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-   -   Europe sim card for unlocked iphone (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/europe-sim-card-for-unlocked-iphone-1009544/)

amycherry86 Mar 25th, 2014 08:53 PM

Europe sim card for unlocked iphone
 
I will be in Europe for 7 weeks & plan on taking my unlocked iphone 5 with me & buying a sim card once I arrive in Europe (I arrive in Munich, Germany). Can someone please tell me if the sim will work all over Europe? or do I need a new sim for each country I enter? I plan on going to Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria & Greece. I was thinking that maybe in Greece I would require a different sim & in the othere countries I could just use the same sim?
Any help on the matter will be greatly appreciated-thanks :)

Trophywife007 Mar 25th, 2014 09:14 PM

Bookmarking. I'm curious about this too. I bought a German sim (Vodaphone) for my iPhone which was fine for this trip, but it would not work (roaming) in the UK.

Andrew Mar 25th, 2014 10:18 PM

Any chance your cell phone company is T-Mobile? They somewhat recently dropped their international calling rates when you use your US phone overseas, once you switch to their "Simple Choice" plan. (The only plan they now offer.) In Germany and many other European countries, it's only 20 cents/minute to call the US to call within Germany. I know that could add up over several weeks, but if you will mostly be in Germany, you could say buy a German SIM for use there and use your US T-Mobile SIM (if you have T-Mobile) in other countries.

sparkchaser Mar 25th, 2014 11:40 PM

I suggest checking this thread out:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...m-threads.html

lavandula Mar 26th, 2014 03:05 AM

Yes, you can do roaming with a prepaid SIM pretty much anywhere is Europe but where you come a-cropper is with recharging - you may not be able to do this from a foreign country.

Roaming rates have been capped within Europe so it will be a little more expensive but not crazy prices.

Lavandula

hetismij2 Mar 26th, 2014 03:42 AM

You can buy extra for a Vodaphone pay as you go online using a credit card even if you are not in the country where you bought the phone.
You will pay more for call in the other European countries than for calls in the country in which you purchase the SIM, but not a whole lot more, and it is probably cheaper to do that than keep buying new SIMs. You don't need a different one for Greece, it is an EU country. Not sure what the roaming charge will be in Switzerland since it isn't governed by the EU ruling, but I suspect it is the same or only a cent or so higher.
You can also set up a data limit for when you are roaming so you don't end up using vast amounts of expensive data. Better still is to turn off data and have the phone WiFi only.

Vodaphone Netherlands also offers an all-in-one deal where you pay €2 a day for 20 minutes of making calls, 20 minutes receiving calls, 20 texts and 35MB of data. This is also available for pre-paids, and could be worth it. It is valid for a 24 hour period, midnight to midnight, and only applies if you actually use the phone. I expect Vodaphone Germany offer something similar. You have to turn that on though, it isn't automatic. Ask at the shop where you buy the SIM to help you.


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