cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
1

Ask

2

Reply

3

Solution

Can I activate a new Vodafone sim card in the US before travel to the UK?

TrudiAlexander
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

I am a Brit living in the US and returning to UK for holiday tomorrow. I purchased a Vodafone payg sim through an Amazon seller in the US and topped it up using a UK credit card here in the US. I received a message from Vodafone saying my top up had been received. The phone has signal from AT&T yet will not receive a call or text from either a UK or US phone at the moment. I am anxious not to arrive at the UK airport in the early hours of Sat morning with no way of letting my waiting friends know where I am. Will the sim activate in the UK automatically or is there something I should be doing before I leave the US to activate the sim? This is all because I have lost myoriginal Vodafone sim which I have had for around 20 years! This worked great both in the US and UK.Any help you can give me would be gratefully received - for example should I just try to transfer the number from my old sim to activate the new one?

5 REPLIES 5

BandOfBrothers
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi

 

When you arrive to the Uk you can try Call 17298 to activate your Payg SIM card and to buy your first big bundle. 

 

If for some reason that does not work then you would need to either use £0.25p Credit to speak to Customer service on 191 who open at 8am til 9pm, or use Live Chat but that is best accessed from a Computer as the Service does not tend to work too well on a Mobile Phone. 

 

Or locate the nearest Vodafone Shop and they'll be able to activate the SIM card. Store Locator.

Current Phone  >

Samsung Galaxy s²³ Ultra 512gb Phantom Black.

 

 

kids
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

Normally you would need to activate the sim when you are on the UK network, but as your top up has been confirmed the question is was the sim sold to you as an activated sim? I don't use PAYG but would have thought that unless the sim was activated the top up would not have been able to be made.

 

I would not try and swap your number to the new sim until you are in the UK, at the moment swapping numbers seems to take a few days so it would be safer for you to do that from the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AnnS
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

@TrudiAlexander

 

Most probably all that needs to be done here is for you to contact Vodafone on your arrival in the UK and enable roaming.

 

You will then be able to keep the SIM active when you are back in the US for your next arrival in the UK.

 

@kids

 

As you have mentioned, the SIM is probably already active and topped up.  The only way for @TrudiAlexander to find out is to try and make a call in the UK.

kids
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@AnnS Would the poster have an already active sim card although it is unused, or would he have to activate it when he arrives at Heathrow?

 

 

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@kids It's a little hit-or-miss what happens when you try to activate a PAYG SIM outside the UK. The theory is that it doesn't work, but in practice sometimes it clearly does so!

 

I'd guess from the description that applying the top-up has probably activated the SIM, despite a lack of connection to the UK network. But PAYG accounts aren't normally enabled for roaming, which probably has to be done by Vodafone CS, although the online account may let you do it yourself! Again, setting up an online account theoretically requires connection to the UK network to receive the necessary security codes - but clearly sometimes people find it works.

 

I'm not sure why there seems to be this variation in behaviour - my rather non-tech picture is that sometimes the connection is much more immediate than other times, and the trick works! But, if roaming isn't enabled, then you aren't going to receive the texts with the security codes.

 

I'd hope that things should sort themselves out on arrival at Heahtrow, but calling 17298 might possibly be necessary. If push comes to shove, I assume that there are still payphones at Heathrow which take credit cards.

 

@TrudiAlexander Don't attempt a SIM swap - it doesn't work for PAYG, other than going to a Vodafone store, who will swap the old number onto a new blank SIM, always provided the old number is still active.