Using a UK SIM abroad for extended periods

[Metamorfosis]

I have Three unlimited for £8 per month which I use solely for data in a huawei router in UK as my home broadband and in the van abroad and have used it last 2 winters in Spain for up to 6 months continually each time. I stay just under the 19gb per month overseas limit and have no problem using it for 6 months in a row despite their terms and conditions stating this is not allowed. I would prefer more data though when abroad.
The 100gb Vodafone deal that minxygirl posted looks good and states the whole 100gb is available to use abroad but I wonder how many months of continual use before it locks. Any long termers care to comment on real world usage of vodafone or any of the other networks with regard to continual foreign usage?

 

[Richard n Ann]

Three banned me from roaming a few years ago for staying in Spain for about 4 months (2 x 2 months) a year. They were OK for a couple of years then I got a curt email saying from January 1st roaming would be switched off. I moved to Plusnet 8GB/month £10, been ok since, although we haven't stayed away for as long.

 

[Pugsy]

I used my vodafone 100gb sim in France and Spain last trip from 5/10/19 until 13/03/2020.Studying on internet during the day and catchup and netflix for about 4 hours at night with no problems,using between 40 and 50 gb each month.
Cheers Cris.

 

[DP+JAY]

My son has been using his BT sim in Spain since he went there for new year & has been in lockdown ever since.
100go a month for £25.

 

[2657]

I have a Vodafone 2 year contract for 60 Gb data unlimited everything else, when I took out the contract I made sure that I had in writing an assurance that unlimited roaming would be allowed. Not had any problems and spend 10 months on the Continent, contract ends in August so I recently had an online chat and could not get similar assurance but we shall see when proper negotiations take place.

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[Ditcha]

My son has been using his BT sim in Spain since he went there for new year & has been in lockdown ever since.
100go a month for £25.

Yeah I have just changed to BT from EE and I am sure you get your full allowance when in Europe can't find anything to say you don't in there T&C, s

 

[Metamorfosis]

Thanks for that info pugsy.

I just found this on Ken's tech tips website which is a very good resource for mobile phone information.
Vodafone’s Global Roaming service isn’t designed for people living outside the UK. According to Vodafone, the Roam-free and Roam-further offers are “intended for temporary, period travel such as holidays and short breaks” abroad. This generally means spending at least half of your time in the UK, when measured over any 4-month period.
Which obviously infers a limit of two months continuous use. My question is do other people like pugsy generally find this is not enforced or do you have to get it in writing specifically like metamoros had to avoid this problem.

 

[Metamorfosis]

Yeah I have just changed to BT from EE and I am sure you get your full allowance when in Europe can't find anything to say you don't in there T&C, s

I have just read that you need to be a halo broadband customer to get the unlimited SIM for £20pm and BT cap at 50gb abroad. Also Roam Like Home is only available if you live or are usually based in the UK and you mainly use your BT Mobile in the UK. If we think that over a period of at least 4 months you’ve been living or mainly using your BT Mobile in a Roam Like Home country, we may ask you to explain the reasons for this and you might need to pay a surcharge.

Is all this enforced? Dp+jay post above would suggest not

 

[Ditcha]

I have just read that you need to be a halo broadband customer to get the unlimited SIM for £20pm and BT cap at 50gb abroad. Also Roam Like Home is only available if you live or are usually based in the UK and you mainly use your BT Mobile in the UK. If we think that over a period of at least 4 months you’ve been living or mainly using your BT Mobile in a Roam Like Home country, we may ask you to explain the reasons for this and you might need to pay a surcharge.

Is all this enforced?

We have BT fibre broadband which gave use £5 /month discount on 3 x 40gb sims =£40 a month upgraded to halo 1 for a extra £3 month and they doubled our data to 80gb each also 1000gb cloud storage not sure about the cap of 50gb I thought it was full allowance, the cap would only become effective after the first month of usage in Europe if at all.

 

[Raul]

During the pandemic lockdowns, the fair usage policy it is not enforced. I am with EE, and well over three months out. But previous outings in couple of occasions I have exceeded my stay and I did have service. Just message notifications and carried on. I did had to buy data bundle separate as I was eating it to quick.

