E-Sim card for Europe
Hi - last summer we travelled to Germany and down to Switzerland. Have spent a lot of time in Germany the last few years. However, last year, forgetting that we are no longer in the EU we had major problems with phone, internet coverage - only have 5MB of use until charges went up.
We are travelling to Holland and Germany for two months at the end of July and I have recently seen that an E- Sim card might be the answer - does anyone have experience of using one, any advice would be useful?
We did try to buy a local Sim card last year but it proved almost impossible to set up!
Thank you for any responses - Maureen and Philip.,
Answers
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If you have a look at the SIM only deals available via Moneysupermarket.com (and others), there are a number plans that will offer you EU roaming at a very reasonable price.
I'm with Lebara and pay £6.95 a month for 15GB of data at home and when roaming in the EU, unlimited UK minutes and texts, plus 100 minutes of International calls including most of the EU.
I recently spent 87 days in the EU and 15GB (per month) was more than enough for me, although it depends how heavy a user you are.
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We have three service providers with no contracts. Lebara, Giff Gaff and Smarty. We find the combination of all three generally meets our roaming requirements. Suggest you use uSwitch to work out what best suits you. The only advantage of eSims I see is the ability to run two service providers on the one phone (if the phone allows this) and the ease with which you could change this on the eSim. Never tried it myself but I have been looking into it recently. Got as far as establishing my phone will support an eSim as well as a card but no further as which network to use. It gets very confusing.
peedee
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If you are interested in eSims, I found >this< interesting article about them. Digging a bit further I came up with >this site< where you can buy eSims for use abroad, there are others.
peedee
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I’m not convinced you need an eSIM. I think any sim of your choice with the required data allowance will do the job.
Are you on a GiffGaff scheme that lets you change your package each month? If so, you could simply buy a different package for the months you want to go away and then swap back afterwards. As G-G use the o2 network, you shouldn’t have a roaming problem.
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O2 themselves allow 25GB roaming in Europe! That's quite different even though G-G uses the same network.
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I don't think that applies to pay as go, only to rolling bundles to which you can also buy bolt ons if you exceed your allowance. Bolt on are not available on pay as you go either. I think most providers will give you larger roaming allowances with a rolling contract.
peedee
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I have just come back from a Continental trip. Before I went I swapped my Giff Gaff account to an eSim which left the SD slot free. I loaded this with my Smarty SD Sim. In total I had 17Gbs of roaming data which I found more than enough. FYI I the statement by Giff Gaff that you have unlimited calls and texts at home and abroad with Giff Gaff is so but, you have to pay extra for it. I tried to call UK and got the response I did not have any credit. I used WhatsApp instead.
peedee
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Peedee, that 17Gbs sounds strange. Smarty limit you to 12Gbs fair usesge per month. As such I bought a 15Gbs card for £9 as it was the smallest card that tipped into the 12Gbs usesge limit.
Colin
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@eribaMotters Smarty gave me 12Gbs, plus the 5Gbs from Gif Gaff equals 17Gbs.
peedee
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I'm with you now. Similar here as 12Gbs Smarty and 5Gbs Lebera phone contract.
Next year hopefully away mid month on the phone contract so can get 2 lots of 5Gbs.
Colin
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I recommend you also look at IQ Mobile who offer data SIM plans specifically for caravaners and motorhomers in Europe
This is not the cheapest option but works well with a built in WiFi router and gives enough bandwidth to stream TV (Netflix etc)….although we did manage to use 100Gb of data over a 3 week holiday in France which clashed with Wimbledon this summer 🤣0
