Using mobile abroad

[OldDouglas]

My wife and I are heading for China. We each have a mobile on a vodafone pay-as-you go contract. If we call one another while we are both in China do we simply use the same numbers as we do within the UK, or do we need to prefix those numbers by some international (UK? China?) dialing code?

[OldDouglas]

My wife and I are about to visit China. How (if at all) do we have to amend/extend the numbers we usually use to contact one another?

Thanks for any help on offer...

[AnnS]

Hi @OldDouglas

If you are on pay monthly, you will be able to add World Traveller to allow you to use your UK allowance in China.

I notice you have also posted on the PAYG board, the information for pay monthly and PAYG is on the link below.

Further info below.

Roaming Charges and Using Your Phone Abroad

You will need to make sure you have roaming enabled by contacting Vodafone before you leave and any relevant restriction bars are not enabled on your online account.  If you are calling back to the UK, the UK dialling code is +44, this means you drop the first 0 and use +447 followed by the other digits.

Please see the checklist of things to do on the link.

[OldDouglas]

Thanks for the reply. But I dont think it answers my question. If I want to call my wife's mobile,  while she is also in China, do I need to amend her number.?

[Getafix]

When you say "amend number" are you talking about what Number to dial or are you talking about what package you need to sign Wife up to?

For calling your wife all you need to do is drop the leading Zero and replace it with +44. And this you need to do for any UK number you are trying to contact.

If you sign up for World Traveller then receiving call is free.

[OldDouglas]

I was asking about the "number to dial". And, from what you have written, it seems that I use the prescription of dropping the zero and adding +44 to contact a UK number wherever the recipoent actually is (China or UK or...)

[AnnS]

Hi @OldDouglas

It doesn't matter where in the World the UK mobile is, you are still calling a UK number.

That means you drop the 0 and use +447........

[Annie_N]

I have all the UK mobile numbers in my contact list in the format +44 7xxx xxxxxx rather than 07xxx xxxxxx, indeed I have my landline numbers in the format +44 1xxx xxxxxx as well. Then I don't have to make any changes to them, wherever I'm calling from.

However, I'm not clear whether you are a Pay Monthly or Pay as you go customer. At the beginning of the year, and for a while prior to that, it was the case that PAYG phones didn't work in China. The information on http://www.vodafone.co.uk/explore/costs/travelling-abroad/ now seems to show that China is covered by PAYG, so I'm trying to find out whether this situation has now improved.

[OldDouglas]

I am PAYG, as is my wife. I'd appreciate confirmation that this will be OK in China. Thanks.

[Annie_N]

@OldDouglas

I started making enquiries about this on Thursday evening, so I'd hope we'll hear something about this in the next few days.

When are you due to travel to China? It depends on what the answer is on whether PAYG is supported in China, but there are different strategies you may need to adopt.

If you'll be able to use Vodafone PAYG, then the main things to do in advance are to check with CS by calling 191 from each phone separately that the accounts have international roaming enabled, and also top up both phones sufficiently to cover calls you are likely to need to make. It would cost £1.65 per minute to make a call and £1.30 per minute to receive, so you'd need reasonable balances on both phones. My OH and I have had to use the two PAYG phones trick in the US, when he's at a conference, and I've got the rental car - and it does get through a bit of money!

If you aren't able to use PAYG in China, then all I can really suggest is getting both phones unlocked from Vodafone before you travel, so that you could buy local SIM cards at the airport on arrival. See this about unlocking, and please note that you would have to complete the unlocking process while you're still in the UK, including putting a non-Vodafone SIM into the phones as part of completing the process. [I hope you don't have iPhones, as the process can be a bit slower!]

I found a tripadvisor article which you might find helpful.  If I understand it correctly, only China Unicom adopts worldwide 3G WCDMA which is compatible with overseas mobile phone models!