Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

redux

TM's wrote: »

Hi,
I am in need of a mobile phone, mainly to call from France to other France mobiles. Otherwise it will be mostly in the cupboard and turned off, will keep with me on road trips incase the car breaksdown. Most of the information I have found, discusses calls with a UK phone in another country calling back to the UK. So, I am lost. I do not want to spend a lot of money, just something simple to use and cheap. All of the info on the moneysupermarket page has done my head in, to much info and too confusing.

Help. I am leaving soon for France

Credit on French SIM cards expires much faster than here, and so do the SIMs themselves after a while, so don't buy any more credit than likely needed for that one trip and then hope it will still work when you get it out of the cupboard for a subsequent visit

Compare networks and tariffs (and validities of credit and SIM) at http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/france.html

SFR's add-on option of 30 cents per call might be interesting if you'll make quite a few calls, or Orange has various unlimited add-ons at certain times

Or there is a new virtual operator http://www.mobiho.fr/ which also has cheaper international calls (UK 18 cents a minute)

TM's wrote: »

Yes,
But then will what will I use in the UK, or should I just hope I never need to call for breakdown service?

For occasional use when you get back to the UK, get a UK SIM card, as the French one will have roaming rates here for both incoming and outgoing calls. And UK SIMs stay valid longer. It seems that Asda UK are about to launch 8 pence a minute calls.

redux

rbrock wrote: »

I have a O2 contract- but is it cheaper to call uk from europe if you change to a local country provider. O2 automatically changes your network to the one they want you to use, but if you search and choose other providers manually is it cheaper?
rbrock

Altough it's true that they'll change to a local O2/Telefonica network where there is one, O2's ordinary roaming tariffs are the same on all networks in the EU

It might be worth looking at their My Europe Extra add-on, costing £10 a month, with free incoming calls in most of Europe, and 25 pence a minute outgoing. Otherwise, the rates in the EU are 18p/min incoming, 35p/min outgoing.

redux

hillendale wrote: »

Is it possible to get a uk based roaming sim ( 00447) number that can be used when in europe to receive free incoming calls & that when called by family & friends back in the uk it would cost the same as any normal uk mobile number & could even be called using your normal inclusive xnet free minutes . I understand sim cards like sim4travel don't have normal uk based 00447 numbers & can't be called out of any inclusive minutes but wanted to check what others if any do allow this .

All help welcome

As you've realised, several of these roaming SIMs have Isle of Man or Jersey mobile numbers, but these do come out of some but not all contract inclusive minutes.

There is some discussion of this earlier in the thread, and my understanding at the moment is that Virgin include them, Orange include some IoM (don't know for Jersey), Vodafone, 3 and T-mobile do not include any, and some (or perhaps all?) O2 contracts include them all but their website says this is promotional for a temporary period until September (which I hope will be extended), and hardly any O2 staff know anything about this.

If your own contract has inclusive calls to these, you could try forwarding your incoming calls to the roaming SIM, though Virgin doesn't support any call diversion at all.

If that's too complicated to explain to everyone, then cheaper options on ordinary UK SIMs are O2's My Europe Extra (above post), Vodafone Passport or 3's generally lower roaming rates and 3 Like Home in a few countries.

redux

Levis wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice on the best option to use when in Vietnam/ Cambodia/Thailand for a few months.

Between us we have 3mobile and O2 contract phones and would like to call and receive back to the UK. (Australia as well, but I wont complicate things!)

Most of the Global SIM card websites that I have looked at dont seem to work in Vietnam & Cambodia. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Thailand, I think roaming SIMs are more expensive to use, as there's no free roaming, than getting a local SIM. Info at http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/thailand.html

Some of the roaming SIMs have coverage, even free incoming, in Vietnam: Travelsim and some of the IoM SIMs

Cambodia, I don't know much about, but for countries not listed at PPGSM, network info can be tracked down from the GSM World website (but note that its own coverage maps are not well updated)http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_kh.shtml

Thus, there seem to be 5 networks there, with some website info in English, e.g http://www.cellcard.com.kh/vas_communicate_voice_calls.php or http://www.tmic.com.kh/promotion.php?page=Prepaid

In general, there are probably reasonably cheap international calls on the local SIMs. Look for info about IDD (international direct diallling). In Thailand for example, there are different pre-select int'l access options via prefixes such as 007 and 008, and I think this happens elsewhere.

