Going abroad for 4 months: what about my mobile contract?

misscomickat

I'm going to Poland for 4 months next year (maybe a bit longer). I have a contract with 3, for £15 a month I get 600 texts and 75 minutes.

I called 3 and asked what would happen in Poland. From what I could understand, I will have to pay the £15 but won't get any of my allowances. And will be charged 25p a minute for calls (presumably that is to landlines).

I'm not expecting to make lots of calls, but I would like a mobile so I can text my friends and family. Would I be better off getting a Polish SIM card when I'm there?

And is there any way out of having to pay the £15, seeing as I will be getting nothing for my money?

Thank you.

Quentin

You can't get out of paying - could you lend your phone to a trusted person to use whilst you are away?

misscomickat

Yeah I may do that, then at least they can make use of the texts and minutes. Maybe they could pay me a token sum so at least I am not losing £15 a month for nothing.

I won't be earning great money over there so losing £60 from my bank account will pain me

spiritus

if you're on a £ 15 contract then you will have to pay the £ 15 wherever you happen to be living or working.

I'm not a fan of the 3 network but in their defence you can't really expect them to discount your bill just because you won't be using it.

On a recent trip to Poland I decided to take my 3 phone with me and it couldn't get a signal. This was in Gdansk (one of the bigger cities in Poland). After having phoned customer support in India I was still unable to get the phone working. The annoying thing was I have taken other phones to Poland and never had any problems-the phones have always been able to pick up one of the Polish networks.

If you have another phone and it is unlocked then buy a Heyah sim card in Poland (found ay many kiosks). This gives you much cheaper calls within Poland although no sure if it would be cheaper to use your 3 phone to call back home...probably not.

spiritus

sorry, just had a another idea.

If you have access to the internet whilst in Poland then use Skype to contact your family in England.

steve_r123

I know with Orange they will put your contract into abeyance or pause it for the length of time that you are going abroad, so maybe 3 would do the same. It just means that you will get 4 months added on to the end of your contract.

misscomickat

I am concerned about my phone not working, although 3 told me apparently they have an agreement with a Polish network. When I took the phone to Prague a few weeks ago, it couldn't get any signal, while an old nokia on o2 picked up the local signal.

I wouldn't mind extending my contract, at least I could get some use out of the free minutes etc then.

The trouble is I find it hard to understand the accents from the people at the call centre in India, I have hearing troubles and don't understand. Gah.

misscomickat

Oh can someone explain skyp? I will have internet in my flat, got to sort out a laptop though.

spiritus

Skype is just a free program you download from the internet.

You need speakers and a microphone and you can then use the program to speak to other people who have Skype and are on the internet at the same time.