bh2367

I have a trip to UK + France coming up in September, so I will need prepaid SIMs that work in both countries. The first stop of my UK trip is Cambridge and I see there is a Three store in downtown Cambridge. Any problems with buying SIMs directly? I figure this is easiest and store employees can help with any trouble with activating the SIMs. Three offers 10gb for 10 pounds and has roaming in Europe.

Amazon has some thirdparty retailers selling prepaid UK SIMs but these tend to have very poor reviews. Another alternative is to buy directly from Amazon UK and have them ship the SIMs to me before my trip.

hetismij2

You need to check whether they allow free roaming in Europe. If not it could quickly get expensive in France.
Since Brexit many UK telecoms providers no longer allow free roaming in the EU despite their promise to continue with it.

Heimdall

In and around the Grand Arcade Shopping Centre in central Cambridge will be shops for all the different UK mobile phone providers, including Three, Vodafone, EE, O2 etc. Walk into one of those shops and you can buy a prepaid SIM and have it activated on the spot. EE seems to have the best coverage in my area, and I have bought prepaid SIMs for my iPad when I need coverage away from my Wifi network.

Although now that the UK has left the EU and free roaming is no longer required by law, some UK providers still have roaming in the EU, so you need to check which UK providers offer the best deal for roaming in France. I have a Vodafone contract SIM for my phone, and was able to use it for data and calls without any additional charges in Portugal on a recent trip.

balthy

I'd go for someone like O2 as they have not introduced EU roaming charges. But I still double check their T&Cs in case it varies between contract and non contract SIM only.

bh2367

Three claims they provide free data roaming:
https://www.three.co.uk/pay-as-you-go/payg-data-packs

Looks like O2 will work too:
https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/sim-cards/...ne+big-bundles

Vodafone won't work since they only offer free roaming in Zone A (Ireland, etc). France is Zone B and will cost more.

hetismij2

Check how easy it is to add more data to it if you need to top it up when in France. Some prepaids are really hard to top up out of country.

Note this too: https://www.three.co.uk/support/roam...oaming/go-roam

Also O2 has a data limit for roaming so i guess it depends n what you are planning to use the phone for.

KayF

Last month, I went into an EE store in London and asked about a SIM for my trip. The guy offered a couple of options, then put the SIM in for me and checked it was working. He was really helpful. I paid 15 pounds for a month. Think about if you want to be able to text /call within the UK, or overseas, how much data you think you'll need.