Andrew

diversification: <i>3. Will I be able to call locally in Italy? I will contact hosts using Whatsapp or another data service, but I may need to contact businesses or hotels via phone.</i>

You will be able to call an Italian number with your Dutch Vodafone SIM, yes. I have called people in other countries while roaming (e.g. call someone in Croatia while in Croatia, using my Italian SIM) a few times, no issues except for high roaming fees at the time.

<i>4. Can I find anyone who has actually field-tested this so I'm not just going on best guesses?</i>

Give me a couple of weeks and I'll try to report back here. I will be in Europe a few weeks before you. I'll use my Vodafone NL SIM in Italy for a few days and I can report any issues I have. FYI, I have read that technically, Vodafone does not allow tethering (hotspot), but with Android phones they can't really enforce it, so people use it. iPhone users may be out of luck.

<i>5. What are the costs for the different packages and top-ups compared to Italy's options?</i>

You can see the costs on the Wiki pages and verify them on the company websites. For the Vodafone NL SIM, I am planning to use one of the "You" packages, probably the 3GB of data for 20 Euro package. That should hold me for 2.5 weeks easy, given that I'll also use WiFi when available. Not many minutes, but I'll be using Google Hangouts for most calling anyway.

Vodaphone NL has several ways to top-up online. One is via their website (sign up for a "My Vodafone" account - once you have a SIM with a phone number). I understand that sometimes they reject US credit cards - but there is another third party site (from the Wiki) that lets you buy a top-off with Paypal. I've also got the Vodaphone NL app on my phone - not simple because it is country-restricted by Google Play, so I had to download/install directly.

In any event, the big advantage of doing it this way for me is that I should have a working phone automatically when I cross a border and don't have to waste time getting another SIM in each country. Using a US provider like T-Mobile would work the same way, just much more expensive. And I'm hoping to use this same Vodafone NL SIM on future trips.

hetismij2

If Vodafone think you are abusing their free roaming they will limit your speed, or cut you off, but they will tell you first. Because they are a European wide company they have pretty generous fair use policies - provided you use their network where available.
Use WiFi as much as you can in any case.

scrb11

Never had any problems with getting a SIM in Italy and never had too many problems finding someone who could speak English, since I don't speak Italian.

Like I said, I only go for data SIMs. However, there are times when being able to send and receive SMS could be useful.

The other consideration is, I can call European numbers for 20 cents a minute from my T-Mobile phone, which is fine for minimal use of voice, but often local businesses wouldn't want to call my US phone number.

That's where a local SIM with voice could be useful but honestly, in all my decades of traveling, I've been able to work around without making a lot of voice calls. More and more, people are reachable and respond by email in a fairly timely manner.

Better still if you can get them to use iMessage, Skype, WhatsApp, Viber or whatever. Some people do have those accounts but still a lot of people don't.

I would have thought Skype would be pretty popular and widespread but I think a lot of Europeans also get intra-Europe calling features on a lot of plans so they can call or directly text mobile phones throughout the continent fairly cheaply without resorting to using Skype.

hetismij2

Scrb, in fact calling other European countries or texting them has always been expensive with a mobile phone. Even more so when travelling in Europe. That is why the EU stepped in and made provides lower the charges, and from June ban them entirely. In some countries such as the Netherlands providers haven't waited for the deadline, in others, such as Italy they are going to the wire, even when they are basically one and the same company.
Whatsapp is widely used, by business as well as private individuals. We can Whatsapp our bank and get a faster response than phoning or email.

xyz123

As noted, the dropping of roaming fees within Europe is going along nicely. Pick up a local sim anywhere and you will be able to make and receive calls for very reasonable rates and depending on the plan make and receive texts reasonably. All well and good. I wish data were a little cheaper but then again the solution is at hand i.e. universal free wifi which is also probably coming. Again all well and good.

