Anyone used an eSIM to avoid high roaming charges

C0lin61

I was hoping to use O2 which includes free EU roaming; however, they provide no coverage at my home address despite their coverage chart showing "good 4G indoors"

does anyone have experience of using an eSIM to provide cheaper roaming in Europe?

Tony5896

Wouldn't the charges come from the provider not the type of sim ? 
I have used O2 in Greece without extra charges .. 

Voyager2002

Yes: I used an eSIM called Air Alo in Turkey last year. It worked well.

C0lin61

Tony5896 said:

Wouldn't the charges come from the provider not the type of sim ? 
I have used O2 in Greece without extra charges .. 

Thanks,

you're correct that there would be charges from the provider whether it be a Sim or an eSIM. I've not used an eSIM before and wondered if there were any issues? ( The advantage of having an eSIM to cover all of Europe rather than lots of individual physical SIMs seems attractive)
I've previously used O2 abroad; however, O2 does not work at my UK home address so is not an option for me.

silvercar

An eSIM provides data, a set amount for a set price, valid for a certain length of time. Eg £4 for 1GB for a week. Breach the week or the 1GB and you need to top up. Data only , so you need to do calls over Skype/ WhatsApp etc. 

It should work quite smoothly, but you will want to download the provider app and buy your first data before you travel, so you are set up and ready to go without having to search for eg airport Wi-Fi to get started. You need to make sure that your settings are set for data only from the eSIM not your regular SIM. Your phone settings will change to reflect that you now have an option.

DullGreyGuy

C0lin61 said:

I was hoping to use O2 which includes free EU roaming; however, they provide no coverage at my home address despite their coverage chart showing "good 4G indoors"

does anyone have experience of using an eSIM to provide cheaper roaming in Europe?

This is asked about monthly so a quick search on here will show many peoples answers.

I do it the other way round, I have a UK e-sim and then pickup a physical sim in the country going to as they tend to be cheaper and getting esims aren't easy in every country. That said, for a short holiday and being able to deal with it whilst here and not lose holiday time trying to find a mobile phone shop whilst there etc it can be easier to do as suggested... I just tend to travel for months rather than days/weeks where the cost difference starts to add up. 

savergrant

An esim is just a different way of connecting to your chosen network  and allows phones with only one sim slot to have a second connection.

Neil49

I came across this conversation in the Mobiles section and Firsty seemed to attract a lot of interest. It is however, data only

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80801334#Comment_80801334?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=Esim

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/firsty-esim.41337/

Mrnkar_2

C0lin61 said:

I was hoping to use O2 which includes free EU roaming; however, they provide no coverage at my home address despite their coverage chart showing "good 4G indoors"

does anyone have experience of using an eSIM to provide cheaper roaming in Europe?

Lebara UK don't charge for EU roaming so a SIM with them for both home and abroad would work.

michele-p

I'm in the USA now, using my new Lebara sim, it's been such good coverage, I bought the US roaming add on. We were in Amsterdam for 1 night on the way, and the free EU worked there too. Even better is the 100 mins of calls and texts abroad also included per month.

I have swapped my contact to Lebara in last months, I'm paying £2.49 a month for 15gb. At home it's the same coverage as Vodafone, know fact I had 5g for first time after swapping.

Ballard

I used Maya.net in Uruguay & Argentina last year and in Istanbul this year. They worked really well on both trips but I dare say that the alternatives work just as well. 

I’ve very recently switch my UK phone provider to iD which gives me free EU roaming. One thing I hadn’t realised that in going for an eSIM with iD, I can’t have two eSIMs working alongside each other on my iPhone 12 which you can have with a physical. This does make it easier to use a local physical sim abroad though.

One thing I would mention is that in some countries it can be a pain to get a sim due to red tape. Chile took me half a day a few years ago so the option of someone like Maya can be more attractive.