vodaphone across Europe

[Matrid]

hi. Im from Sydney, flying in to Budapest in July, spending 6 months in Europe. My brother in UK suggests i go with Vodaphone as he uses this successfully when travelling (though ill be adding Albania, Montenegro etc to my places to visit.

My question is..... Can i get a Sim card and pre-pay monthly plan in Budapest that will be competitive ($) and cover Bulgaria, Romania etc along with the main Euro countries?

Will i need to make sure my phone (hardware) is compatible, or are these things global now?

[jeffkinn]

This forum can deal only with the UK specifically, but the general advice would be that plan won't work. Firstly, you probably won't be able to get a contract in a country where you aren't a resident and don't have a local credit card. Also roaming across Europe is usually covered by a fair usage policy that means you can't just roam for weeks and months on end. Your best bet is to get a decent unlocked phone and buy a local pay as you go sim card in each country assuming you intend to stay in each one for a few days or more. It will mean a succession of local phone numbers but if your using data based applications such as Facebook, Skype etc to stay in touch that wouldn't be a problem.

[Matrid]

Thanks a lot for the clarification Jeff.

So if i focus on the UK, when  I arrive in England and i buy a local pay as you go sim, I assume this will cover me for all of the UK, but not Ireland, so I'll need to get another sim there as well?

Cheers

[jeffkinn]

A UK sim will cover Ireland as well, and indeed all of Europe, but your problem will be topping it up as you can only register a UK based credit card. Otherwise it's cash locally. Also remember that each Vodafone country is a separate network with no connection to the others except for the brand name. So there is no way of buying a UK sim card and topping it up in a Vodafone shop outside of the UK.

[63johnw]

@jeffkinn could @Matrid purchase a few top up vouchers when in the UK and use them as and when required ??

[jeffkinn]

Good idea @63johnw That could work

[AnnS]

It's a nice idea but I thought the only way to top up from abroad was online using a UK debit credit card.  

Quite sure Vodafone also send a code to the phone and this may be difficult to receive on a roaming network.

[ToniCa · Accepted solution]

You have to buy the top-up vouchers in the UK. You can do this in most supermarkets, and pay either with cash or with your non-UK credit card. If you and the card are physically present, it doesn't have to be a UK card!

You can then apply the voucher either in the UK or while travelling, but I suspect that some of the methods described in 63johnw's post may not work from abroad. I've only used a voucher abroad by logging in to my online account, where there's an "activate voucher" option in the top-up section - and, these days, you do have to receive an incoming text with a security code, in order to log in. But that shouldn't be a problem, and there's no charge for incoming texts. Though you would need to set up the account before you left the UK - I'm sure I've seen reports of problems if you try to do that while roaming.

The real restriction will be the "fair usage" restriction on roaming - I'm reasonably sure that 2 months continuous roaming will result in your account being suspended, although I can't immediately find confirmation on that. Ah, found it in the PAYG airtime terms - "If you use your inclusive allowance for roaming for a total of 2 months or more during any 4-month period we may charge you for further use or bar your roaming services".

However, if you start with a period in the UK, then you'd get a couple of months of travelling elsewhere in Europe (to be clear, "elsewhere in Europe" includes the Republic of Ireland!) before any restrictions or additional charges kicked in.

Oh, a further thought - I tried to top up by voucher within the App. In theory it gets around the need to log in, but it was extremely hard work - so check that you can use that route in the UK before trying it from abroad!

[ToniCa]

A major "by the way" - no-one has mentioned your options as far as plans are concerned! The PAYG plans are described on https://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/bundles-and-sims/pay-as-you-go-plans/ and it depends on your anticipated level of usage whether a Big Value Bundle of the PAYG1 option would be the best. I'd guess a BVB, as PAYG1 is best for intermittent light usage, but there's a useful bit of analysis on https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-as-you-go/Basic-PAYG-vs-PAYG1-vs-Big-Value-Bundles/td-p/2584928

[ToniCa]

Update: there seems to be a later version of the PAYG terms, which isn't quite so precise: http://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/public/documents/contentdocuments/pay-as-you-go-terms-and-charge...

At the same time, there is a new acceptable use policy, https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/configfiles/documents/contentdocuments/vfcon058965.pdf