Sim only deal - good EU roaming

[Chod Jacqui]

Just about to loose my Virgin SIM which had 5gb, unlimited texts and unlimited calls (it came free with my Virgin contract) and looking for something similar or better - i know it want be free! Any suggestions?

 

[bigtwin]

Have you searched the forum?

There’s quite few threads on this topic.

Ian

 

[Figaro]

if you do a search there's lots of info

 

[VXman]

Lebara often have good deals. I'm currently paying 1p (yes one penny!) a month for 12 GB. inc EUU roaming

Lebara UK | Value plans from just £5 a month

Lebara is a mobile network provider in the UK, ideal for the value seeking customer. The brand offers budget friendly SIM Only deals and pay as you go plans with data, UK, and international mins to over 40 countries.

mobile.lebara.com

Also Smarty are good value and often have special offers

Simple, honest mobile

SMARTY is a new SIM-only mobile network that’s built to be fair, transparent and smart.

smarty.co.uk

Both these are not contracts - just pay month to month and leave when you find a better deal.

We use 1p mobile as our main regular phone and the above providers when we need data - i.e on extended motorhome trips.

1p mobile is 1p a minute for calls and texts (and 1p a MB - so not good for data) with a minimum spend of £10 every 4 months - so essentially £30 a year.

UKs cheapest PAYG mobile tariff

1pMobile - great value prepay SIM only deals from PAYG to Unlimited. Switch today - keep your number.

www.1pmobile.com

 

[Colino]

Exclusive Monthly Plan £5.90 | MSM | Lebara Mobile UK

mobile.lebara.com

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[Miggs]

Lebara often have good deals. I'm currently paying 1p (yes one penny!) a month for 12 GB. inc EUU roaming

What has reception been like, ever struggled for a signal anywhere?

 

[Stealaway]

O2 - 20gb for £8 per month and no roaming charges -----yet

 

[Andy MacD]

Check out Popit, 100gb in Europe.

 

[busby]

ID,,100 gb 15 quid a month..BUSBY.

 

[Minxy]

There are quite a few cheap deals on 'HotUKDeals' at the moment for Lebara sims, ranging from 5p a month for 3gb, to 94p a month for 15gb - these are discounted rates for 6 months then go up but as they are 30 days sims you don't need to keep them after the initial period. I'm using a 15gb one at present and have a second one to use too when I need it. We've got 3 of the 3gb ones for our upcoming trip abroad to use in our tablet so we can download pictures from Park4Night and have live traffic updates.

Do a search for 'Lebara' and my user name and you should find the threads.

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[carolyn]

What has reception been like, ever struggled for a signal anywhere?

Hubby plus son and a friend have found that you do have to sometimes reset the APN settings manually when abroad. Nick(hubby) only had to do it on the first trip abroad this year and it’s been ok on subsequent trips but my friend has had to do it every time in her iPhone which was a pain on a recent cruise round Europe as she was having to redo it everyday!

 

[Mad dog]

Just switching from Sky (which I loved because of it's Piggybank facility to bank data), but the £2/day roaming charge is totting up. I'm going to O2 (same network effectively) but going onto the 30gb/month for a tenner a month. Need to go through a comparison site to find this. 25gb is the roaming limit which should be enough.

I've found Sky to work pretty well abroad, some years ago I used 3, but they used to throttle the speed down after a few days away. Wife with Plusnet (EE) at £9 for 12gb, it's a good deal but it doesn't work as well abroad. I always keep us on different networks as often one has service & one doesn't when away!

 

[Alesupper]

Whichever one you go for, make sure you read their 'fair usage' policy. For example, lets say you get a 20GB/month deal in the UK, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can use 20GB/month in the EU without additional charges.

 

[sallys]

ID mobile £16/month …completely unlimited and allows tethering. Just used for 2 months in Europe with no issues at all

 

[07790]

We use an esim from Holafly 90 days unlimited I think we paid about £80 for it works very well. Only down side it can only be used on one device you cannot share the data.

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[Pablo19]

I use an EE sim from Amazon with 120gb of data that lasts a year and no monthly charge. It's great if you have some months when you don't need it at all.

