Pre-paid SIM card for Europe

[neihn]

. Wow, every place has been amazing.

Same assessment here what's an experience - I took > 6000 photos and few hours videos, still very excite to watch the videos and look at the photos.

 

[explanade]

Does that have a time limit on it? The Simcorner card I bought had a 30 day limit. Does TIM work all over Europe?


Where in Italy are you? We are currently in Lucca after visiting Rome, Siena, San Gimignano (day trip) and Florence. Wow, every place has been amazing. France is next then 3 nights in Switzerland, then Austria then Germany then NYC via a cruise from Hamburg. We get home July 4th.

It has 30 day limit. EU roaming is like 5-6 GB. And it’s at full speed because last year, I got it and on my flight back, I connected in Frankfurt and it was real fast there.

I’m in Puglia, going to Amalfi and Capri next week.

Coming back in July for Tuscany, maybe Umbria, finishing up in Venice.

 

[explanade]

Same assessment here what's an experience - I took > 6000 photos and few hours videos, still very excite to watch the videos and look at the photos.

Very nice pic!

Use a tripod?

Man I kept putting off taking night photos of Paris for so long. Now Notre Dame probably won’t be lit up at night time for years.

 

[neihn]

Very nice pic!

Use a tripod?

Man I kept putting off taking night photos of Paris for so long. Now Notre Dame probably won’t be lit up at night time for years.

Yes, I used a tripod - it was a 6 seconds shot, with f11, iso 200.

 

[RunningBum]

Is buying a card locally the best way to go? I see prepaid sim cards from Amazon that work in most/all European countries, and all I care about is Iceland. Am I better off with a local company SIM to avoid roaming?

I'm also weighing that vs. a mobile hotspot for $9/day. My phone is unlocked but my son's is not. But I can just set up a wifi hotspot with my phone for him to use. Assuming I can still do that with the new SIM card.

 

[explanade]

Is buying a card locally the best way to go? I see prepaid sim cards from Amazon that work in most/all European countries, and all I care about is Iceland. Am I better off with a local company SIM to avoid roaming?

I'm also weighing that vs. a mobile hotspot for $9/day. My phone is unlocked but my son's is not. But I can just set up a wifi hotspot with my phone for him to use. Assuming I can still do that with the new SIM card.

Depends on the country. Some have more competitive markets than others.

Also no guarantee that their prepaid SIMs allow hot spots.

You should be able to do better than $9 a day though I’ve heard Iceland is expensive.

You can Google Prepaid data wikia Iceland.

 

[Helen]

Coming back in July for Tuscany, maybe Umbria, finishing up in Venice.

Is this because of the VISA limitations?

 

[explanade]

No my current trip is going to be over 22 days.

I got good airfare deal to fly this time of year.

Better weather in July.

 

[Helen]

Well this is weird, my Simcorner card is now working and it is fast. It didn't work in Rome or early on in Siena then I quit trying until today in Lucca. It worked all day today. I think I still have two weeks on it.

 

[flintnational]

Have fun in Lucca! Glad the phone is working.

 

[Chuckanut]

I quit trying until today in Lucca. It worked all day today. .

Obviously, you had Good Lucca.

 

[neihn]

It didn't work in Rome

I noticed the when I was inside of St. Peter's Basilica, they killed all cell phone signals.

 

[sengsational]

Well this is weird, my Simcorner card is now working and it is fast. It didn't work in Rome or early on in Siena then I quit trying until today in Lucca. It worked all day today. I think I still have two weeks on it.

Hopefully this is the most recent 'European SIM' thread!


Helen, I see from the posts you made while traveling that your SIM from simcorner worked, for the most part.


I'm now in the market for a multi-European-country SIM (which I guess is all European SIMs, based on a post, above, stating that roaming is a given across all providers in the EU).


The 'problem' is that I leave 33 days after I land. Hehe! A "problem" to be in Europe for over 30 days! But when most of the cards are for 30 days, that is a problem. The cards I've been looking at say the solution is to buy multiple SIMs for longer since you can't top-up. I guess I just buy two, and throw away 27 days, since some of the most important days are the logistics of entering and leaving, so want coverage.


Features I'm looking for:

• Talk/Text/Data (Some cards are data-only. I was looking at 'dataroam', but that's data only, and I'd like to be able to call a hotel or something, and have them call me back. Most don't let you call back to the US, which is fine...see next bullet).
• Tethering allowed (Some cards don't allow tethering. But this is an absolute requirement for me. I put this SIM in my [separate] European phone, set-up the hot spot, and call the US from my regular phone. I also can use my regular phone the same way I do from my living room. I was looking at UK THREE, but they don't allow tethering).
• Prepaid (I don't want to mess around trying to get money loaded)
• The right duration (Most cards are 30 days. I'd rather have 33 or more days. I see a few 60 day options, but only for data-only cards.)

I see that there are 60 day "data-only" cards for $27 (dataroam on Amazon). I might just go with that, and give up having a European phone number while over there. But not having the ability to text or call a European number bugs me. In the past, I didn't use it much, but on the occasion I did, I was glad I had it. I recall one place I stayed had a sign on the door and used text message as the "doorbell"!