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[Camdoon]

Vodafone deal currently sitting at £7.75 at Fonehouse


100Gb all usable abroad - some dubiety but 3 months appears to be minimum after which anyone has suffered.
I believe Minxy Girl will split a £25 intro bonus as well.

 

[Minxy]

Vodafone deal currently sitting at £7.75 at Fonehouse


100Gb all usable abroad - some dubiety but 3 months appears to be minimum after which anyone has suffered.
I believe Minxy Girl will split a £25 intro bonus as well.

Unfortunately after ringing the company for clarification the £25 bonus for recommending someone is only paid if they take out a phone contract.

 

[Camdoon]

Unfortunately after ringing the company for clarification the £25 bonus for recommending someone is only paid if they take out a phone contract.

Oh well - good try

 

[Addie]

In my experience (several hundred Vodafone activations for our customers) I'm not aware of any customer who has been cut off for extended use abroad on any of the 50GB/100GB/115GB SIM's we've offered. Some customers have had 4-5 SIM's per family all hitting their data caps each month!

Vodafone is the only network that doesn't explicitly state a 60days in 120 days (2 months in 4 months, or however you want to word it) limitation on use outside the UK - every other network does. They just reference "period travel".

I have heard of Three/EE/O2 customers being cut off - although rarely. I have also seen first hand Three/O2 heavily throttle customers download speeds abroad but if you've only got ~20GB/month or 660MB a day as in the case of Three then speeds are sort of insignificant.

EE now has a 50GB roaming cap as of January (up from 15GB) and while O2 doesn't have one their traffic management policy sees your connection grind to a halt in a lot of cases.

If anyone fancies being a Guinea Pig - Superdrug Mobile (which is Three, like Smarty) are advertising an Unlimited data plan for £20 with no roaming restrictions. There is nothing in their small print and if you e-mail and ask them they will tell you that you can use Unlimited data abroad.

Superdrug Mobile

Bring your existing number to Superdrug Mobile and choose a 5GB, 15GB, 20GB or the Unlimited data SIM only deal. You will receive unlimited calls and texts in the UK and roaming in the EU, all contract free!

www.superdrugmobile.com

https://superdrugmobile.azureedge.net/pdfs/Superdrug-Mobile-Price-Guide-Standard.pdf

 

[Pugsy]

I got my 100gb vadafone sim from mobiles.co.uk last year (£15.60,after cashback) it was up end of April this year. I contacted vodafone and asked about roaming data,as i wanted no cap for europe and was told (after the girl spoke to her line manager) that i would not get a better deal than i had and should continue with my current sim. The reason being all new contracts issued would be limited to 25gb a month whilst roaming,so i kept my sim going(now £20 a month) for the moment but may change to 2 different network sims to have sufficient data and coverage when i am away. I have a couple of months yet before i head off for the winter.
Cheers Cris.

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[AXO66]

Wonder what happens when the current mobile company contracts expire over the next year or two.

guess it depends on the skill of the negotiators within the framework of the upcoming trade deal with the EU.

 

[Minxy]

I got my 100gb vadafone sim from mobiles.co.uk last year (£15.60,after cashback) it was up end of April this year. I contacted vodafone and asked about roaming data,as i wanted no cap for europe and was told (after the girl spoke to her line manager) that i would not get a better deal than i had and should continue with my current sim. The reason being all new contracts issued would be limited to 25gb a month whilst roaming,so i kept my sim going(now £20 a month) for the moment but may change to 2 different network sims to have sufficient data and coverage when i am away. I have a couple of months yet before i head off for the winter.
Cheers Cris.

Vodafone can't offer the same as the 'discounters' so they would tell you that - if you are out of contract change now as you can certainly get a much better deal than £20 a month. There are a few threads about mobile contracts at the moment but in a nutshell:

Fonehouse
Vodafone: 100gb data, unlimited calls & texts £20 pcm (24 months) reduced to £8.00 pcm after cashback
Vodafone: 60gb data, unlimited calls & texts £20 pcm (12 months) reduced to £8.00 pcm after cashback
Three: unlimited data, calls & texts £18 pcm (12 months) reduced to £10.00 pcm after cashback (limited data use abroad)

 

[Richard n Ann]

Wonder what happens when the current mobile company contracts expire over the next year or two.

guess it depends on the skill of the negotiators within the framework of the upcoming trade deal with the EU.

