Keeping a UK mobile phone account active when moving within Europe

LizA

I am looking at moving to another European country and wonder whether I can keep my UK mobile phone account active and use it overseas as I would like to keep my UK number. Does anyone know if there are good deals out there for this; whether this is actually do-able or whether there is a limit for usage? Thank you!

Frozen_up_north

Friends spend nearly all their time in Spain and have a dual SIM Samsung phone (not sure which model, was around £120 unlocked/SIM free). They have an O2 (UK) PAYG SIM in one slot and a Spanish one in the other.

They only return to the UK every six months or so, and have not lost the use of the O2 SIM... that’s not to say they will not be cut off at some stage.

The UK SIM is very handy as it means their UK friends can call them for free using bundled minutes and there is no charge to receive the incoming calls on the roaming SIM.

There are no guarantees roaming will continue “for free” under semi permanent roaming, at least with PAYG if it stops it’s not too much loss financially.

Browntoa

A cheap sim only contract on direct debit from a UK bank will be fine

eddddy

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

They have an O2 (UK) PAYG SIM in one slot and a Spanish one in the other.

They only return to the UK every six months or so, and have not lost the use of the O2 SIM... that’s not to say they will not be cut off at some stage.

Yes - O2 say:

O2 Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go Consumer Fair Usage Policy

You may only use our services in our Europe Zone (excluding the UK) for periodic travel, like holidays or short breaks. If you’re not genuinely using our services for periodic travel we may have to charge you for, or suspend you from, using our services in our Europe Zone (excluding the UK).
....
If you use our services outside the UK in our Europe Zone for 60 or more days in any four month period this is likely to be deemed to be an unfair use of our services.

https://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile/o2-consumer-fair-usage-policy

Other operators have similar terms for both payg and paym - EE say:

Our PAYG service is intended for customers with a stable link to the UK who travel abroad periodically. It is not intended for customers roaming on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. We will consider you have a stable link to the UK if spend a total of 60 days or more during any 120 day period within the UK. If your usage abroad in the EU/EEA/Switzerland exceeds this, you will be alerted by text, and after a 2-week period we may charge you for services you use or block your SIM card and roaming services.

http://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help/help-pdfs/roaming-for-payg-customers-20170615.pdf

And vodafone...

We’ll send you a text requesting you moderate your usage in our Roam-free destinations if you use them for a total of 2 months or more during any 4-month period. If your usage in any of our Roam-free destinations continues to exceed this allowance after a 2-week period from which you first received this text, we may charge you for further use or bar your roaming services

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/consumer/mobile/calling-and-travelling-abroad/vodafone-global-roaming/index.htm

I know somebody living in France who has their Three sim blocked for this reason. I don't know how aggressively other operators enforce this.