But the profits of the telecoms have taken a beating so to make up for it they have to adjust other charges. And again the one question with any "solution" is dealing with making calls using European sims to outside Europe which become ridiculously expensive one leaves the country of origin of the sim. That's where workarounds and the like are needed. Wifi is great if you have internet calling on your phone and so are some of the others things suggested. These calls outside the eu represent the biggest remaining challenge where some savy is necessary.

Tulips

Everybody uses whatsapp, young and old. We keep in touch with our kids, our parents (who are in their 80s), siblings who live overseas, friends, cousins. It's used for school runs, sports clubs. We have Whatsapp groups for everyone.
It's so easy to find wifi - and once roaming charges are dropped it'll be even easier to use regular networks. Texting is hardly ever used anymore. I'm mainly talking about the Netherlands and Belgium here.

Diversification; you are waaaay overthinking this.

bvlenci

Be careful about the information that you can top up a Dutch SIM card online with Paypal. In Italy, TIM requires that you use an Italian credit card to top up online, but also allows you to top up with Paypal. I gave that information to someone once, but he found out that they required you to use Italian Paypal. And ... Italian Paypal required you to use an Italian credit card to sign up.

bvlenci

Hetismei says, <i> If Vodafone think you are abusing their free roaming they will limit your speed, or cut you off ... </i>

This highlights an issue that concerns all European cell service providers now that roaming charges are ending. Costs vary widely from country to country, and providers are worried that people will buy a SIM card in a country where it is cheaper than at home and then use it all the time in the country where they live. Italy is one of the cheaper countries, so it's not such a problem here. However, even here, there's a clause in the TIM contract that says if, over the course of six months, you mostly use the SIM card outside of Italy, they'll do something unpleasant to your service.

Regarding Skype, it's widely used in Italy. So is WhatsApp. Google is hardly used at all, since most of their services are only available to people who live in the US. Lots of people also use Facebook Messenger for texting.

I tried using Facebook Messenger for a video chat to the US, and it was unusable. The video was grossly pixelated and hung continually. After hanging up, I switched to a Skype video call, and it worked fine, so it had to be something specific to Messenger.

scrb11

Sometimes I would book hotels or pensions which didn't have online booking.

So they'd ask me to email them my credit card number.

I would then ask if they had Skype or WhatsApp, because it's more secure to send that info. on those platforms than plain email.

I booked an Austrian lodging and had to wire money over. Fortunately I found an online service to do that rather than pay my bank a big international wire fee.

Andrew

I am still in the US (leave for Europe in a few weeks), but I managed to activate my Vodafone NL SIM the other day. (It registered on the T-Mobile network.) I immediately got a text saying, "Welcome to the United States!" along with (expensive) roaming rates for using the phone in the US, something I have no plans to do (though incoming SMS is free even in the US).

Then I registered for a My Vodaphone account on the Vodaphone.nl website. I got the confirmation text on the new SIM number. My account showed 0 Euros credit.

And just now, I topped up 20 Euros on it, using my US Visa card (no need to use Paypal). It worked the first time, though it wasn't clear at first: after taking my credit card info, etc. they asked for additional info (my bank's phone number), then after that returned me to the original page to top-up, showing 0 Euros credit on my account.

I was about to try again...but then I checked again, about 5 min after the first attempt, and my balance was now 25 Euros! So it worked. Didn't realize I'd get a 5 Euro credit at first top-off. I wanted to get at least 2GB of data (15 Euros), but you can only top-off at 10 or 20 euros, not 15. So I decided to go for 20 Euros for 3GB. Now I have 25 Euros. Had I topped of to just 10 Euros I'd have 15 Euros to start, enough for the 2GB package. Oh, well...

I assume this phone will just work when I land in Italy, given that I'm already receiving text messages in the US.

diversification, if you don't feel like waiting until you get to the Netherlands to get this SIM, you can do what I did and just order one on eBay. I got one for 7 Euros shipped, and it arrived two weeks after ordering it. It would save you the time of worrying about topping it up, making the roaming work on your phone, etc. while you on your short stay in Amsterdam. Just don't activate any new package (data) after top off until you are really about to use it, because it's good for only 30 days.

