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Posted

I'm wondering if anybody has recommendations for an esim card to use on an American cell phone/plan in the UK/EU? I'm hoping to just get one where they email the stuff to me and I can automatically install it onto my Android phone. It's kind of confusing with all the information out there, so I thought I would ask you who have traveled abroad for a cruise for recommendations. Any information about types used and/or locations that you purchased them from are appreciated!

Posted
10 hours ago, Cactus527 said:

I'm wondering if anybody has recommendations for an esim card to use on an American cell phone/plan in the UK/EU? I'm hoping to just get one where they email the stuff to me and I can automatically install it onto my Android phone. It's kind of confusing with all the information out there, so I thought I would ask you who have traveled abroad for a cruise for recommendations. Any information about types used and/or locations that you purchased them from are appreciated!

I can highly recommend Roamless. https://roamless.com/

Unlike many other esim operators, you simply put funds into your account and it's good to use in any of the 168 countries they have agreements with. What I particularly like about it is that your funds never expire, unlike many other plans where your plan ends after a certain period of time even if you've not used up all of your data.

I have only used mine in the States but my daughter, who works on board cruise ships, has used hers in at least half a dozen different countries in Europe. The UK and all of the EU countries are included.

If you want to sign up for it, you can use my referral code, which will get both of us some free credit. It's only a small amount but, hey, it's essentially free money! 🤑

Referral code: XN58Y

Hope it helps. 😊

Posted

We have used the app "Airalo" on the last three of our most recent European adventures. I like that we could buy country specific, or European specific (meaning it worked in a variety of countries without having to change anything on our end). It was easy to install (for both apple and android devices) and all we had to do upon arrival was turn our phones on.  We used the UK only one on our recent trip to Scotland, a European one when we went on a Greece/Croatia cruise (starting in Italy and it worked on our layover in London) and then a Spain one for a land trip in Barcelona. It was easy to "top up" if we needed and was reasonably priced that if we had extra it didn't feel like we were wasting money. 

Posted
37 minutes ago, Brenna said:

We have used the app "Airalo" on the last three of our most recent European adventures. I like that we could buy country specific, or European specific (meaning it worked in a variety of countries without having to change anything on our end). It was easy to install (for both apple and android devices) and all we had to do upon arrival was turn our phones on.  We used the UK only one on our recent trip to Scotland, a European one when we went on a Greece/Croatia cruise (starting in Italy and it worked on our layover in London) and then a Spain one for a land trip in Barcelona. It was easy to "top up" if we needed and was reasonably priced that if we had extra it didn't feel like we were wasting money. 

I've used Airalo too and it worked just fine but l did feel like I was wasting money. For example, on one occasion I needed it for two days pre-cruise and two days post-cruise. The length of our trip meant I had to buy a two-week package even though I was only using it for four days and, of course, at the end I'd used less than half the data I purchased. So I felt it was a bit like putting an hour's worth of parking in the meter and then discovering I really only needed 10 minutes. Admittedly, the price is, as you say, very reasonable, so it wasn't a huge amount.

Posted
19 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

I've used Airalo too and it worked just fine but l did feel like I was wasting money. For example, on one occasion I needed it for two days pre-cruise and two days post-cruise. The length of our trip meant I had to buy a two-week package even though I was only using it for four days and, of course, at the end I'd used less than half the data I purchased. So I felt it was a bit like putting an hour's worth of parking in the meter and then discovering I really only needed 10 minutes. Admittedly, the price is, as you say, very reasonable, so it wasn't a huge amount.

That makes sense! I think it depends on where you're going and when you need data for. I have bookmarked roamless to test out too now 

Posted
1 minute ago, Brenna said:

That makes sense! I think it depends on where you're going and when you need data for. I have bookmarked roamless to test out too now 

Yes, I completely agree. It's definitely worth checking out more than one operator as it's certainly not a clear-cut case of "one-size fits all".

Posted

For those of you that just added international to your existing carrier plan, was it pricey? I'm trying to figure out if that's even possible with ours - we have 4 lines on one plan and I'm not sure how easy upgrading just 1 line is for them.

Posted

I’ve done both airlo and holafly. I recommend both and choose whatever is cheaper. I always install before u hi then just turn it on when I get to Europe. This time I’m going with orange esim. I have done this in 2018 and am doing it in less than 2 weeks and can give a more recent review. 

