do you use a foreign sim card when abroad and, if so how?

photome

Gloomendoom wrote: »

This is what intrigues me. Whenever I visit a feel at home country, I get a text from Three advising of the rates and, apart from local calls (outside the EU), they are exactly the same as I pay in the UK. I don't convert anything.

Guessing it's because you are on three. I have a contract with o2. But switch the sim when going to the USA, normally there is no credit on my three sim

photome

Blue264 wrote: »

Same here.
I have a dual SIM phone, so just ignore my 'home' sim and insert a local PAYG sim. I've got into the habit of changing the second SIM as the plane lands, or at baggage reclaim, if it's one of my regular countries. If it's somewhere new and non-EU, we get PAYG SIMs at the airport and swap numbers immediately in case we get separated.

Is that cheaper than my £10 method with three

Gloomendoom

The only advantage of swapping to a local local sim that I can see, and it only applies outside the EU, is that you get local calls at a reasonable rate.

Otherwise, it can be very inconvenient. Maybe the best compromise is to take an old/cheap phone with you and use it in that when you make a local call.

Blue264

photome wrote: »

Is that cheaper than my £10 method with three

Wouldn't know. My home Sim is Swisscom and the second one in my dual sim phone is 3 for when I'm in the EU, outside of Switzerland. Haven't been to the US in a good while, but buy a local PAYG Sim for outside the EU.

3 have a limited usage policy and have said they're going to cancel my partners sim a few times when he's forgotten to turn it off in Switzerland.

eDicky

Comparing costs is not so easy - as well as the particular country or countries being visited there is the kind of usage that's required. The OP has not revealed his own purpose.

For a UK holiday-maker in a Three 'Feel at home' country, or since June 15th using any network within Europe, there's no real need for a local SIM.

If you travel frequently for work and need to make and receive local calls then a local SIM is often necessary. You can't usually expect people who need to contact you by phone to make an international call to your UK number. Modern widespread use of messaging apps can often replace the need for phone calls however, and your inclusive data can now be used in Europe, elsewhere also with Three and some other network plans.

Outside Europe I never answer a call or reply to a text using my EE 'home' number, but simply call back or reply (if necessary) using my local SIM in the same handset. A local SIM is also often useful for data and calls using Viber, WhatsApp etc.

I now have a Three 'Data Reward' SIM, which is for mobile broadband but can also be used for calls and texts. I'm going to try using this also next time I travel.

Gloomendoom

Blue264 wrote: »

3 have a limited usage policy and have said they're going to cancel my partners sim a few times when he's forgotten to turn it off in Switzerland.

How long does he leave it on for?

Blue264

Gloomendoom wrote: »

How long does he leave it on for?

He got the first 'warning' after having it live in his dual sim phone for 6 weeks, so he took it out. He's had a warning since, whilst in Greece, but they still haven't switched off the roaming.

I totally agree with edicky's post above. Also, even though 3 feel at home covers Switzerland, there was absolutely no signal in our village until about 2mths ago. There's also no signal at my OH's place in Greece because it's in the shadow of a mountain, but we can go for a few miles in any direction to get the signal back.

knightstyle

We have used a Toggle sim for France for many years. Now that roaming charges have stopped we use our Giffgaff sim in our usual phone for all calls to the UK and the Toggle sim in an old phone for all our calls to France. Works out cheapest way to make our calls.

eDicky

Blue264 wrote: »

He got the first 'warning' after having it live in his dual sim phone for 6 weeks, so he took it out.

A dual SIM phone usually allows either SIM to be simply switched off in the settings.

fifeken

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Maybe the best compromise is to take an old/cheap phone with you and use it in that when you make a local call.

This is what I tend to do. Most of my travel is outside Europe and it allows me to keep my regular phone contactable using wifi.