Andrew

Second thought: I may have received that 5 Euro bonus as a 25% bonus from Vodafone for first top-off (I read that somewhere). So putting 10 Euros on it wouldn't have been enough for 15 Euros, most likely. I'll use 20 Euros and have 5 left over - credit is good for a year, but I hear you can extend it by up to 3 months with some tricks. Hope I got back to Europe next year!

diversification

Hi Andrew, I just wanted to touch base again. How'd the Vodafone NL sim work for you in Italy? Everything go smoothly? No weird issues?

I really appreciate all the info you've provided by the way - it's very helpful. I think I'm going to wait until I get to Amsterdam to snag a sim card myself, given that my trip is this coming Saturday. From what I've heard, they're pretty good at the Amsterdam branches.

Fortunately for me, my s/o speaks Dutch nearly fluently so we should have a pretty easy time navigating the Vodafone NL website if we need to top-up via the web interface while we're in Italy.

Andrew

I'm in Italy now, and the Vodafone SIM is working great - tethered to my tablet to post this!

rs899

Not to take away from the good work Andrew is doing for us but...

I am late to this party, but here is another possibility. Three UK.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

I don't want to go back and read through all the thread, but you can roam on Three UK in the Netherlands and Italy.

I just ordered a SIM from UK for about $2 that should be here in about 2 weeks. The cost for 12GB of data is about $30

http://www.three.co.uk/Support/Top_Up

Oh, I see you are leaving Saturday. Too late probably to snag a ThreeUK SIM unless you find a US seller...

diversification

Thanks rs899, I actually dug around and found the discussion (here: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...damsterdam.cfm) on Three UK and Vodafone UK. I might actually be able to snag one of those cards as I have a brief layover in the Manchester airport, however the inability to top-up without a UK address-registered CC makes it a no-go for me. Still, thanks for the suggestion!

Andrew, thanks for the speedy response! I'm glad to have verification that it works as planned I've gotten Google Hangouts setup with my Google Voice # and tested it out, so I'm all set with calling / texting to the US (they greatly simplified the setup when they upgraded Google Voice a few months ago.) I did read your note about being charged $0.01 for calls to 800 numbers, so I think I'll look up the Italian and Dutch numbers for my Credit Card, Bank, etc companies to hopefully avoid that by using the SIM minutes for those calls (which presumably would be free?)

I've also got WhatsApp setup for communication with AirBnB hosts, and other local places that may have WhatsApp.

My plan is to stop into Vodafone in Amsterdam as soon as I arrive and get all setup.


Thanks again!

rs899

"....a brief layover in the Manchester airport, however the inability to top-up without a UK address-registered CC makes it a no-go for me. Still, thanks for the suggestion!"

No, I have the same problem , too.

But if you read the thread you can find firms such as

http://www.mobiletopup.co.uk/


...that you and I can use (via Paypal or US credit card) to top up Three UK. Cost a couple of dollars.

In theory...I haven't done it yet.

rs899

^^ plus, if you are in the UK at a Three UK booth perhaps you can use a US card. I don't know but one would think so...

xyz123

Mobiletopup.co.uk most assuredly works. They take paypal. I used it to top up my Vodafone uk sim card but they definitely do 3. I had a discussion with some guy on flyer talk, made the suggestion about the 3 sim card on ebay and mobiletopup and when he returned from his trip to several European countries, marveled at how well it worked. The advantage of doing it this way is you know your phone number in advance and can use the card even though your first stop is not in the UK the same way our pal Andrew is using his Vodafone NL card but hasn't stepped foot in the Netherlands.

