Best plan for tourist travelling through UK and Europe

[edwardaux]

About to head over to the UK (where we'll stay for a week), and then head into France/Germany/Austria/Spain for about a week each.  Just trying to figure out a good plan for us to get.

We only really need the phone for maybe a couple of calls/SMS a week, and limited access to the internet to google things while we're out and about.

The £10 (or  £15) Big Value Bundle looks reasonable while we're in the UK and if I sign up for the EuroTraveller then, as I read it, I only pay £3 per day that I actually make a call/use the data - which there shouldn't be too many. 

Have I missed anything?  I presume I can just front up to any Vodafone store once I land in London and get my SIM there and then? Thanks a lot.

[63johnw]

Hi, yes what you have said is correct, the only thing is to make sure your phone is not locked to a particular network, it should be unlocked to use on any network.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi,

Here is the link for the Big Bundles and Freebies information  ->

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/bundles-and-sims/pay-as-you-go-plans/

Yes you can visit any Uk Vodafone store and buy a Pay as you go phone with sim. They'll activate the sim and put the top up on you purchase for you. Ensure you ask for any Abroad Bars to be lifted. 

They'll explain the information you'll need about using your Payg phone out of the U.K. Some information Going-or-calling-abroad.

Take into account a Payg SIM card needs topping up or calls / texts sent every 180 days to keep it activated. 

If your going to be here 30 days or more you can on the 30th day request for the phone to be unlocked by the Online Unlock form found here and the £19.99 cost you top up onto your account with. Then if you need to use any other Networks SIM card in it you can. 

[Annie_N]

Apart from being able to accept a SIM card from another network, is your phone going to work on European cell phone frequencies? Some US phones may only work with the different frequencies used in North America, for example. See http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html for more details.

I'd question whether you need anything as complicated as the Big Value Bundle and EuroTraveller, for the small amount of usage you're planning - the basic roaming charges would work out much less expensive. On the other hand, trying to get a Vodafone store to sell you a plain PAYG plan probably wouldn't be that easy. The main things are to make sure that international roaming is enabled on your account, and that you have topped your balance up sufficiently while in the UK, as topping up from mainland Europe is not going to be easy if you don't have a UK registered credit card.

[edwardaux]

Thanks everyone. I'm fortunate that all our phones are already unlocked, and we're coming from Australia so we're already using the same GSM frequency 

Thanks again.

[Annie_N]

If you are likely to want to call to Australia from the UK, it would be well worth opting in to Vodafone International for PAYG - see http://www.vodafone.co.uk/explore/costs/calling-abroad-from-the-uk/vodafone-international/index.htm ... the details. There's no charge for opting in on PAYG, but it reduces the cost of calls to landlines from £1.50 to 5p per minute - and please don't ask me to explain this difference, as I have no idea!

[Annie_N]

@edwardaux

Sorry, posting from a small phone, and I lost control of the link! It should be 

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/explore/costs/calling-abroad-from-the-uk/vodafone-international/index.htm

Phew, that one seems to work!  I'll try to remember to go back and correct it once I have access to a PC

Annie