Is it worth buying a sim in the EU to get round the fair use roaming issue? (16 Viewers)

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Feb 18, 2017
4,870
9,481
Greenwich, London, UK
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47,382
MH
Hymer MLT 570
Exp
1986
Is it worth buying a sim in the EU to get round the fair use roaming issue?
It may well be.
When you find out how and where you can do it, tell us.

It would be good to find a company close to the EU ports where we can get to from the UK.
(Rotterdam, Calais, Le Havre, Dieppe, Cherbourg, St Marlo, Roscoff, Santander, Bilbao, Dublin)

Don't bother with Germany, you need a German ID and German address to buy a SIM card in Germany.
Many countries limit SIM cards to non residents to stop 'burner' phones being used for drug dealing.
 
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Sep 29, 2019
3,276
7,533
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64,846
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Hymer Exsis
Exp
20 years
Why not just buy an esim for the country you intend to visit?
You don’t get much data.

I use Lebara when I need to in France. Just put my passport number and campsite address in the registration and off you go. 👍

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Oct 25, 2016
5,935
34,133
Hartford Cheshire
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73,061
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Bailey Autograph 79-
Exp
Lots but slow learner.
Don't understand this lark but i've just spent over a £100 in a week to use my pay as you go Giff Gaff in Switzerland.
I believe uploading photos takes a lot of digga dots.
Will get HRH to look into a sim if we come again.
 
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Bustup15

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Jun 25, 2018
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Durham
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Dethleffs I 7820-2
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New to motorhomes 2019
You can get anything you want? For example 30 days unlimited data in France for £56
You don’t get much data.

I use Lebara when I need to in France. Just put my passport number and campsite address in the registration and off you go. 👍
 
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Dec 13, 2019
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Northumberland
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Since 2019
Don't understand this lark but i've just spent over a £100 in a week to use my pay as you go Giff Gaff in Switzerland.
I believe uploading photos takes a lot of digga dots.
Will get HRH to look into a sim if we come again.
I use EE UK unlimited data (£32 pcm). It has pretty comprehensive UK cover. If you add the EU roaming I get my full (I have checked this with them and have a record of the chat) data allowance in the EU, USA, Australia, plus a couple of others. It is £2.47 a day, If you are going to be there for more than 10 days, you can add a monthly Roam Abroad pass for £25. It worked a treat on our last trip to France and Spain with good service throughout. All done via the EE app. Just remember to cancel the £25 option before the next month starts.
Safe and happy travels.
 
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Jan 2, 2017
800
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Since 2010
It is quite frustrating how initial (pre-B) assurances about the ability to continue roaming turned to dust.

I find Popit quite satisfactory. I did need to use some UK data before I could ‘park’ it on £1 per month but that wasn’t too difficult.

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Aug 18, 2014
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Lorca,Murcia,Spain
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32,898
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Transit PVC
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16 years since restarting
Digi in Spain
Unlimited dat & calls =20€ also all calls are free when used in the Uk & calling uk land & mobile numbers but data in Uk is restricted to 23Gb.
 
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Nov 22, 2018
1,910
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South East but not London
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57,328
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Rimor Europeo 87
Exp
Five years plus three tugging
It is quite frustrating how initial (pre-B) assurances about the ability to continue roaming turned to dust.

I find Popit quite satisfactory. I did need to use some UK data before I could ‘park’ it on £1 per month but that wasn’t too difficult.

I am caught in the Popit trap. £13 a month and I can't cancel the bloody thing until I have used a ridiculous amount of data in UK, because I used about 5GB in Europe back in May.

I will definitely be getting an unlimited data, French SIM on day one, on my next trip.
 
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grasscutter

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Oct 11, 2009
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East Wittering. West Sussex.
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I am caught in the Popit trap. £13 a month and I can't cancel the bloody thing until I have used a ridiculous amount of data in UK, because I used about 5GB in Europe back in May.

I will definitely be getting an unlimited data, French SIM on day one, on my next trip.
The easiest thing is to download some tv programmes. It quickly uses the data and makes you roaming compliant.
 
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Jul 24, 2023
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New to van life
It seems, from my reading of their web site, they have a fair use policy so you only get 50Gbyte per month when in EU for the £25 add-on “Roam Abroad Pass”. So that’s quite expensive as you have to get in to a 24 month contract with them which costs about £20/month. Or have I misunderstood something?
 
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Aug 16, 2024
82
238
Hertfordshire, UK
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105,569
MH
dipping a toe
3x 60GB monthly contract with ID mobile should give you 90GB (30GB per sim), I've not done this, but its a month by month contract so you can terminate if there fair usage policy kicks in...
1727076452567.png
 
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Jan 2, 2017
800
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Since 2010
I am caught in the Popit trap. £13 a month and I can't cancel the bloody thing until I have used a ridiculous amount of data in UK, because I used about 5GB in Europe back in May.

I will definitely be getting an unlimited data, French SIM on day one, on my next trip.
I found it fairly easy in that I could park the van next to the house, connect to the van Wi-Fi, and simply use that. It didn’t take all that long. There’s a Popit dial on an app where you can see how far you still have to go.

I was initially a bit grumpy because I didn’t know this was a ‘rule’ they had introduced. (Wouldn't it be nice to have regulators that actually look after our interests?)

Not ideal but acceptable.
 
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Mar 30, 2019
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Coachbuilt
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Since 2016
I am caught in the Popit trap. £13 a month and I can't cancel the bloody thing until I have used a ridiculous amount of data in UK, because I used about 5GB in Europe back in May.

I will definitely be getting an unlimited data, French SIM on day one, on my next trip.
How much data do you need to use? Just leave your phone silently playing videos overnight?

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May 21, 2019
139
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South Coast
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Since 2015
I bought a tourist Vodafone sim in Spain which was then capped in Portugal to 5 Gb, there are so many bear traps in this business ....
 
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