Or I could buy two of the 30 day talk/text/data cards, but I'd be throwing away most of the second one. Again, nice problem to have. So if anyone has any recommendations for how I might proceed, please advise.

 

[explanade]

Some carriers have revoked roaming in other countries.

For instance, all Austrian carriers seemed to have removed roaming for their prepaid products.

I just returned from a trip. Bought a 10 Euro SIM in Vienna which had 8 GB of data on it. I used about 5 GB in a week.

Then I drove across the border to Italy and popped in my TIM SIM card into my iPad, then went to a TIM store and activated their SuperGiga 40 plan for 22 Euros.

I used about 25 GB of the 40 GB allotted in Italy in two weeks. The last day of this trip, I drove back to Austria and used it there overnight and then on my flight back I used it at Frankfurt airport while waiting for my connecting flight back to the US.

So the Austrian SIM didn't have roaming, the Italian SIM did.


For your trip, I'd look at the first country where you'll be staying, see what the options are there.

https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Prepaid_SIM_with_data

 

[sengsational]

For your trip, I'd look at the first country where you'll be staying, see what the options are there.

Thanks for the opportunity to learn more...I checked out that fandom for Greece. Lots of info there. If you have the ability to interpret, does anything stand-out there to you?

I'm sailing west from Athens to Spain, stopping at the usual suspects between the two. My standard M.O. has been getting something in-country, but this time I was thinking of buying something before I left, just to simplify life. The fandom page shows a lot of information and kind of the reason I want to buy before I go, hehe!

Typically, I wander around the first airport I land in to find the cell phone kiosk and hope that they speak English. Then I try to communicate "must have tethering" give them some munny and hope for the best. It usually works, but thought I'd try to eliminate the wandering and hoping this time.

 

[explanade]

Airport deals may not be the best. In a city center like Athens, you should have no problems finding English speaker clerks.

Thing you have to study is if there are limits imposed on roaming.

For instance, that Italian SIM I got had 40 GB of local use but only 5 GB of roaming use.

I've also used SIMs which roam find but at slower speeds, like 3G when I drove from Spain to France for a day trip.

I think if you mainly used data, you wouldn't have to worry about getting a phone number. Then you could use things like WhatsApp, which I've used a lot to contact hotels and Airbnb hosts. Or at worst you can use an app. like Viber where you can purchase like 10 Euros of credits and call actual phones, though they can't actually call you back.

Even with local SIMs, if you get a SIM with a Greek number, would a Spanish hotel call or text you back? Ideally they have WhatsApp and you could communicate back and forth (I mainly use chat instead of voice or video calls).

I would often email the hotel or B&B and ask whether they have WhatsApp numbers. Sometimes they would ask me to call or text them before I arrive because they don't have 24-hour reception. So they would provide their personal cell numbers which have WhatsApp on them.

So I mostly get data SIMs or even with minutes, I rarely make voice calls. For that I have my iPhone with T-Mobile roaming so at worst it's 25 cents a minute and free international texting to covered countries.

I don't have much experience with the 3 UK SIMs which are apparently sold on Amazon and eBay. Supposedly you can activate them in the US just before you leave and it should work in all the countries.

If you look up entries for 3 in different countries, they're usually the cheapest but the least amount of coverage in many countries.

Just took a quick look at the offerings in Greece. Sounds like cap of 4 GB for roaming so it probably won't last you too long once you've left Greece.

Maybe get the cheapest plan you can with enough data that you expect you'll use, then look at the offerings in the next country.

Like I said, Italy has some competitive prices but they have a rather low roaming cap.

 

[sengsational]

I've decided to get a 60 day data-only SIM mail order before I go. Then, if at the city center I happen to run run into a cheap (€10) SIM with texting and calling, I'll get that too, as it's a dual SIM phone.

 

[explanade]

A lot of hotels have slow Wifi.

So if there are cheap data SIMs, may be worth getting one there after you've run out, though you have to make sure tethering or personal hot spot is allowed.

Sometimes, personal hotspot only works with Android devices but not iOS or vice versa.

They do definitely put caps on roaming. So they can give you 15 GB of data but only roam up to 4 GB.

 

[OldShooter]

I dunno. I thought the days of screwing with SIMs when traveling were over. They are over for us with Project Fi (200+ countries) and I have read that T-Mobile also has good international coverage.

Project Fi is especially nice for us because they give us free data-only SIMs for our tablets, so no need to set up a phone as a hot spot.

One could even buy a Nexus 5X phone on CraigsList, sign up for Project FI during the trip, then cancel and sell the phone afterwards.

 

[audreyh1]

So glad I don’t have to mess with SIMs in Europe anymore.

 

[explanade]

Project Fi is $10 a gigabyte?

You can do A LOT better.


And there's no messing around with SIM. You pop the SIM tray open, you put in new SIM and it just works.

You might have to enter the APN settings but otherwise ...

Now devices have eSIMs but the offers on those are not as competitive yet.

