Giffgaff reduce their roaming allowance to 5 GB and then charge £100 /GB.

[Platelet]

O2 are still giving 25gb. Ive watched qualifying and 2 F1 races on catch up and wife has caught up with Masterchef, supplementing with a Spanish card for other stuff.

That’s interesting as GifGaf uses O2!

 

[Richard n Ann]

I rang plusnet the other day, they are upgrading my monthly plan to 32GB and reducing my bill to £10/month.

 

[Camdoon]

Plan to go payg with Tesco as wife works in school and away for summer holidays so will be OK this year. Next year is UK then Oz so kick the issue down the road for a couple of years.

 

[drmartinwhite]

I dumped giffgaf back in January when they wanted to charge me for roaming despite only getting 1/4 of what i was getting in the uk for the same money.

Im going with smarty instead 100gb for £12

Be careful, I have Smarty. 2 things, not the best coverage in the UK, but ok at the price. SIM card came with my MFI unit, and I just keep paying the £10 a month cos I am a bit too lazy to change. However, I am up France now and Smarty is limited to 12GB fair use roaming, incidentally I only used less that 1 GByte before Smarty were sending me texts saying I was getting close to my 12 Gb limit. Good thing about Smarty is that it uses the Orange network in France, not the best but good. So if you are happy to use <= 12 Gb than Smarty is ok IMHO. However, do switch to the £8 package as that only gives 12 Gb anyway. Also, you can take multiple Smarty SIMs at £8 per 12 GB, so 4 Smarty Sims => £24 giving 36 Gb, which works out cheaper than my SFR La Carte Sim.

If you are up France (or anywhere in the EU) there are loads of options. I only had two Smarty Sims with me, I just popped into a tabac and bought an SFR tourist card, called La Carte, I think cost 35 Euros for a month, and get 35 Gb, I think. You pop the sim into your mobile to register, bit confusing if you don’t understand the French response you get back, but your mobile will have a translate, then as for me I transferred the SFR sim to my MIFI router. Incidentally, you need to set the region and probably APN if you use the Smarty up France as smarty use the UK three APN.

Next trip, depending on length of trip I will problem take multiple Smarty sims.

 

[jaygee]

I changed to Smarty when my 3 contract ran out a few months ago. Smarty use 3 network in UK & i've never had any problems with coverage wherever we've travelled. I got 30gb for £10 on a rolling contract so can be cancelled anytime. been in spain for 6 weeks now & had no problems except when i first got here. you have to change APN settings to use abroad, instructions on website, I did this in the UK but it didn't connect when I got to spain. It was very quickly sorted by chat online & has been fine ever since.
12gb fair usage but I hadn't thought about using 2 or 3 sims - good idea, may do that in future. Don't use it too much for tv , just browsing & emails etc..

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Melian]

I use smarty in the UK, £20 unlimited

 

[jaygee]

I use smarty in the UK, £20 unlimited

but limited to 12mb roaming - same as the majority of others

 

[Wannabee]

At the time it was said to be good, but it did not seem any better than 3. I got a mifi free with the SIM, but changed over to 3 after the initial qualifying period. My wife's phone has a twin SIM, one a Vodafone and one EE. Neither seem to be as good as 3. maybe other factors involved, plus of course they are not data Sims as such. Maybe local area, but as I say have used Three allover western Europe.

I switched all our 3 Three contracts to EE and the coverage is much better. They cap EU usage at 50Gb on the bigger contracts but that's plenty for short trips abroad. Three's coverage had dropped off in recent months, perhaps they're upgrading their 5G infrastructure?

 

[Dorwyn]

Glad it works for you. Tesco who was my previous supplier barely works at home, EE already mentioned, but not so good. Many people seem happy with their choice. Speak as you find!

 

[jongood]

Be careful, I have Smarty. 2 things, not the best coverage in the UK, but ok at the price. SIM card came with my MFI unit, and I just keep paying the £10 a month cos I am a bit too lazy to change. However, I am up France now and Smarty is limited to 12GB fair use roaming, incidentally I only used less that 1 GByte before Smarty were sending me texts saying I was getting close to my 12 Gb limit. Good thing about Smarty is that it uses the Orange network in France, not the best but good. So if you are happy to use <= 12 Gb than Smarty is ok IMHO. However, do switch to the £8 package as that only gives 12 Gb anyway. Also, you can take multiple Smarty SIMs at £8 per 12 GB, so 4 Smarty Sims => £24 giving 36 Gb, which works out cheaper than my SFR La Carte Sim.