Then you need to find ways for people to reach you. You can brief the most common callers about using cheap calls providers, for example see the MSE Callchecker. O2 contract mobiles can be forwarded to international numbers, but without having checked I think their Asian tariffs might not be that hot. So look into using VoIP providers to forward calls to those foreign SIMs, and probably get an incoming UK landline number from one, which you'll forward your O2 or 3 mobiles to.

In Australia (and Hong Kong, if a flight stops there), you can use 3 Like Home with the 3 phone registered on the local 3 network, which means free incoming calls and using your contract inclusive minutes to call the UK.

srt86hil

Hi, I'm based in France, and I have a French SIM and landline. I want to make calls to Fiji by some means, what would be the best way to do this??

-Alex-

After going on holiday to the US earlier this year I'd recommend anyone who wants a SIM card before they go on holiday to see if any eBay sellers are offering them.

I managed to get a SIM card with a $10 top-up voucher on the AT&T network for $6.49 ($4.99 and $1.50 p&p). So for less than £5 I got a perfectly usable SIM card and enough credit for about 40 minutes talk time to other US numbers, I didn't even bother topping it up! The great thing is you'll know your US phone number before you go on holiday, incase you need to give it as an emergency contact number to any friends and family. Also you'll be able to put the SIM card as soon as you arrive.

The credit only lasts for 30 days unless you top it up, so it's only useful for a single trip. Make sure you activate the SIM card on the website a few days before you go and not when you receive it. Obviously you have to be careful from who you buy from when using eBay, but for less than £5 it isn't much of a risk. Just make sure you give them plenty of time to send it when ordering - it's not something you can rush in the week before you depart.

Much less hassle than dealing with roaming charges or searching for a SIM card when you arrive.

redux

srt86hil wrote: »

Hi, I'm based in France, and I have a French SIM and landline. I want to make calls to Fiji by some means, what would be the best way to do this??

Research cheap calls providers using the landline, such as Appellemonde, Coucoutel, Les Minutes, Reductel, Remisetel, Telerabais, Telesoldes, etc. A Google search for telephone moins cher might help.

Some work by using a prefix select, others via higher-rate non-geographic access numbers, and some are account-based via ordinary landline numbers

Fiji doesn't seem to be amongst the cheapest destinations though

redux

Sim4travel have announced new terms and conditions, starting from 12th October, as discussed on this thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1154097

https://www.sim4travel.net/terms.aspx

The paragraph to read carefully is 8.5, which describes new daily use charges (but not for only being switched on) and a monthly (well, 30 days) maintenance charge if there is no use, starting after 90 days.

Fistral_2

redux wrote: »

Sim4travel have announced new terms and conditions, starting from 12th October, as discussed on this thread

I just activated 2 new sims yesterday and got an email today telling me the T&C have changed.

My plan was to use them while on holiday in Europe for urgent calls between the 2 sims only est. 1 min per day. 2 holidays per year of 7 days each, 6 months apart.

This should have cost me approx. 25p x 14 mins = £3.50 per year.
Quite a bit cheaper than just roaming on my Virgin sims at 38p call and 19p recieve making approx £8.40.
Not a huge saving I suppose so why did I bother? Well if i needed to use them a lot in an emergency it could save me a lot more.

Under the new T&C the same useage would also incurr a 39p per day connection fee per phone, 39p x 14 = £5.46
and 6 months of the year would incurr the maintainance fee of £2 per phone per month = £24
Making the new total cost £3.50 + £5.46 +£24 = £32.96

This is an increase of 942%

I have considered asking for my money back (cards are prepayed) but they have no email address, the phone opperators are sure to quote their T&C that sims can only be returned unopened, and I don't think I can be bothered with litigation.

I think I'll just try to use up all the credit on these simms this holiday and then bin them.
In future I'll just stick to my regular account at Virgin.

I am very dissappointed though with the way in wich the T&C's can be so easily changed without warning so I certainly wouldn't recommend this company for anybody wanting emergency use only.
I hope my experience helps somebody else not to make a bad descision.

redux

well, you the maintenance charge is avoidable if you receive a call every 90 days, which in your case would an extra 78p

when they mentioned refunds to me, they they didn't specify unopened