 

[GoldenVision]

There are quite a few cheap deals on 'HotUKDeals' at the moment for Lebara sims, ranging from 5p a month for 3gb, to 94p a month for 15gb - these are discounted rates for 6 months then go up but as they are 30 days sims you don't need to keep them after the initial period. I'm using a 15gb one at present and have a second one to use too when I need it. We've got 3 of the 3gb ones for our upcoming trip abroad to use in our tablet so we can download pictures from Park4Night and have live traffic updates.

I also have a Lebara SIM (1p/12Gb, which is amazing) but have yet to use it in the EU.

I think I read on one of the threads that the maximum EU allowance is based on prior UK usage - is that correct?

Also, do Lebara SIMs need to be activated in the UK before they will work in the EU?

 

[busby]

ID mobile £16/month …completely unlimited and allows tethering. Just used for 2 months in Europe with no issues at all

Same here,,,and unused data rolls over..BUSBY.

 

[Red Sonja]

I also have a Lebara SIM (1p/12Gb, which is amazing) but have yet to use it in the EU.

I think I read on one of the threads that the maximum EU allowance is based on prior UK usage - is that correct?

Also, do Lebara SIMs need to be activated in the UK before they will work in the EU?

We use the same sims. We activated them in the UK and have been away for 6 weeks now. They work perfectly and are easy to manage from the dashboard.

 

[Red Sonja]

I've just upped my Smarty 50gig a month 12 gig EU roaming for £10 a month to a new deal 120gig a month with 12 Gig EU roaming for £12. These are all monthly rolling contracts.. After you have used your allowance of 12gig you can either pay for extra gigs £1 each or pay per day to use your UK allowance. Has been fine on this holiday.

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[Verteuil Man]

We have just changed to these people.

Popit - The No Nonsense Network

Roam Like Home, UK SIM-only deals, the UK's premium budget network. Use data allowance while roaming in the EU. No fuss, UK usage required.

www.popitmobile.co.uk

 

[Pablo19]

We have just changed to these people.

Popit - The No Nonsense Network

Roam Like Home, UK SIM-only deals, the UK's premium budget network. Use data allowance while roaming in the EU. No fuss, UK usage required.

www.popitmobile.co.uk

That's expensive compared to Plusnet which also uses the EE network. I pay £10 for 30gb

 

[GoldenVision]

We use the same sims. We activated them in the UK and have been away for 6 weeks now. They work perfectly and are easy to manage from the dashboard.

So I guess you didn't use them much in the UK before going away?

 

[VXman]

What has reception been like, ever struggled for a signal anywhere?

No, never when abroad. The sim just goes to the best provider in that area. We just use it in an old phone and set as a hotspot so no fancy mifi or aerials. In our last 2 month trip in France, Germany and Italy we steamed UK TV with no issues.

In the UK its slightly different but it uses Vodaphone which is one of the better UK carriers.

 

[BillWeb]

I'd (pun intended) not heard of ID before.
Looked here https://1datasim.com/en/page/results/?gid=1&type=14 Days
Seems expensive. 9.5GBs for 40 Euro.

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[VXman]

So I guess you didn't use them much in the UK before going away?

We are using ours now we are back in the UK and it is generally good. It's on the Vodaphone network so a good provider.It works in many places my EE one doesn't - including my house! As with all providers they tend to work better abroad as .

1) European countries seem to have better cell infrastructure than us
2) It will hop on to a variety of networks depending on which is best so it works better than the UK where they wil only use the one network.

 

[VXman]

I've just upped my Smarty 50gig a month 12 gig EU roaming for £10 a month to a new deal 120gig a month with 12 Gig EU roaming for £12. These are all monthly rolling contracts.. After you have used your allowance of 12gig you can either pay for extra gigs £1 each or pay per day to use your UK allowance. Has been fine on this holiday.

Good for UK use but not cheap for EU use. 12GB is not great for £10 and £1 a gig is very expensive.

 

[The Coops]

Talkmobile, 1000 mins 1000 texts and 30GB data full EU roaming £7.95 pm one month contract leave anytime on the Vodaphone network

 

[VXman]

To the OP - don't forget it is generally cheaper to buy a local sim when you get to your destination. On our recent trip to Italy we got 120GB for 20 euros. In Spain last year we got an even better deal.

 

[Red Sonja]

Good for UK use but not cheap for EU use. 12GB is not great for £10 and £1 a gig is very expensive.

Sorry the 12gig european is included in the price of the plan. Thats their fair usage not extra.

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