Posted
17 hours ago, Cactus527 said:

For those of you that just added international to your existing carrier plan, was it pricey? I'm trying to figure out if that's even possible with ours - we have 4 lines on one plan and I'm not sure how easy upgrading just 1 line is for them.

We use ATT for our cell service.  When we went on a cruise out of Italy last fall we used their International Day Pass.  At the time it was $10/day for the first phone and an additional $5/day for each additional phone (on the same plan).  After 10 days in the same billing cycle, there are no additional charges.

We used 10 days worth on two phones, so we paid $150. 
 

I just looked and the cost has gone up to $12 and $6 respectively. 
 

The International Day Pass gave us access to our unlimited cell service plan. We never had issues with service (in Portugal, Italy, Croatia, and Greece), and used our phones just like we do here in the US.  It was great because we had a port every day and used Google maps quite frequently since we did not take any cruise line excursions.  In addition, because we had a port every day, we didn’t buy VOOM.  
 

Be aware that this does not give any service access while at sea.  That is a totally different plan which we did not use. 
 

We are going back to Europe three times between now and September 2025, so I’ve been researching eSIMs, but the international plan from ATT is always there if we need it. It’s automatic since we have it activated on our phones. If one or both of us go with an eSIM, we’ll disable it so we don’t get hit with an additional charge. 
 

 

Posted
On 8/2/2024 at 11:32 AM, FionaMG said:

The UK and all of the EU countries are included.

@FionaMG

Forgive what may be a silly question…this is all quite new to me.

Does this mean we can travel between the UK and EU and use the same eSIM?   
 

 We are cruising from Southampton to Northern Europe this fall (and back to Southampton), and spending time in London pre cruise.  We are hoping to find something that works in both the UK and EU without having to change anything. 
 

Thanks. 🙂

Posted
1 hour ago, teddy said:

@FionaMG

Forgive what may be a silly question…this is all quite new to me.

Does this mean we can travel between the UK and EU and use the same eSIM?   
 

 We are cruising from Southampton to Northern Europe this fall (and back to Southampton), and spending time in London pre cruise.  We are hoping to find something that works in both the UK and EU without having to change anything. 
 

Thanks. 🙂

Not a silly question. 🙂

The answer is yes and you don't have to change anything. It will pick up the signal from the operator they work with in each country all by itself. It will currently work in 168 different countries around the world. The full list is available in the app along with the price per GB. At the moment, in the UK and across Europe, the price is $2.45/GB. Any credit that's left over at the end of your trip stays there in readiness for your next one.

Posted

Random food for thought regarding data usage...

I just looked up my data usage during the time we were in Europe last October. 

We were in Europe Oct 19-October 29.  We used our phones as much as we do at home...possibly more because of using Google Maps, FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, and texting pictures to people.  Because we were using the ATT International Day Pass which allowed us access to our unlimited cell plan, we didn't bother connect to wifi anywhere.

For the whole billing period (Oct to Nov), I used 22.84 GB on my phone and my wife used 9.63 GB.  We spent $150 for the 11 days of usage in Europe.  In terms of money, an eSIM would have been cheaper.  Using the current rates from Roamless, $50 gets 20.4 GB.  $25 gets $10.2 GB.

Figuring $18/day (the current rate of $12/first line, $6/second), we will pay $198 for 11 days using the ATT international plan this coming October.

We're going to try using eSIMs this fall.  Since we have more international trips planned, we're going to go with Roamless so we can still use any data we have leftover.  @FionaMG I'll put your referral code in when we activate. 🙂

Posted

Some important info about ATT cell plans that I saw while submitting the unlock requests for our phones....if your phone is not paid in full, ATT will not unlock your phone.  This means those who are on an installment plan cannot add an eSIM.

Posted
20 hours ago, Cactus527 said:

For those of you that just added international to your existing carrier plan, was it pricey? I'm trying to figure out if that's even possible with ours - we have 4 lines on one plan and I'm not sure how easy upgrading just 1 line is for them.

It depends on your carrier. I am fortunate and have qualifying T-Mobile plan, so most international locales I would visit the data is included in my plan.  It is capped and slows to a low speed data rate after a certain amount of usage, but it's been good to me for my week long trips so far.  

