Andrew

The Dutch Vodafone SIM I bought indeed had no credit on it. I paid the $7 just for the convenience of having the SIM already activated in my phone when I arrived in Europe - plus in my case, I'm not going to the Netherlands on this trip so I won't have a chance to buy a Dutch SIM retail, and there are no good EU roaming options for SIMs bought in Slovenia, Italy, or France - the places I plan to visit (until EU roaming is eliminated soon, at least),

I topped up using the "My Vodafone" account on the Vodafone NL website (created a website account with my new Dutch phone number once I got the SIM in my phone - I received the text confirming my account creation). I added 20 Euros and got a 25% top-up bonus of 5 Euros the first time so I've got 25 Euros credit. I used my US credit card. There are other sites that claim to accept Paypal to buy a top-up in case a US credit card is declined on the Vodafone website, but I have not needed that.

I am about to enable the 3GB per month bundle for 20 Euros for a month (and 30 min of talk, which I may not use). I leave for Europe in a few days. I will mostly use the data and use Google Hangouts for most calls.

Yes, the website is all in Dutch, but Google Chrome translates it pretty well. I have also coaxed the Vodafone NL Android app onto my phone but that is all in Dutch and no easy way to translate it. Shouldn't need it much, though.

Andrew

Just as an update: I have learned that the Vodafone "You" L bundle that includes 30 minutes of talk time (plus 3GB of data) really only includes calls and SMS to/from the Netherlands. Outgoing calls or outgoing (sending) text to other EU numbers would not be included - billed at 20 Euro cents min for calls and 15 Euro cents per text. Incoming SMS may be free, maybe incoming calls too.

I have 5 Euro credit left on my account so that should be plenty to make a few calls as needed. But people topping up and not leaving any credit after buying a "You" bundle may wish to have more credit or be prepared to top up again if making a lot of calls. You can top up only in increments of 10 Euro. I did get a 25% top-up bonus for adding 20 Euro, so that's how I got 5 extra.

In the US, my regular phone service is through Tello, and they have relatively cheap calling rates in Europe using their app - as cheap as 1 cent/min for Italy and France. Google Hangouts also lets you make cheap calls to EU countries, but you have to buy credit in $10 USD blocks (like with Skype).

Sue81

Hi again, OK I bought the Sim card Vodafone Netherlands from Ebay, so that is on order. I did want to make calls back to the US, so I wonder how hard it is to get the google hangout App? Again I have an I phone Apple 7 with Verizon.... I will try to play around and try to figure out how to get that APP. However this will help me communicate with son who will be on this trip with me and have his own cell phone and SIM card. I did copy the Vodafone info so maybe that will help. So if I understand correctly the main help that the SIM card gives is to send emails, not phone calls back to the US? If I get stuck trying to figure this out I will go to the Vodafone store in Amsterdam. The phone calls back to the US would be very expensive unless I have this hangout APP, right? Sue

Andrew

Yes, the calls back to the US would be expensive just using the Vodafone SIM credit.

Google Hangouts is a very popular app and should be easy to find and install. Do some googling for tips on how to use it with an iPhone. I use it as my primary calling app even in the US, every day. But I've not used it on an iPhone - I use an Android. I assume installing apps is very easy on an iPhone.

I also receive regular phone calls via Google Hangouts, because I have and use my (free) Google Voice phone number with it. If you install ONLY Hangouts, but don't have a Google Voice phone number, you can only make outgoing phone calls. But you may be able to "join" a conversation with your son on Hangouts without actually making a phone call, if he has it too. Not sure how to do that. I'm sure you guys can figure it out.

rs899

Spend some time getting familiar with Hangouts here before you go. You can use it on WiFi .

Hangouts to Hangouts chat is super easy. It can be in the form of video, voice or text. All take data, unless both parties are on WiFi (but text takes very little)

Andrew

Yes, text takes very little data, and audio really doesn't take much either. (I've estimated that Hangouts takes about 1MB per minute for voice calling.) But video uses a lot of data. Use it sparingly when on mobile data or you can eat up your data pretty quickly.

hetismij2

There is always good old Skype too. You an even buy Skype credit to phone non Skype users.
Whatsapp also has voice calling now.