Now also be aware of this. In the UK, you can top up easily at the Manchester airport. I am sure there is say a Boots there. You can purchase a top up slip at Boots or many many other retailers in the airport from the cashiers and you can absolutely use your US credit card there. They give you a cash register receipt with the top up number and instructions of how to top up (what number to call which will ask you if you wish to top up with a voucher and then tell you to enter the voucher number. Takes about 25 seconds. You then are directed how to purchase with the top up one of the add ons. As a reminder, if you wish to use the sim card in the UK to call outside Europe, you have to check their web site for the prefix to use for each country to get the very cheapest rates. Calls within Europe or any of their feel at home countries are priced according to their web site. You need not find a 3 merchant if you already have the sim card installed. The restriction on using their web site to top up is where the silly rule about only using a UK registered card comes into play. It does not matter at any place in the UK that does mobile top ups and that includes convenience stores like Boots, grocery chins like Tesco and the like where you can use any form of payment the store accepts.

rs899

The OP ran off. I hope he/she comes back to check in though he/she does not appear to be a regular. I suspect Three would be better than Vodaphone NL, for higher data use.

I think Three UK is a very good solution to having a good chunk of data usable all over Europe for a pretty reasonable price. 12GB for about $30 all over Europe , and you can even bring the leftovers home in a doggybag to the US and use it up here.

I have seen some references to getting topups via this Google Play App:

http://kwikpay.com/

but I can't get it to download. Perhaps they know where I live (knowing Google, I am sure of it)

kda0000

I appreciate the info about the UK strategy. If I can top up both plans online and it won't cost me much extra to do so for the UK plans, I guess I should reconsider a bit. To do so, I need a good bit more information, but first, let me explain my situation a bit more.

I want the ability to SMS and call my girlfriend when we're traveling, because I may go wandering on my own occasionally. SMS are more reliable than data messages (at least that's my experience in the US) so I'd be much more confident that we'd receive each other's calls and texts using the former protocols. Also, there are a ton of apps on my phone that use data, so I don't want to leave data on perpetually. Smartphones can usually shut off data but leave SMS and calling on, which is what I'd prefer to do.

My girlfriend will meet me in Amsterdam and does not pass through the UK, so my current plan is to just get both of us Vodafone NL cards. I suppose I could just buy 2 UK cards in the Manchester airport, but I'm a bit concerned about trying that because I'll only have my phone, so I'd be activating the cards one at a time. Additionally, I only have about an hour at the Manchester airport, and that's assuming all flights are running exactly as they're scheduled.

Regardless, I still need a better understanding of my options. I'd like to break things down into SIM Scenarios and Usage Cases which can be combined to explain how my various options would work. Please see below:


---SIM Scenarios---
1) I buy 2 UK SIMs at Manchester airport for both, and activate both while there. When I meet my gf in Amsterdam, I give her a UK SIM and we head to Italy.

2) I buy myself a UK SIM (as above,) my girlfriend buys herself a Vodafone NL SIM in Amsterdam, and we head to Italy.

3) We both buy Vodafone NL SIMs in Amsterdam, and we head to Italy.


---Usage Cases---
A) We use data as needed in Italy

B) We text / call each other

C) We call / text our Airbnb hosts

D) We call / text local places (restaurants, stores, tour companies, etc

E) We text / call 800 numbers (like our bank or CC)

F) We text / call US numbers (cell or landline)



^^^^ I set it up like this so it's easier to write responses. Here are examples of what I'm imagining responses will look like:

1A) roaming charges do apply - data speeds and coverage same as local carriers

1B) phones treat each other as same country despite roaming, and no higher usage rates or roaming charges apply

1C, D, E, F) roaming charges do apply, likely for both parties involved in the communication


2A) no roaming charges - data speeds and coverage is slightly reduced

2B) both phones see it as international call / text and it uses minutes / messages at a faster rate

And so on....



I'm sorry, I know I'm asking a lot, but I just want to figure it out without a shadow of a doubt. One less thing to worry about, you know?