Should be ok if capitalism can hold out

 

[Coolcats]

I have Three unlimited for £8 per month which I use solely for data in a huawei router in UK as my home broadband and in the van abroad and have used it last 2 winters in Spain for up to 6 months continually each time. I stay just under the 19gb per month overseas limit and have no problem using it for 6 months in a row despite their terms and conditions stating this is not allowed. I would prefer more data though when abroad.
The 100gb Vodafone deal that minxygirl posted looks good and states the whole 100gb is available to use abroad but I wonder how many months of continual use before it locks. Any long termers care to comment on real world usage of vodafone or any of the other networks with regard to continual foreign usage?

You do need to check with the provider for example a 02 domestic data SIM will not work in Europe you have to get a Business Data Sim to get coverage.

It will be interesting to see what happens if the government actually gets its 'oven ready' trade deal through or if we just crash out of the EU. just to say this is not a political comment but a trade one.

 

[Busman]

With Vodafone and been in Spain since November and because of lockdown and people tethering etc been hitting 90-110g most months and no problems

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[Pugsy]

Vodafone can't offer the same as the 'discounters' so they would tell you that - if you are out of contract change now as you can certainly get a much better deal than £20 a month. There are a few threads about mobile contracts at the moment but in a nutshell:

Fonehouse
Vodafone: 100gb data, unlimited calls & texts £20 pcm (24 months) reduced to £8.00 pcm after cashback
Vodafone: 60gb data, unlimited calls & texts £20 pcm (12 months) reduced to £8.00 pcm after cashback
Three: unlimited data, calls & texts £18 pcm (12 months) reduced to £10.00 pcm after cashback (limited data use abroad)

Hi Minxy Girl, thanks for that info. I just called Fonehouse and the vodafone sim is limited to 20gb per month in Europe and the 3 sim to 15gb , this is the problem i am finding and is the reason i have not changed to a better monthy price as i can use my full 100gb (I use about 50gb per month when away)at the moment.Plus ,who knows if it all goes pear shaped at the end of the year, data roaming may change..i may buy 2 vodafone sims and put one in my mifi.little less data but slightly cheaper ..
I will keep checking all the deals.
Thanks Cris..

 

[Metamorfosis]

In my experience (several hundred Vodafone activations for our customers) I'm not aware of any customer who has been cut off for extended use abroad on any of the 50GB/100GB/115GB SIM's we've offered. Some customers have had 4-5 SIM's per family all hitting their data caps each month!

Vodafone is the only network that doesn't explicitly state a 60days in 120 days (2 months in 4 months, or however you want to word it) limitation on use outside the UK - every other network does. They just reference "period travel".

Thanks Addie for confirming, I think I might just go for the vodafone deal as well as the Three one I have and that way I have two networks to use abroad. Both discounted to £8 per month so very cheap anyway.

 

[jumar]

I have a Vodafone 2 year contract for 60 Gb data unlimited everything else, when I took out the contract I made sure that I had in writing an assurance that unlimited roaming would be allowed. Not had any problems and spend 10 months on the Continent, contract ends in August so I recently had an online chat and could not get similar assurance but we shall see when proper negotiations take place.

Worth chatting to Vodafone agent, I got a deal of 100gb for £20 which is cheaper than the previous one, I do not want to go down the route of the 3rd party deals....had no data issues with Vodafone whatsoever.

 

[2657]

Worth chatting to Vodafone agent, I got a deal of 100gb for £20 which is cheaper than the previous one, I do not want to go down the route of the 3rd party deals....had no data issues with Vodafone whatsoever.

I agree, my original contract included a phone and is due to expire in August so I will be contacting them soon for a sim only deal.

 

[Busman]

Worth chatting to Vodafone agent, I got a deal of 100gb for £20 which is cheaper than the previous one, I do not want to go down the route of the 3rd party deals....had no data issues with Vodafone whatsoever.

My contract with Vodafone was up in April 115g £25 think I'll go for the deal above. Had a couple of occasions to get in touch with Vodafone just used live chat and it was sorted.

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