UK SIM card for occasional visits to uk

bigmark63

Hi all i live in the EU and want to know if any uk mobile provider can provide a SIM card i can use for occasional visits to uk like maybe only 3 times a year, it needs to be a UK number and will not expire if i dont visit for maybe 6 months or can be kept active my using briefly while in EU 

savergrant

I think you will struggle if you cannot commit to using it once in the UK every 90 days. Sadly I suspect usage whilst roaming won't count and most networks monitor usage and will not allow usage outside the UK to be more than UK home usage.
Do you have family in the UK that could keep the sim active for you, then you collect it from them when you visit the UK?

Cisco001

Lebara expire if you haven't been use for 180 days.

You can pick up SIM card easily from shop.

Ms_Chocaholic

How about GiffGaff, as I understand from here, as long as you use it once every 6 months it will remain active.

https://community.giffgaff.com/d/33970215-sim-card-validity-period

eDicky

Will it remain switched off while in EU apart from the rare usage to prevent expiry, (which will count as chargeable event while roaming), or continuous use to receive bank OTPs etc..?

Stuart_W

RWG offer a "buy and forget" SIM card - you can choose a 5 year one for £15.99. It specifically says " it will never expire" - it comes with 100MB each month but you can add a £10 top up for credit (again this doesn't expire) for either pay-as-you-go rates (5p/min, 5p/text, 1p/MB) or add one-off bundles for the short times it is in use (eg £3 for 1000 mins/1000 texts, or £3 for 1GB of data - plenty of others to choose) 

They will probably require a UK address for it to be registered to.

Buy & Forget (rwgmobile.wales)

LeesArt

Stuart_W said:

RWG offer a "buy and forget" SIM card - you can choose a 5 year one for £15.99. It specifically says " it will never expire" - it comes with 100MB each month but you can add a £10 top up for credit (again this doesn't expire) for either pay-as-you-go rates (5p/min, 5p/text, 1p/MB) or add one-off bundles for the short times it is in use (eg £3 for 1000 mins/1000 texts, or £3 for 1GB of data - plenty of others to choose) 

They will probably require a UK address for it to be registered to.

Buy & Forget (rwgmobile.wales)

I checked out their site and they ask what size SIM you want, are they not providing the single sim where you pull out the size you want?

savergrant

That does seem strange, I have sims from rwg and they are all pop out to size.
If the sim is 'data only' can you add payg credit and make/receive calls?

mrcamp

As suggested, GiffGaff and other similar sims will do what you are requesting. Giffgaff will expire if there is no chargeable activity in 180 days. So the occasional sending a text, taking or making a roaming call, or data usage will all count as chargeable activity. Incoming text is free roaming or not. So that will not count.