Andrew

If you both get Vodafone NL SIMs, I think you can text each other for free unlimited with the "You" bundles (good for a month), and you'd get up to 30 min (with "You L" bundle with 3GB of data) to call each other. Incoming calls are free I believe.

Roaming costs apply with the Vodafone NL SIM for calling/texting non-NL phone numbers, so if you each have an NL phone number, you should be good for that. To call or text hosts outside of the NL using the SIM would coast roaming fees out. Maybe for texting you can use WhatsApp or something. But the roaming costs are no big deal if you have credit on your SIMs - just top-up if need be. 20 Euro cents/min for calls, 15 Euro cents/per text which is not cheap though.

Vodafone data works fine in Italy - I've been using it all week here. No roaming costs for that.

Use Google Hangouts to call the US - free for most calls, maybe 1 cents/min for some 800 numbers, but you'd have to add $10 USD credit to start to make any paid calls with Google Hangouts, even just 1 cent calls.

menachem

Wow. you're overthinking this in a big way.

I'm from the era before smartphones. before cell phones even. just adjust your behaviour a little bit. buy a lebara card at any airport. ok, you'll pay a bit more, but you're making this way too complicated.


I no longer bother with sms or calling because the 4g network is so good. I just buy sim cards with large amounts of data on them and use WhatsApp. 1GB should take care of your communication needs. You can buy one at Schiphol when you land.

I love your handle. Indeed!

rs899

Seems riskier to mismatch SIMs, go with 2 of the same.

Carefully read everything.

Three says: You can’t use your minutes allowance to make calls to local or other international numbers, as you can only use your inclusive minutes to call UK numbers, whether you’re in the UK or a Feel At Home destination.

The all you can eat plan is limited to 12 GB anyway so you can't use that.

Three does not have 4g lte while roaming in many places, from what I have read, so if blazing speed is needed consider this. Also hotspotting does not appear to work while roaming.

xyz123

Here's the question...you're meeting your girl friend in Amsterday. Are you spending any time in Amsterday? Probably the easiest thing to do if you are is to go to a Vodafone store and discuss what they have with a clerk. One nice thing about the Netherlands. This is one place where when they say everybody speaks English fluently, well everybody indeed speaks English fluently. English is like the 2nd language of the Netherlands and almost every Dutch kid starts learning it in the 2nd grade. They will go over the plans, activate the plans, insert the sim cards and you'll be done.
You should do some of the research on your own. Unfortunately the Vodafone NL web site is only in Dutch. Many telecoms have their web sites include a choice of language but you can probably figure out most of it. Also the clerk at the Vodafone NL store will help you set your language to English. Almost all the Dutch sim cards do allow this and if you have to speak to customer service, it is almost certain you will be able to speak to somebody in English.

At this point, that's probably the best advice but the ost important thing is probably that both you and your girl friend be on the same network.

rs899

https://www.justlanded.com/english/N...bile-operators

Actually I land in AMS myself, so I took a run through all the Dutch providers listed here. Hard to make much sense of it as they all seem to be in Dutch and Google translate is clunky. Nothing really jumps out at me being better than Three for a good chunk of data and there isn't much talk of roaming yet. This may change after 15 June.

hetismij2

All the major Dutch providers have one away with roaming charges well ahead of June.
Vodafone offers the best PAYG deal, as you can reload online.
The language the phone uses is nothing to do with the SIM but the settings in the phone My phone is a Dutch bought phone, now with a KPN SIM, previously with a Vodafone SIM, but I set the phone to English, with Dutch as a second option.

hetismij2

You are expected to use the phone in the country issuing the SIM, just just buy the best deal and use it exclusively for roaming, no matter where in the EU you buy your SIM. It falls under the fair use clause. If you don't use it in the country of origin,or hardly use it there, they can slow your internet or cut it off completely if they feel you are abusing the system.

rs899

"If you don't use it in the country of origin,or hardly use it there, they can slow your internet or cut it off completely if they feel you are abusing the system."

Likely true in the long run, but over a one or two week period I doubt they are sophisticated enough or care enough to strictly enforce this.

xyz123

hetismij2...there are 2 language settings to be aware of. First as you noted, the language of the phone is an internal setting. But things like the language the sms arrive in, the language used to set up voice mail, the very messages given out by voice mail and things like that can and are controlled by the sim. The first time I bought a Dutch sim card in Amsterdam around a decade ago, as the first part of the set up I was asked which language, English or Dutch. You're from the Netherlands I think and you would agree with me English is almost the 2nd language of the country so I suspect most Dutch providers somehow give one that choice.

I bought a French sim card again a while ago and the French are much more linguistic nationalistic and at least on Orange FR I was not given that choice and through some research found that they originally did give a language option for the sim functions but no longer did. But the phone settings were still set to English.