GinnyJo

Andrew - this is an incredibly helpful level of detail -- thank you!

Sue81

OK skype is wayyyyy over my head, but google hangouts is very interesting, and I will figure that out. Now son has an android I phone....so with the Vodafone Sim card that I am getting from Ebay, it comes in 3 parts and I break off the little nano card right for my phone...for my Apple 7 I phone....is it possible that one of the two parts left might work in his android phone? Perhaps the Vodafone does not allow that and there are serial numbers on the remaining parts or something to prevent that? Sue

xyz123

No...it doesn't work that way. Whatever you punch out will contain the gold contacts that are the guts of a sim card...the various sizes just have to do with the surrounding material of that gold contact to fit in whatever the manufacturers set up in their phones.

Sue81

OK I figured that they had some way to block that idea. Thanks. Sue

rs899

Yes. If you need to later super size the SIM, you can reuse the other pieces. Just make sure it stays together in the slot.

Sue81

Google Hangout APP...OK Andrew or others, if I try to download this APP now on my Apple 7- I phone, then do I need to download it again when I put the new nano Sim card in the I phone? I suspect that I may need to do this again, right? Thanks. This will sure save a lot of money if it works. Sue

Sue81

Google Hangout again.....OK the site for Google hangout on google it says that you have to have an Apple I phone 8 or newer. I have an Apple iphone 7 so it sounds like that will not work for me. Any other ideas of how I can get free or inexpensive calls to the US with the Sim card/nano???? Sue

Andrew

No, you only need to install the Hangouts app once. You can keep using it everywhere once you've installed it once. I would install it now and test it out at home. Just call someone - anyone. They'll see "unknown number" on their caller ID though (unless you also get a Google Voice number - free - to go along with it).

Android users also need to install a second app, Hangouts Dialer, for some reason; I don't think iPhone users need to worry about this - just install the one app, Google Hangouts.

FYI, the Vodafone NL SIM seems to be working fine, at least in Italy - I'm posting this with it! I'm in a van on the way to Slovenia from Italy. I am tethering (hotspot) to my laptop which works as expected. Don't expect hotspot to work on an iPhone, though (I'm using an Android.)

rs899

Sue
Just go to the apple store through your iphone and download it. I am sure it works on iphones going way back.

Sue81

OK will try to download today, Safe trip Andrew. Thanks. Sue

xyz123

Just as a follow up to all the great information Andrew has given here, may I suggest a look at a site called localphone.com. (No, I'm not a troll for them). They have a whole bunch of great services at very low cost (although not free). Among them they can give you a local number if say you are from the USA for $1/month which can be programmed to ring to any sim card in the world. So I got a local NYC number from them (I live in NYC) programmed it via the web to ring to my British sim and then set up my home cell phone to forward to that number. Now if somebody calls me on my cell phone, the call bounces to that number and then onto my British sim. Cost is something like 1¢/minute.

Or they have calling cards with European numbers. So, just as an example, if I am out of the UK and cannot take advantage of their dirt cheap rates for calls to the USA, I call a European calling card number taking advantage of the reduced soon to vanish roaming rates within the eu and can call North America very cheaply.

They have some great services which some here might find very helpful.

Sue81

OK I did download the Hangout App to my Apple 7 I phone, now I have to figure out how to use it. I am in US, will get Sim card activated in Amsterdam on 7/4 hopefully, as I got the Sim card from Ebay which I should have soon...Vodafone Netherlands/$7.50. Just have to figure out how to put it all together to get it to work. I think I can call US for free, but not get calls free. That will work for me IF I can get it all working. Sue

rs899

See if this helps..I think this is our Andrew on aRick Steve's forum.

https://community.ricksteves.com/tra...d-google-voice

You should be able to get calls, or at least voicemail through Google voice, if you get a gv phone number.