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Overseas roaming

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Marvel1
Marvel1 Posts: 7,441 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
edited 16 April 2022 at 4:05PM in Mobiles
I have a SIM only deal with Lebra.

Outside Europe they charge £15 per Mb for data roaming - caps at £46.

I'm looking for a SIM that I can use abroad, I know the advice is not to use data roam and use Wi-Fi.  The issue I'm worried about is I can Wi-Fi from hotel to book Uber/Lyft to take where I ned to go, BUT I need to arrange to get back and wary there won't be anywhere or struggle for Wi-Fi if too weak and stuck.

I need that reassurance, that I'm stuck I'm covered as can data roam instead.

Any ideas on "special" sims for it?

The country is the USA

Comments

  • eDicky
    eDicky Posts: 6,835 Forumite
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    edited 16 April 2022 at 4:00PM
    You don't mention which countries. Outside Europe a local SIM might be best, ideally in a dual-SIM handset.
    Evolution, not revolution
  • cymruchris
    cymruchris Posts: 5,562 Forumite
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    In most countries you can buy a pay as you go sim card on arrival - pop a bit of credit on it - and you're good to go for a few days. There's usually some kind of 'tourist deal' for 7/14 days to include a chunk of data. If you mention which country you're going to - someone will have bound to have been there and give you an idea of what's available.
  • Marvel1
    Marvel1 Posts: 7,441 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    eDicky said:
    You don't mention which countries. Outside Europe a local SIM might be best, ideally in a dual-SIM handset.
    Now added
  • zagfles
    zagfles Posts: 21,491 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Chutzpah Haggler
    I'd get a better SIM deal - £15 per MB is unbelievable, it's predatory pricing. It's £15,000 per GB. It's about time providers were forced to show the per GB price for mobile data usage as people typically use GBs of data per month these days. 
    I'm on 1pmobile and just checked their USA roaming rate and it's 2p per MB, ie £20 per GB, 750 times cheaper. Even that is expensive if you use a lot of data, but it's reasonable for occasional use.
    The cheapest way would be a local SIM as above, but getting a local SIM every time you go abroad is too much hassle for me so I just make sure my usual SIM has reasonable roaming rates.
  • BUFF
    BUFF Posts: 2,185 Forumite
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    edited 16 April 2022 at 10:19PM
    Have a look at Three's PAYG sims (they don't currently incur the £5/day roaming charge that their contract sims will do after May 23)

    https://www.three.co.uk/support/roaming/united-states#payg as you would be a new sim makes sure to check the tariff for New PAYG, not the old one.
  • Marvel1
    Marvel1 Posts: 7,441 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 17 April 2022 at 6:32AM
    BUFF said:
    Have a look at Three's PAYG sims (they don't currently incur the £5/day roaming charge that their contract sims will do after May 23)

    https://www.three.co.uk/support/roaming/united-states#payg as you would be a new sim makes sure to check the tariff for New PAYG, not the old one.
    Doesn't seem too bad and seems reasonable enough, up to 12GB shouldn't be an issue considering I'm  on 2GB now and have never gone over.
  • merchcon55
    merchcon55 Posts: 305 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper
    I travel to USA often and 3 works very well. In Greater New York City area, 3 will use either ATT or T Mobile as the network provider. Get yourself a PAYG SIM, but instead of 5p per MB charge, top up, then use the top up to get a data package (say 3GB) - this will be cheaper.
  • P1Fanatic
    P1Fanatic Posts: 376 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper
    BUFF said:
    Have a look at Three's PAYG sims (they don't currently incur the £5/day roaming charge that their contract sims will do after May 23)

    https://www.three.co.uk/support/roaming/united-states#payg as you would be a new sim makes sure to check the tariff for New PAYG, not the old one.
    Interesting. Three finally caught up with my Unlimited SIM only plan that hasn't gone up in 9 years and are forcing me to move onto another plan. One of the main reasons I stayed with them was the free roaming in US and EU. PAYG seems a decent option as I don't really need crazy amounts of data. But probably just a matter of time before they add the daily roaming charges to PAYG as well.

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