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Last summer, I traveled to Europe and wanted something easy for my phone. I ended up using an eSIM that I found online—super simple! They emailed me everything, and I just scanned the QR code to set it up on my Android. It worked seamlessly, and I didn't have to mess with any physical cards.

A friend of mine swears by the Bali SIM card from https://simify.com/en-au/collections/bali , which he used when he traveled. He said it was super reliable and affordable, especially for tourists. He just grabbed it online, and it arrived quickly, ready to go. 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I wish I had seen this thread before my trip to Europe last month! I used Orange and the eSIM was so cheap (19€/2 weeks) compared to a Verizon International plan ($100/month) so I was happy with the consistent coverage through 4 countries over 13 days!

I have one major complaint however, they provided me with a French phone number which was apparently most recently a cab company! I got calls day and night! I turned on Silence Unknown Callers but it was hilarious how often I was getting random calls. I even got a few texts with requested pickup locations in Paris! Easy enough to ignore and the service was great. 

In short, maybe don’t go with Orange! Happy to have found all these alternatives for next time. 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Currently in London.  Roamless works very well for data with the exception of texting.  My wife and I both have iPhones and we can neither send nor receive texts while using Roamless.  

Some digging around online shows a reset of our phones may correct this problem, but it’s not a big enough issue for us to do this.  We are using Facebook messenger to communicate with each other and family/friends back home. 
 

Again, Roamless is working great for data.  The problem we are having appears to be an Apple issue. 

Posted
17 minutes ago, teddy said:

Currently in London.  Roamless works very well for data with the exception of texting.  My wife and I both have iPhones and we can neither send nor receive texts while using Roamless.  

Some digging around online shows a reset of our phones may correct this problem, but it’s not a big enough issue for us to do this.  We are using Facebook messenger to communicate with each other and family/friends back home. 
 

Again, Roamless is working great for data.  The problem we are having appears to be an Apple issue. 

When you say text messages, do you mean SMS? If so, then I don't think you can do those with Roamless as it's data only and SMS go through your phone carrier. I'm not techie enough to be 100% sure, though. DD and I use WhatsApp for texts in addition to messenger.

Have an amazing trip! 😊

 

Posted

Update: we did London at the beginning of October. I ended up using Airalo for my esim, and I got 3GB for 30 days package at $5. In the week that I was there, doing all kinds of stuff with my phone (email, phone calls through WhatsApp, maps, web surfing), I didn't even go through one gig. We had to buy physical SIM cards for my daughters, so since we were staying in the UK, I got them both SIM cards through the UK provider 3. Worked excellent. Since I am a total noob and didn't know what I was doing, we paid for the person at Heathrow to actually install the SIM cards for them. I think it was £50 total. A little steep, but comfort for me that it was actually going to work. The girls had no problem making phone calls and texting from the UK phone number that they were assigned, though they only called and texted each other. I did not have phone/text capabilities, but I used WhatsApp without issue for all that. 👍

Posted
On 10/17/2024 at 3:35 AM, teddy said:

Currently in London.  Roamless works very well for data with the exception of texting.  My wife and I both have iPhones and we can neither send nor receive texts while using Roamless.  

Some digging around online shows a reset of our phones may correct this problem, but it’s not a big enough issue for us to do this.  We are using Facebook messenger to communicate with each other and family/friends back home. 
 

Again, Roamless is working great for data.  The problem we are having appears to be an Apple issue. 

Update after ten days: 

While I never figured out sms/iMessage texting, Roamless eSim worked great for data in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and France.  5G coverage in all areas and to my untrained eye, the speeds were just like I'm used to with ATT here in the US. 

I turned off unnecessary updates and notifications, then used my phone pre-cruise and when we were in ports....Google Maps, Facebook Messenger, all kinds of different transit apps, contactless pay (Apple Pay), translator app, and the internet to look up things we were curious about when we saw them.  I didn't restrict my phone usage at all.  I used .9 GB of data..it came to a whopping $2.14 (USD). 

I suspect most people know this, but I'm as far from a techie person as you can get...I believe turning off unnecessary updates (and other stuff) in my phone setting helped curb usage.

One important note:  It is data only, so if you need to use your phone for voice calls, I'd look to a different eSim

  • 2 months later...
Posted

I’ve been to Germany a few times in the last few months and I’ve used this eSIM Germany, it’s pretty good and convenient. The most I use is the 10GB plan for $18. I think it’s a good deal, especially since I don’t have connection issues.

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