Best Travel Sim card?

[ramboflyer]

On our last overseas trip in 2015 I purchased an Australia Post travel sim card which I have kept active. With this sim you are allocated a Estonian (sounds like something out of Dilbert) phone number.

It worked out ok but I wonder if there is a suitable alternative where you can keep your own number? This can be helpful for those back home you didnt give your Elbonian number to and sometimes you give airlines and hotels contact numbers and out of habit you give them your normal mobile number.

I was told in the past that Vodaphone have a sim you can use for $5 a day. You are charged if you use the phone and then only a maximum of $5 a day. I dont know if I misunderstood or if it has changed but having a look at the Vodaphone web site it seems that you have to sign up to a plan and then your $5 gets you access to your normal phone and data usage.

I dont want to sign up to a plan as I am very happy with the Aldi prepaid deal that I currently have.

We are heading overseas again later this year (Italy & Greece) and I wonder if there is a sim where I could keep my own number and not cost a fortune. Data is not that important as there plenty of free wifi to use these days.

 

[daft009]

For Europe I've just found this SIM, valid for upto 15months, Vodafone YOU NL prepaid 4G SIM, No roaming costs in Europe and The Netherlands.

Always bought one once I landed but this time I'm hoping to reuse this on every trip as i go once a year minimum

 

[VPS]

For Europe I've just found this SIM, valid for upto 15months, Vodafone YOU NL prepaid 4G SIM, No roaming costs in Europe and The Netherlands.

Always bought one once I landed but this time I'm hoping to reuse this on every trip as i go once a year minimum

That sounds like a great deal

 

[daft009]

Yeah the Dutch don't need ID to buy a SIM as per my research, hence this is available online.

Waiting for mine to arrive, should be this week.

 

[greenfrog86]

I've used a Three UK sim from simcorner (or bought in London if starting there) a few times in Europe now.

It is much better value than roaming for a millennial who wants to stay connected with data being the key - SMS and calls are almost irrelevant to me.

The 12GB allowance is amazing and can be used not only in Europe but also other countries like HK so can be helpful on the way home too...

 

[TheRealTMA]

Yeah the Dutch don't need ID to buy a SIM as per my research, hence this is available online.

Waiting for mine to arrive, should be this week.

Yes the same applies in the UK. Go figure! In this day of <insert outrage here> it is amazing that they do not have any track of who has bought or is using what sim. I used to wonder why on British Cop TV dramas they always said "Oh, he's using a burner/PAYG sim phone so we can't find our who he is!".

Not in Italy or Spain where you need Passport.

 

[daft009]

Yeah the Dutch don't need ID to buy a SIM as per my research, hence this is available online.

Waiting for mine to arrive, should be this week.

Mine arrived and its setup.
Once you register for my voda, they offer €5 free credit if you confirm your address, I just entered a hotel address in Amsterdam then recharged €20 using Aussie credit card.
Both the amounts did take around 6hrs to appear as being available, now have 4gb to use over a month using a €20 plan.

 

[MikeG]

I was rather happy with the 3 UK Sim with roaming. Except in Germany where the free roaming did not work...

 

[NZflygirl]

You guys are crazy. Just get a local sim and pop it in your phone. Despite what you think - You do not need your aussie# connected 24/7 while overseas, and if you do - get a dual sim phone which man are better than iphones anyway.

I had a cheap Motorola dual sim and really loved it - until it started coughping out. Anyway thought I'd split to the iPhone for NZ (partner bought an Apple Watch and I didn't have an up to date iPhone - love him but he didn't think that one through), and bought a Samsung A5 for Oz as old iPhone no longer getting apps updated I wanted. Really missing the dual sim.

Painful to redo contacts.
Pics you want to share sometimes are on one phone and not another. The Samsung A5 camera isn't as good as the iPhone.
Prefer using the iPhone but end up being charged for roaming if I use it in Oz when I've paid for the Samsung and prepay plan.
Notes etc you do at the time are all in the same place.
Have 2 different charger cords. Funnily enough the MacBook cord fits the phone so I just use that.
Was better to just click a couple of buttons when the plane lands and you're sorted than mucking around with 2 phones. Still got calls messages etc no matter where I was and it didn't matter what number someone called me on rather than now looking at Oz phone when in NZ and seeing missed call if I didn't have the phone with me. Had carrier issues in Oz after having to change the type of SIM card and ended up borrowing a phone at times to sort as using my NZ # wasn't appropriate.

