged for the occasional call I get from the UK and send/receive the occasional text cheaply. Any ideas of good deals?

You need to call Three (on 333??) and tell them your situation - then ask them to put you onto their SIM Zero contract, basically, it's like PAYG, only you get a bill after not before!
Alternatively, maybe you could convert it to PAYG and bung plenty of credit on it ...

rftu

If anyone is thinking of using free2roamsim Do Not.
Despite asking in August (2014) why the credit on two separate occasions transfered to their account does not appear on the sim balance I am unable to log into my account on their web and despite emails asking for explanations I got one holding response saying they are having issues but no further details and it is now October.
If this is not a scam operation I do not know what is?

lean&mean

I may have missed this but in case no one has mentioned it EE are offering European roaming included in some of their unlimited plans starting at £22.99.

Called EE Extra, it allows you to use your plan minutes and texts in almost all European countries. So you can call from Germany to France, or France to UK for free, using your plan minutes. It also includes double speed data and free cals to 080 numbers. What you can't do is call UK to Europe using your plan minutes. It also does not include data roaming. That costs a pricey £12 for 200MB for 7 days or a fiver for 100MB in 24 hours.

So long as you have unlimited texts or minutes in your plan you can access this. Existing users who aren't on EE Plus may have to pay an additional £5 a month, but I've seen some instances where users have been upgraded by EE customer services for free.

To have this as an add-on you can pay £2 per day, so the EE Extra may be best suited to those who travel fairly frequently, or are planning a longer trip in Europe.

See here for more details
http://explore.ee.co.uk/4gee-extra-plans-roaming-benefits

Hope this helps

javahart

There are a few companies offering roaming SIM's. Here's one that makes it really easy by supplying a MiFi unit (imagine its your own personal wifi everywhere you go) - they do prepay or postpay and no hassle with changing your SIM. Just connect to your MiFi and use for Data or voice calls over 3rd party app.

google "Cellular UK"

grumbler

javahart wrote: »

google "Cellular UK"

"you will never pay more than 99p per MG of data ANYWHERE in the world"

99p and "MG":huh: don't inspire much confidence.
Neither does their amateurish website and a request to "Get in touch" for more information. It's hard to believe that this allows them "to utilize ... staff in more productive ways".

JPR

Toggle Mobile appear to have laid off their Twitter and Facebook staff and anyone involved with communication in general. In particular they haven't informed customers of their latest rate changes.

It appears that they have finally caught up with the latest EU ruling on mobile costs. It means that in order to pay for the reduced text costs, for example, they have risen their rates whilst roaming in their "local" countries with a local number.

Texts now cost 9p each unless you switch the setting to simple Roaming without the local number (then it is 5p.) So, to save money in the EU, it involves some faffing around but worth it if you send a lots of texts. You are stuck, though, with the higher costs in the USA for example.

Roger1

SWISS Mobile could be useful for some, not always the cheapest but cheap in many countries.

https://www.swiss.com/ch/en/book/swiss-choice/swiss-mobile?WT.mc_id=SMM_Facebook_WW_SIMcard_141014#t-page=pane2

I've been looking for a solution for when travelling to South Africa, other than buying a new SIM every time with the problems of registering the SIM and losing unused credit. The usual suspects are hugely expensive. For example, the SWISS Mobile SIM offers:

Calling to a landline in United Kingdom CHF 0.14 / min.
Calling to a mobile number in United Kingdom CHF 0.14 / min.
Local calls in South Africa CHF 0.14 / min.
Incoming calls in South Africa CHF 0.00 / min.
Sending SMS in South Africa CHF 0.12 / SMS
Using data in South Africa CHF 0.10 / MB

so free receiving and very cheap data and SMSs.

CHF 0.14 = approx 9p, CHF 0.10 = approx 7p.

That data rate alone would make this useful in many countries, even if it means carrying two phones, one to call, the other for data.

Starter SIM costs CHF 29.90 including CHF 20 credit. It comes with a +44 Jersey number.

It's an offer from SWISS (the airline) and is an MVNO powered by http://nakamobile.com/

paulc1008

I plan to install a Giffgaff sim in an Android smartphone, activate it with some airtime, then buy a Gigabag for mobile data which I can use in the phone by setting it as a portable hotspot.

My question is:- can I continue to buy update Gigabags online and use the portable hotspot when I spend several weeks in South Africa? I am, of course, assuming that the giffgaff sim will happily make connection with some local network in South Africa.

grumbler

paulc1008 wrote: »

I plan to install a Giffgaff sim in an Android smartphone, activate it with some airtime, then buy a Gigabag for mobile data which I can use in the phone by setting it as a portable hotspot.

Why do you think that any roaming usage is covered by a goodybag? This is absolutely not the case.
I think they make it very clear: "For only £7.50 get our 1 GB mobile Internet data plan for one month mobile broadband usage in the UK."

I am, of course, assuming that the giffgaff sim will happily make connection with some local network in South Africa.

It will connect happily, but will charge you £5/Mb if you have some balance.