Maybe that will change.

 

[candrew]

I thought the days of screwing with SIMs when traveling were over. They are over for us with Project Fi (200+ countries)

Project Fi is especially nice for us because they give us free data-only SIMs for our tablets, so no need to set up a phone as a hot spot.

One could even buy a Nexus 5X phone on CraigsList, sign up for Project FI during the trip, then cancel and sell the phone afterwards.

Not so fast.

We thought that our days of screwing with local SIMs and calling plans outside the U.S. were over as we are also with Google Fi. That depends. On arrival in Guatemala 4 days ago, DW's phone (Google Fi) said: "Welcome to Guatemala,we've got you covered" but could not provide any service at all. After spending over an hour with Fi customer support that included jumping through countless troubleshooting hoops - still no service with an assurance by support that our case would be "escalated" and that the "higher resolution team" would contact us shortly via email.

Crickets.

We make contact with Fi support again and are told that the "higher resolution team" is working on our case. In asking support about us having to pay Google Fi for service that they are seemingly unable to provide in Guatemala - even though it is on their list of covered areas - we are told to take that up when our next monthly bill comes in. "Maybe you should look into getting a local SIM and calling plan"

Based on Google Fi's website community page, it appears we are not alone here in Guatemala when it comes to Fi being unable to provide their customers with the service that they advertise. Adding insult to injury, we have further learned that Fi has also arbitrarily suspended the service of some customers without warning!

Here is an excerpt from Fi's Terms of Service https://fi.google.com/about/tos/#welcome

"The Services are offered only to residents of the United States. The Services must be primarily used in the United States and are not intended for extended international use. Further, the Services are designed for use predominantly within our network. If your usage outside our network is excessive, abnormally high, or cause us to incur too much cost, we may, at our option and sole discretion, suspend your Google Fi account, terminate your service, or limit your use of roaming."

Fortunately, my phone is not Fi compatible so I get a local SIM and calling plan when we travel. I will say that having traveled through 4 continents and 11 different countries since January, Guatemala is the first country where we've had a problem with Fi's service. OTH, it is Fi's poor responsiveness to not only our particular issue but to other customers as well that gives us pause.

 

[candrew]

Project Fi is $10 a gigabyte?

You can do A LOT better.


And there's no messing around with SIM. You pop the SIM tray open, you put in new SIM and it just works.

You might have to enter the APN settings but otherwise ...

Now devices have eSIMs but the offers on those are not as competitive yet.

Maybe that will change.

I'm doing a lot better in Guatemala getting a local SIM and 30 day plan through TIGO. 2.5GB data (and I probably won't use half of it), plus calling and WhatsApp for $19 US.

After getting crapped on and ghosted by Fi customer support over lack of service issues here in Guatemala, they have likely lost DW as a customer.

 

[OldShooter]

Project Fi is $10 a gigabyte?

You can do A LOT better. ...

I doubt it. The rate is $10/Gig and we pay only for what we use. Some months here at home our data billing is less than a dollar. Traveling, it rarely exceeds $20. Except when driving, we almost always have WiFi, even outside the US. So no data charges most of the time.

One factor is that we use Copilot GPS for navigation. Copilot country or region maps are downloaded to the phone. Once downloaded we don't worry about cell coverage or cell data fees. The maps just work.

And there's no messing around with SIM. You pop the SIM tray open, you put in new SIM and it just works.

You might have to enter the APN settings but otherwise ...

I understand how to change SIMs, but when we get to a new country we do ... (wait for it!) ... nothing. No finding and buying a SIM card, no change of telephone numbers. Fi is also handy for short stops, like making a call from the transit lounge in Seoul. I suppose that if you are going to just one country with no intermediate stops you could be happy with buying one SIM card, but I can't remember a trip like that except driving in Canada a few years ago. That was in the Bad Old Days and I did have to find and buy a SIM card.

Travel is expensive; ours typically runs well north of $500/day and sometimes north of $1000. No way do I want to screw around finding and buying SIM cards when I could use that time for learning about the country.

Not so fast.

We thought that our days of screwing with local SIMs and calling plans outside the U.S. were over as we are also with Google Fi. That depends. On arrival in Guatemala 4 days ago, DW's phone (Google Fi) said: "Welcome to Guatemala,we've got you covered" ...

No surprise really. Dealing with 200 countries and many more cell carriers I think it's unrealistic to expect perfection. Even in the US we run into areas where coverage is weak or nonexistent. Life's a tradeoff. I would rather travel with a high probability of having no-hassle cell service than travel knowing that I have to chase down and buy a SIM card in every country we visit. In May we did Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria with transit at Schiphol. Six cards ?!!? No thanks. Sorry to hear about your hassle, though.

 

[explanade]

I paid 10 Euros for 8 GB of data in Vienna, used 5 GB in a week.

I paid 22 Euros for 40 GB of data, including 5 GB roaming in other EU countries, used 25 GB in 2 weeks, mostly in Italy but also in Austria and Germany on my way back.

$10 a gig was competitive about 2 years ago.