A friend in Netherland told me that he is using Vodafone for very cheap and his data roaming in Switzerland is free. This made me think whether it is realistic to get a mobile plan from a nearby country and use it here for long term. Is anybody already doing this? Any potential disadvantages?
Clauses in the contract that make the plan invalid if you spend too many days not in the country you bought the contract in maybe?
Friend of mine uses his German contract, seems to work fine.
For near on 2 years I've had an UK Vodafone contract (about 12 GBP) with 5gb data and unlimited calls sms in Europe (incl CH) to/from Blighty and locally to/from CH (or whichever country you are roaming in). No problems.
Vodafone and KPN (and I assume the other providers have sort of the same rules) will contact you if you used more of your abo outside the country than in the Netherlands during a period of 4 months. You than have the change during two weeks to proof a sustainable/durable (don't know the exact English word used in this context) connection to the Netherlands (like working, living or studying), if you fail to do so they will make you pay extra for all foreign usage after which a Swiss abo becomes the cheaper solution but you would still be tied to the Dutch provider till the end of your contract.
So in short: forget about the Dutch solutions unless you spend a lot of time there.
Similar, for 4 years. But I do go back to UK each weekend.
You will need a UK address though. One they can credit check you at.
Regards
Ian
I think it depends what country you are from and how easily you can get a SIM card. I used to have 3 from the UK. Pretty cheap and the data covered all Eu countries. At the time, perhaps a year or so ago, the data wasn’t 4g, pretty sure it was 3G. Cheap though at £25 all you can eat data. Friends have recently been cut off due to staying abroad for longer than 2months at a time. Switzerland is a bit of a dilemma because there aren’t any really cheap Eu wide deals. I have gone for UPC which gives me 10gb in the Eu and all unlimited in Switzerland. However, for summer holidays I do move to Vodafone in Portugal as it gives me unlimited 4G etc... I think Salt have a deal on at the moment for 65chf with unlimited data in Eu and USA plus unlimited Switzerland. Might be worth a look.
I have a dual sim phone with a Tesco Mobile and a Swisscom sim. Inside of Switzerland, I turn off the data with Tesco but leave it open as an option for calls or sms so that friends in the UK can call or text me at local rates, but as most of my friends got a sweet Tesco deal a few years ago, it's usually free for us. Outside of Switzerland, I turn the Swisscom data off and turn on the Tesco data. That way I don't breach the reasonable usage rules of my UK sim.
Indeed UK CC & Address and Im there at least once every two months, Im also a pretty sporadic user anyway for calls or internet.
The nearest Swiss deal is the UPC 29chf (for UPC clients) deal if its still going.
3uk contract roaming in eu/swiss for 15+ months no issues 12 quid a month.
on contract you get 19gb a month roaming on payg its 12?15?
get a 3uk payg simcard ebay.co.uk topup 10 or 20 quid a month
tons of roaming and calls included in the country your roaming in.
i have unlimited calls so i can call anyone in swiss when im roaming here .
works out great. 3uk have never complained about my roaming 99% out of the country.. so far its mostly 3g roaming but ok. whatever.
I do something similar but with two phones.
Tesco PAYG doesn't need any ID or address checks. There's a fair use policy but you don't need to visit the UK, just not use it outside of the UK too much. If I had to get one now I'd probably go for "e" or something different.
One good thing about a UK SIM with data is that on mobile data google etc thinks you're in the UK rather than Switzerland.
I heard most French or German providers don't include Switzerland as an EU country (because it's not) whereas many UK providers do.
I have a house in France because of family reasons and pay for the phone/internet there. With this I get a mobile number and with this mobile internet which works a treat in France, I pay €40 per month for the phone, internet and get 20GB of mobile data a month which includes full European roaming with Switzerland and I think it's beats anything Swisscome/Sunrise/Salt etc can offer.
The only disadvantage is social, when new friends ask for my natel I give them a foreign number which sounds odd, the same when businesses ask for a phone number. But with messaging like WhatsApp etc it doensn't make much a difference for friends and businesses can usually afford to call if they want the custom.