Lewis Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 I'm hopefully going back to Uni in September (will post more when I've decided where!) and wondered if anyone had any experience of having mobile phone contracts abroad. I'll still be in Europe so not uber-expensive to call or text home (8p) and I've seen a 200-European-texts bundles for £6 a month. I need a new handset and have been looking at iPhones but planning ahead most come with 24month contracts and I don't want to be paying too much for the 8 months of the year I live abroad! I think I can either get the UK contract, turn off data roaming and use wifi for WhatsApp and iMessage ...or buy the handset (costly!) and get a European PAYG sim while I'm out there and keep my UK number on PAYG too. Any advice or experiences will be much appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky Mama Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 My Goddaughter from the US is in the UK and got something from Giff Gaff that she said was a great deal. Don't know more than that though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lavenders_Blue Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 TBH you might be better getting a local SIM while you are abroad, like you suggest, and keeping a second SIM running for when you are back home. Giffgaff is good and you're not tied into a contract, but you can get contract-like bundles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 The original reason the mobile phone network technology billing information model was developed to take ad hoc credit card payments ie. pay as you go, was to make it easy for travellers moving around Europe avoid major roaming charges Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellekatz Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 My daughter is on her erasmus 12 months in europe. She changed her contract number to PAYG so she can keep her original number when she comes home and uses it very occasionally to keep it "live". She has bought a PAYG rolling contract SIM in both Italy and Germany and used that with no problems and when she gets home she's hoping to change her number back to a UK contract. She did have a new contract free phone before she went though and we had enough problems with Vodafone getting her SIM changed over before she went Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Posted May 27, 2014 Author Share Posted May 27, 2014 Thanks for the replies! I had a look and saw for £3 a month extra I can get EE Extra which means you can use your minutes, texts and data for 'free' in Europe. I rang Sales and 'cos I work for their service provider the guy said I might even be able to get it as a free add on if I get a nice agent on the phone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...