I recently fell foul of 3's fair use policy and my UK number is currently locked However. I use my UK phone, from CH, for a couple of oldies who are not on whatsapp and won't pick up international calls Looking at moneysavingexpert: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mo...roaming-calls/ the best option appears to be a pre-paid SIM and only Dataroam appears to work in CH. I feel like I am over-egging this and wondered if others have had a good experience with either a PAYG phone or some other option, such as Lebara, Lyca or Giffgaff. Any thoughts and experience, much appreciated.
Has anyone experience (in the post-Brexit world) of keeping their UK phone number and not spending a fortune on calls and occasional SMS texts?
I have 1p mobile SIM alongside my Swiss SIM card (dual SIM phone). 1p per minute, text or mb used, and roaming in Switzerland and EU is included (for now at least!). The only catch is you must top up £10 every four months, not much really - £30 a year - I use mostly when I'm back in UK or even here in Switzerland too. I'm not sure about the fair use policy with it he almost all of the year out if the UK but it's been ok so far. I got it delivered to a family address in August, free SIM card too and initial£10 top up. Could be worth a go at least in the short term.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45064268
it has been a bit odd with Covid and much less travelling.
I have uk vodafone pay as you go sim, above article says changes will start from 6 January 2022
And do you know yet, what you will do then?
My UK one is on Tesco PAYG mobile, I do use it for calls but not a lot, I don't know how much I'd have to use it to be hit by any fair use restrictions.
I have kept my EE contract going for many years billed out of my house in Wimbledon. Its full unlimited EU or UK wide calls from CH, plus local and moblie calls in USA Auz Mex Cdn and 30gb data, per month. To be clear for all Brits in CH, thats NO call or data roaming charges for existing customers if we call back home UK or EU countries, plus many other European countries.
And best of all to your friends it appears as a regular UK incoming call, not an international call.
After Brexit was concluded in Jan 2021, I called EE and they said they changed policy for new customers. So roaming charges will apply for new customers.
As a back up I did research, 3 are offering PAYG sim for free, then you buy vouchers that allow usage in Europe and CH and loads of other countries all around the world. Its better than EE.
Data Packs:
£10 gives unlimited calls texts EU roaming 5g and 8gb data per month
£15 gives unlimited calls texts EU roaming 5g and 25gb data per month
loads of other data packs, see
https://www.three.co.uk/payg-data-packs
On my last trip home, I popped into the EE shop in Wimbledon and bought £100 worth of top up vouchers in £10 denominations. Plus the sim was free.
Just waiting for a new dual sim phone to try it out, but the lurgy 19 flu cold has delayed it ages. Things used to arrive so quickly in the good old days.
Cheers
Derek
I've continued to use my UK number since Jan 2020 without any issue. I pay for a SIM-only unlimited data deal with 3 for 22 quid a month and they've only once emailed about data use during the 11 week lockdown in March-May 2020 when I was never back in UK for 3 months.
That said I'm always back in UK every 2-3 weeks so I do use UK data as well sometimes.
I've a Virgin Mobile PAYG SIM card that does not expire if you don't use it. I used to use it mainly in the EU for calls but mainly for data roaming, but it was also good for Switzerland. I now keep it purely for when I need a UK number as Swisscom now provides the service at a good price which is no longer the case with Virgin since Britain left the EU.
No, I will wait and see how much I will travel in 2022 that I suspect will be limited where what countries I might travel. For the moment will wait and see what deals are about when / if I travel. Might pay a day. weekly charge, particularly to have data on the go.
I do have an o2 sim card that the agreement is rather old, but calls and sms were cheaper in Ireland and EU than in UK. No plans at the moment to travel to US or Asia in next couple of years.
I have one acquaintance that does not use a mobile phone and another who does not use internet, only a mobile phone or physical post as contact.
Tend to use Whatsapp a bit less since the tie up with FB.
I have a dual SIM and I recently fell foul of 3's fair use policy as well, kept getting texts from them re roaming, yet I never have it switched on.
They suspended me so I contacted them and argued the point with them (not easy as I had to deal with a guy in India who kept telling me I didn't know what he was talking about). I also said I can't travel back to the UK at the moment so they've reinstated me.
I have a Swiss Yallo contract, gives me unlimited everything in the U.K., EU & US. I waited until they had a deal and was 50 francs a month. Saves the hassle of having a U.K. number aswell.
Does it have to be a mobile number?
Skype do a local number option...
BT sim-only mobile plan for whole family. No issues yet!
So, a similar question, except the other way around.
I have had my Swiss number for ages and now that I am leaving for the UK, I am exploring possibilities of retaining this number for perhaps a year or two. Back in Blighty, I used to keep my old UK number via a prepaid option with no time constraints - e.g., I pay in £5 and I could use it over a year if needed. Would anyone happen to know anything similar here in CH?
M-Budget prepaid would do the trick.
BT sim-only for all the family. £12/month for roaming anywhere in Europe and 24gb/month. No issues with „fair use“ so far.
Convert your billing to a PAYG and top it up. After that you can top up online when you need to. I think the rule is at least one top up / call / sms a year to keep the number as well as keeping a credit balance. This is certainly the case with Swisscom, not sure about other providers.
This was my experience when I returned to the UK for approx one year. I would add that you have to use the number, at least, one within a 6 month period otherwise you'll lose it.
With M-Budget, you have to call once a year