I have a UK vodaphone sim, acquired a long time go on a cheap deal that has remarkably persisted to this day without roaming charges.
However they have now caught up and will impose an excessive charge every day I use the phone outside the UK or their 4 completely useless roaming counties (Guernesey!).
It is basically used for bank codes and two members of my family who refuse to use WhatsApp. But it is the number all non French friends have.
I have heard that there is a way to transfer a UK number to something in France (with country codes??).
If not can I move the number to some cheaper PAYG deal, on a UK sim? I really donât want to loose the number.
All solutions gratefully received - remembering that I am not techie so has to be simple english
They have got you on the âfair usageâ element of the contract. I had a UK SIM for years, in Spain and here. I never triggered the âfair usageâ hit but I was conscious that it existed and spaced out my one long call to UK monthly, so the meter reset to zero.
In these Brexit infested times I think most of the operators are getting much hotter on this and are either not allowing roaming without charging extra or being much stricter in enforcing âfair useâ rules.
The cheapest UK SIM deal with EU roaming is with âtalkhomeâ for ÂŁ2.74 a month (rolling 1 month contract) - you get unlimited calls and texts but only 1G of data. Inteestingly I cannot see a time limit for using it in the EU but I advise you scrutinise the T&C carefully yourself.
It needs activating in the UK and you can port your number to it.
I canât see how you could port a UK number to a French operator, for one thing they have a different number of digits.
There might still be a way of buying a UK SIM in France or porting a UK mobile No to a VoIP provider in the UK then usng a VoIP app on your phone (not sure SMS will work though) but weâre starting to get complicated.
Would something like this service do what you need? Basically transferring your number to a virtual service. Iâve never tried it so itâs not a recommendation.
I am currently using xpatfone for a UK mobile number ported from Three after they wanted a daily roaming charge. So far no issues, I use it mainly for bank 2FA activity etc and friends in the UK who still message me on that number.
Itâs one of those âif it works for you and you are happy stick with itâ situations but if you just want a UK number there are other VoIP solutions which might be cheaper depending on your usage pattern.
Currently showing ÂŁ5 month for rolling 30 day or monthly contract.
1p mobile is still the cheapest at ÂŁ10 every 60 days with rollover of unused minutes. (1p min or text including roaming which is constrained by it being no more than UK usage) but data is pricey at 1p mB although data add-ons are well priced if required .
There in lies a problem. Despite having broadband we have a lot of problems accessing things. I just donât understand how this works. Since I donât want any old UK number, but my number.
You subscribe to the service, get a PAC on your old phone (text PAC to 65075), give the PAC to xpatfone, install their app on your phone and either use via Wi-Fi or get a French SIM with a data plan and use that. The *original* SIM wonât work after xpatphone process the PAC.
@billybutcher I canât access via your link but did getthrough the MSE site and itâs now ÂŁ3.15 month. BUT also
Unfortunately, this provider doesnât support 4G calling (using 4G signals to make clearer, more reliable calls). This means when you make a call, your phone will use either 2G or 3G signals.
Failed at first hurdle. Canât get into my Vodaphone account as donât recognise me and the rest password link doesnât last long enough for me to get up to the point in the village where I receive a signal.
The other reason for me keeping my UK number and using Xpatfone is because the Stockton chinese takeaway (near to our canal boat mooring) put the phone down if i use the Sosh number
Ah, it wasnât intended to be a link, the forum software picked up something that looked vaguely like a link and made it clickable - have thwarted that.
OK, I donât understand this, where was that text?
3G networks are being turned off worldwide so a service which doesnât work on 4G and only works on 2G or 3G would be useless.
- they presumably mean VoLTE, but it still doesnât make sense given the 3G switch off. A device âmight support 4G for data but not for voice however it would have to be fairly old given that VoLTE has been around since 2012. A provider ânot supporting VoLTE on a 4G network would be chocolate teapot territory.
Bit of a pain, Iâm guessing that you donât want to use the phone at the moment as it would would cost you a dayâs roaming fee. The only way out of that catch-22 might, indeed, be to pay for a few dayâs roaming (or do you have anyone in the UK that could organise getting you a new SIM and transferring the number).
Probably - VoIP, should you need to make a call, doesnât use super high amounts of data - down to as low as 1Kbyte per second so 3 and a half megabytes would last you an hour and there isnât a phone contract going where that would be more than a tiny fraction of the bundled data.
- they presumably mean VoLTE, but it still doesnât make sense given the 3G switch off. A device âmight support 4G for data but not for voice however it would have to be fairly old given that VoLTE has been around since 2012. A provider ânot supporting VoLTE on a 4G network would be chocolate teapot territory.