Really wish I had just upgraded to a better dual sim phone but in NZ was only available from parallel imports or so I was told and I was too nervous about buying from the internet.

 

[daft009]

if you guys are after a dual sim phone, definitely checkout the Motorola Moto G4+, G5+, Z play, Z2 play.
These are usually only available outright from officeworks, jb hifi etc & plenty of sellers from HK

I have the Moto Z play personally, has 2x SIM slots + a dedicated SD card slot.

Quite a few other brands share the SIM2 slot with the memory card.
I need the memory card to load up movies & music etc for when I go travelling and thats the same time I need sim2 active..

 

[MikeG]

Make your iPhone dual-sim with this

GoodTalk S DUAL SIM DEVICE - 2 SIMS ACTIVE AT THE SAME TIME! – MagicSim

 

[TheRealTMA]

Make your iPhone dual-sim with this

GoodTalk S DUAL SIM DEVICE - 2 SIMS ACTIVE AT THE SAME TIME! – MagicSim

Interesting. Tried one?

 

[MikeG]

No, but I've been tempted if I ever have the need for dual sim cards... There's other Bluetooth solutions like this around... There's also apparently a daughter-board dual sim option for the iPhone but I'm hesitant to try that one...

 

[moa999]

Note the linked unit is only 2G - which is being phased out in a number of countries

 

[MikeG]

There's also this

MAGICSIM ELITE - iPHONE 6S DUAL SIM ADAPTER – MagicSim

 

[VPS]

There's also this

MAGICSIM ELITE - iPHONE 6S DUAL SIM ADAPTER – MagicSim

I'd appreciate it if someone would buy this and let us know how you get on (please)

 

[GeorgeMM]

Just bought a new iPad Pro that has an imbedded apple sim in addition to the usual sim slot. According to the blurb you should be able to load a sim plan when in another participating country onto the embedded apple sim (using the "set up mobile " function on the iPad Pro). But have been unable to find out which telcos in which countries offer plans for the embedded apple sim. No one in the Local Apple Store knew, and the info on Apple'a site is rather sparse (no details of plans).
Has anyone used the embedded apple sim overseas? And if so, what was the cost and data allowance on the plan?

 

[ChrisDPom]

For Europe I've just found this SIM, valid for upto 15months, Vodafone YOU NL prepaid 4G SIM, No roaming costs in Europe and The Netherlands.

Always bought one once I landed but this time I'm hoping to reuse this on every trip as i go once a year minimum

Much better than the Vodaphone shop at Paddington coming in from Heathrow last month.

"Why isn't this SIM working?"

"They go inactive after 3 months without use" :shock:

 

[ChrisDPom]

NB: I have 9 SIMs for Europe!!

Be aware that some SIMs will not get the free global roaming - depends on the plan it is purchased under and what it offers (some with data only will not go free roaming as an example). I had to use 4 different ones in 7 countries on the last visit as some were supposed to work but didn't (bugs in the system, especially O2 in Germany and Vodaphone in Switzerland).

So if you already have a Euro SIM, check with the provider before topping it up if visiting more than 1 country. May have to replace the SIM.

 

[karen blancfield]

I'm with Virgin mobile ... Just spent a week in the USA.

For $30, I kept my own phone number and had half a gigabyte of data.

With the amount of WiFi around this was perfectly adequate for 8 days.

My biggest use was google maps using the navigator facility around Texas.

Have you tried maps.me? You don't need to be online to use it, just download the area map in a fee wifi zone before you need it. We think it works really well, all over the world.

 

[burmans]

Thanks, a timely reminder for me. I'm happy to use wifi when I can get it as long as I can get some sort of directions, particularly when I will be hiring a car.