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Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

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  • Vulrod
    Vulrod Posts: 2 Newbie
    Third Anniversary First Post
    On a trip to Japan a couple of years ago we successfully used a eSIM (which is available on later iPhones) with a countywide roaming package from Ubigi that was very affordable. 
  • Filo25
    Filo25 Posts: 2,139 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I'm going to be visiting the US soon for 2 and a half weeks, am on O2 so it is £6 per day, which adds to about £100 over the course of my stay.

    Just wondering if there may be a better deal for the time I am there, I do have a dual sim phone so can load up a second sim if I need to.

    Can I check, can you add the £10 free roaming option onto a 30 day EE Sim only deal or is that only on the 12 month+ sim only deals?
  • koru
    koru Posts: 1,539 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Filo25 said:
    I'm going to be visiting the US soon for 2 and a half weeks, am on O2 so it is £6 per day, which adds to about £100 over the course of my stay.

    Just wondering if there may be a better deal for the time I am there, 
    I'd be looking at a PAYG sim from Three or 1pmobile.
    koru
  • BUFF
    BUFF Posts: 2,185 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Filo25 said:
    I'm going to be visiting the US soon for 2 and a half weeks, am on O2 so it is £6 per day, which adds to about £100 over the course of my stay.

    Just wondering if there may be a better deal for the time I am there, I do have a dual sim phone so can load up a second sim if I need to.

    Can I check, can you add the £10 free roaming option onto a 30 day EE Sim only deal or is that only on the 12 month+ sim only deals?
    what do you need it for (data/text/calls - if calls, internal in USA or external) ? Possibly a local provider's sim?
  • Filo25
    Filo25 Posts: 2,139 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    BUFF said:
    Filo25 said:
    I'm going to be visiting the US soon for 2 and a half weeks, am on O2 so it is £6 per day, which adds to about £100 over the course of my stay.

    Just wondering if there may be a better deal for the time I am there, I do have a dual sim phone so can load up a second sim if I need to.

    Can I check, can you add the £10 free roaming option onto a 30 day EE Sim only deal or is that only on the 12 month+ sim only deals?
    what do you need it for (data/text/calls - if calls, internal in USA or external) ? Possibly a local provider's sim?
    I know AT&T used to do one, but apparently won't work with overseas IMEIs now.

    Looking for a bit of everything, probably a fair of data usage
  • bashful
    bashful Posts: 92 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 5 May 2022 at 10:35PM
    We are off to France in our campervan on 12th May returning on 26th May. We are on a SIM-only contract with Three that started in December 2021.
    It seems that we fall foul of their "no roaming charge if your contract started before Oct 2021" rule so, if we use both our phones every day for the 14 days that will add £56 to our mobile phone bills.
    I had a long live chat with Three earlier this evening and this is what they say:
    "We had hoped that roaming charges would not change and that we would not need to introduce the charges. However, variations in underlying and the wholesale market costs have meant that we, like some other providers, made the difficult decision to introduce a Roaming Charge. However until 23/05/2022 all the charges will be waived off."
    They say they have updated their website but I can't find this information on it! 
    It means we potentially will be charged £8 for our last couple of days in France so not the end of the world but, we will have to pay the full whack if we cross the channel again this year. Apparently the charge for cancelling the contract is over £50 so I think we are going to have to stick with Three for the time being. 
    Has anyone else found a way around this please?
    SMARTY seem to be part of Three's business empire yet don't charge for roaming. Very odd! 
  • BUFF
    BUFF Posts: 2,185 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 6 May 2022 at 9:04AM
    Filo25 said:
    BUFF said:
    Filo25 said:
    I'm going to be visiting the US soon for 2 and a half weeks, am on O2 so it is £6 per day, which adds to about £100 over the course of my stay.

    Just wondering if there may be a better deal for the time I am there, I do have a dual sim phone so can load up a second sim if I need to.

    Can I check, can you add the £10 free roaming option onto a 30 day EE Sim only deal or is that only on the 12 month+ sim only deals?
    what do you need it for (data/text/calls - if calls, internal in USA or external) ? Possibly a local provider's sim?
    I know AT&T used to do one, but apparently won't work with overseas IMEIs now.

    Looking for a bit of everything, probably a fair of data usage
    I have used T-Mobile in the past (before I used a Three PAYG sim - a newly taken out Three PAYG sim with an active Addon should work in the USA for data but any voice calls are going to be very expensive, £1.40/min).
    They have an IMEI checker on their site. https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/bring-your-own-device so you can check if your phone will work. US mobile costs tend to be higher than the UK/EU though so you probably need to budget for $50+taxes https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans & another $15+taxes if you want international calling out.
  • koru
    koru Posts: 1,539 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Filo25 said:

    Looking for a bit of everything, probably a fair of data usage
    I'd probably go for a Three PAYG sim with 8GB of data, which will cost you £10. (or 25GB for £15)

    1pMobile has a 10GB sim, for £10, but I'm not sure if that data allowance is valid for the US. You could call them to ask.
    koru
  • zagfles
    zagfles Posts: 21,435 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Chutzpah Haggler
    koru said:
    Filo25 said:

    Looking for a bit of everything, probably a fair of data usage
    I'd probably go for a Three PAYG sim with 8GB of data, which will cost you £10. (or 25GB for £15)

    1pMobile has a 10GB sim, for £10, but I'm not sure if that data allowance is valid for the US. You could call them to ask.
    Or could just check their website: https://www.1pmobile.com/international-and-roaming.taf
    Answer is no, mobile data is 2p/MB which is no use if you're going use GBs of data, but probably fine for eg satnav use and messaging if you avoid videos/lots of pictures, if you're capable of leaving high bandwidth usage till when you have wifi.

  • koru
    koru Posts: 1,539 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    zagfles said:
    Answer is no, mobile data is 2p/MB which is no use if you're going use GBs of data, 

    That would certainly be the rate for PAYG data. Does that necessarily mean that a data allowance isn't valid in the US? The same page says that data boosts are not valid in the US, but it does not say anything about where the data allowance comes with the SIM.
    koru
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