If you are up France (or anywhere in the EU) there are loads of options. I only had two Smarty Sims with me, I just popped into a tabac and bought an SFR tourist card, called La Carte, I think cost 35 Euros for a month, and get 35 Gb, I think. You pop the sim into your mobile to register, bit confusing if you don’t understand the French response you get back, but your mobile will have a translate, then as for me I transferred the SFR sim to my MIFI router. Incidentally, you need to set the region and probably APN if you use the Smarty up France as smarty use the UK three APN.

Next trip, depending on length of trip I will problem take multiple Smarty sims.

Just a note that when roaming you are able to choose which network your device uses. On a android phone its in network settings or Link Removed for a huawei mifi.not sure about apple

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[jongood]

Glad it works for you. Tesco who was my previous supplier barely works at home, EE already mentioned, but not so good. Many people seem happy with their choice. Speak as you find!

I couldnt get on with Tesco and they have since changed their roaming allowance anyway.

 

[RobPullen]

Just a note that when roaming you are able to choose which network your device uses. On a android phone its in network settings or Link Removed for a huawei mifi.not sure about apple

Yup, worth doing if you don’t have a good signal. Network often selects the ‘best’ network, which is not always the better one! For Apple phones, settings/mobile data/network selection/ switch off auto and try selecting different networks. I’ve often had to change and got a better connection when doing so.

 

[ChrisL]

Not any more for new contracts- changed 16th June

I am so glad I changed from a rolling 30 day contract to a 2 year contract before then, the Tesco unlimited SIM has worked brilliantly for me both in the UK and France and Spain.

 

[Gillygrim]

This thread has my brain reeling! John has a flip phone, no WiFi, no data, PAYG. I have a Sim only £14pm contract with 02, 5gb data, never used more than 2gb. When we're away I tell the daughters not to WhatsApp me or send pictures and I don't send pics to them. We have no TV/mifi or other gadgets in the moho. I'm not criticising those who do - just wondering if it's an age thing ? John's 90 and I'm 80 in October. BTW I worked for BT for many years and was on the working party for writing the instruction manual for using 'Electronic Mail' so not entirely ignorant of the systems available. "Confused of Portsmouth"......

 

[nexxo698]

Heads up to anyone heading to France shortly on EE that they’re not currently applying the fair usage limits. Not sure how long it’ll last for though…

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Dorwyn]

In France I've had F Bouyges, Free, Orange, and others, switching constantly because it was in a fringe area. So Smarty/3 is not just Orange.

 

[Northernraider]

but limited to 12mb roaming - same as the majority of others

My ee sim in my phone is prior to 2021 so i get my full 20gb allowance in EU.

But thats on my phone.

I need another for my tablet , i had giffgaff 80gb sim that allows 20gb useage in the EU .....BUT it has a time limit so if you are out the uk more than 1 month they charge you for roaming.

They are all taking the wee wee these days

If smarty are limiting it to 12gb then i won't bother with that either. Ill just buy a sim abroad i think

 

[Northernraider]

This thread has my brain reeling! John has a flip phone, no WiFi, no data, PAYG. I have a Sim only £14pm contract with 02, 5gb data, never used more than 2gb. When we're away I tell the daughters not to WhatsApp me or send pictures and I don't send pics to them. We have no TV/mifi or other gadgets in the moho. I'm not criticising those who do - just wondering if it's an age thing ? John's 90 and I'm 80 in October. BTW I worked for BT for many years and was on the working party for writing the instruction manual for using 'Electronic Mail' so not entirely ignorant of the systems available. "Confused of Portsmouth"......

I run a travel thread on here everytime i do a long trip in Europe. I use 20 -30gb per month just uploading photos and videos to that thread

I dont use it for watching tv etc .but if i don't have data there would be an awful lot of disappointed funsters

 

[Gillygrim]

And I'd be one of them ! I'll probably use my data allowance to check Fun while away so keep the posts coming !!

 

[jongood]

My ee sim in my phone is prior to 2021 so i get my full 20gb allowance in EU.

But thats on my phone.

I need another for my tablet , i had giffgaff 80gb sim that allows 20gb useage in the EU .....BUT it has a time limit so if you are out the uk more than 1 month they charge you for roaming.

