Long term overseas PAYG

UncleJoes

I have been looking into this as well. From my enquiries only giffgaff and Lebara allow a 'chargeable event' to be done from overseas. Everyone else requires it to be done in the UK. Currently giffgaff needs activity every 6 months and Lebara every 3 months. 

Frozen_up_north

mr_mf said:

Giffgaff is fine outside the UK - my son does this, and has for a number of years, as he lives in Finland (he has a dual SIM phone with a UK eSIM and Finnish physical SIM installed).  All you have to do is make a chargeable event whilst roaming, such as sending one text every 180 days, so a total cost of 20p per year.

This is a cut and paste from the GiffGaff terms and conditions:
”If you use our services outside the UK in the EU and our other selected destinations for 63 or more days in any four-month period and you cannot demonstrate prevailing use or presence in the UK this is likely to be deemed to be an unfair use of our services. When this happens charges will apply”
While the charges are only 3p per minute on calls, the T&Cs go on to state you are liable to have your service ceased.

These limitations are pretty standard across most networks, although there are some dedicated SIMs available for travellers… from memory they are quite expensive.

mr_mf

What you are stating only applies if you have an active Goodybag which includes EU roaming see https://community.giffgaff.com/d/34188830-i-am-going-to-europe-for-at-least-12-months?near=12

If you are on pure PAYG you aren't actually using the Roam Like At Home services, and the 63 days thing doesn't matter.  My son just uses a local SIM (which is actually quite cheap) for data and calls which he is abroad, and keeps the Giffagaff number active for UK 2FA uses.   If he comes back to the UK he buys a Goodybag again.