2bdesign

I am planning a trip to England and France. I will be in England for 1 week and France for 2 weeks. I’m trying to decide whether to go with the Verizon Global Plan for my iPhone 6 or to get an international sim card when I get there. I know it would be cheaper to go the local sim card route. Can anyone recommend a reliable company that offers a sim card that would work in these 2 countries? And how difficult would it to be to set it up? I am a little concerned about the language barrier if I were to need customer service for a local plan when in France.

Robert2533

There are a few companies offering "international sim cards"; One Sim Card, Go Sim, Telestial, etc.. But it's not something I have to worry about since switching back to T-Mobile.

bvlenci

Do you want just to make and receive calls and text messages or do you also want to use data services? Will it be light use or heavy use?

bvlenci

Don't get an international SIM card. It's one of the least economical choices you can make.

wunderbar2

bvlenci, please explain why it's a bad choice?

We have AT&T here in the States, the approximate call from say Germany to the U.S. is $1.99 per minute. I too have an iPhone6 and while traveling try to find wifi and call family via Skype but it's not always successful.

For my upcoming trip I was thinking of purchasing online an international SIM card which would give me a U.S. phone number so I could be reached in Europe by family and they'd not incur any international phone rates. Also the one I'm looking at charges .35 per minute for my calls home and I have an unlocked GoPhone that I was thinking of using.

I'd appreciate any pros and cons because it almost sounds too good to be true. Thanks for any enlightenment.

I'm aware of the T-Mobile plans but that is not an option. Thanks again.

2bdesign

bvlenci, I'm hoping to use wifi as much as possible and will be in London and Paris, so I don't think that will be a problem there. But for about 10 days we will be in the Alsace region and wifi might harder to locate there. I'd say I will be a light to medium user of data…checking emails, looking up an address, etc. No streaming music or videos, posting photos to Facebook. Will use the phone to call the states to check in a couple of times and to make reservations, etc. while in Europe. The Verizon Global Plan is 100mb of data, 100 minutes of calls and 100 outgoing texts. I'm guessing that will be enough.

thursdaysd

Why is T-Mobile not an option? You can buy it for a month and cancel when you get back.

I have used Telestial SIMs in the past, and often had terrible reception. I was very happy with T-Mobile on my last trip.

100mb of data doesn't sound like much.

hopingtotravel

Do car rental companies offer a cheap cell phone rental?

Sarastro

<i>Do car rental companies offer a cheap cell phone rental?</i>

With mobile phones costing as low as 25€ with SIMs included, for how much would you be willing to rent one?

hopingtotravel

Sarastro that would probably be cheaper than what Verizon was going to charge to convert our phone here.