They are all taking the wee wee these days

If smarty are limiting it to 12gb then i won't bother with that either. Ill just buy a sim abroad i think

Many of the EU sims also have roaming limits, so it might be worth going on the Tiecom deal.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Northernraider]

Many of the EU sims also have roaming limits, so it might be worth going on the Tiecom deal.

Not sure i want to spend that much though.

My ee one is £10.46 for 20gb and unlimited calls and texts.

£20 i don't mind so much but not keen on £35-40 a month

 

[jongood]

In France I've had F Bouyges, Free, Orange, and others, switching constantly because it was in a fringe area. So Smarty/3 is not just Orange.

The point is if you leave it on auto, Afaik it will always look for the partner network whereas you can lock it manually onto the better one. Can be quite a noticeable difference.

 

[jongood]

Not sure i want to spend that much though.

My ee one is £10.46 for 20gb and unlimited calls and texts.

£20 i don't mind so much but not keen on £35-40 a month

The photos are quite greedy on data for posters and readers, I keep away from some threads while travelling for that reason. I wonder if there is a technical solution to converting them to smaller images? I know the poster can voluntarily reduce them but Could it be a system thing? Probably a question for Jim if he agrees. It would help everyone travelling.

 

[Northernraider]

The photos are quite greedy on data for posters and readers, I keep away from some threads while travelling for that reason. I wonder if there is a technical solution to converting them to smaller images? I know the poster can voluntarily reduce them but Could it be a system thing? Probably a question for Jim if he agrees. It would help everyone travelling.

Yeah ive tried reducing them myself but its often time consuming and my phone is a pita when doing it as before reducing i can block upload but once reduced ive to do 1 at a time

 

[pagey]

I am so glad I changed from a rolling 30 day contract to a 2 year contract before then, the Tesco unlimited SIM has worked brilliantly for me both in the UK and France and Spain.

i did as well on the 15th june new rules came in on the 16 th lucky me

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Rodders1234]

I use Smarty in our mifi. Currently in France and I was limited to 12 gbs but I can buy more at £1/gb. This is cheaper than if I use extra with my wife phone on BT (which used EE). She can roam like home but only use her allowance of 10 gb, extra is charged at 11.42 pence per mb for data which if my calculation is correct works out at £114.42 per gb!!

What is interesting we used the 12 gbs with Smarty in the first week but my wife BT data only seems to use half of that rate, even though we tethered my phone and ipad to it over the following 10 days. We used just less than 5 gb in the 10 days before the next month allaowance started. Don’t understand that!

 

[Jim]

The photos are quite greedy on data for posters and readers, I keep away from some threads while travelling for that reason. I wonder if there is a technical solution to converting them to smaller images? I know the poster can voluntarily reduce them but Could it be a system thing? Probably a question for Jim if he agrees. It would help everyone travelling.

Most browsers have a facility to not download images, or to reduce the resolution. Dig around in your browser's settings

 

[pagey]

I use Smarty in our mifi. Currently in France and I was limited to 12 gbs but I can buy more at £1/gb. This is cheaper than if I use extra with my wife phone on BT (which used EE). She can roam like home but only use her allowance of 10 gb, extra is charged at 11.42 pence per mb for data which if my calculation is correct works out at £114.42 per gb!!

What is interesting we used the 12 gbs with Smarty in the first week but my wife BT data only seems to use half of that rate, even though we tethered my phone and ipad to it over the following 10 days. We used just less than 5 gb in the 10 days before the next month allaowance started. Don’t understand that!

we had the same thing over the past 6 weeks in europe mine on voda used much more data than my wifes on tesco/02 and she had a better signal

 

[Sharned123]

I dumped giffgaf back in January when they wanted to charge me for roaming despite only getting 1/4 of what i was getting in the uk for the same money.

Im going with smarty instead 100gb for £12

Smarty also have a cap on EU roaming of 12gb just in case you didn’t know..

 

[Sharned123]

Tesco do an unlimited data on 24 month contract which can be used in EU on home from home tariff, so no cap as long as you keep usage in UK/EU comparable, only down side is the 24 month contract but I found it great as I work from my Moho all the time and need reliable internet.. BTW I also have Smarty and Voxi sims as never sure of coverage but thinking of binning Voxi as the have just changed their EU roaming policy to charging a £1 a day and still capped at 20GB per month, not good!!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}