My Daughter will be going to the U.K., Belgium, and Germany in a few weeks to visit relatives. She has physical/mobility problems, and I want her to be able to have a phone, primarily for emergencies, arrange transport, etc. I've ordered a quad band cellphone for her on eBay, but am at a loss as to what SIM would be best to get for her.

I want to operate here in the States so she can practice with the thing, and load her address book. I don't want to wait for her to get to England before getting a SIM, so I need one that will be mailed here.

I had a couple of Mobal phones that I had used on earlier trips, but threw them out a few weeks before she announced her trip. They were convenient, but would not work in the States and the rates for what I do were silly.

Which SIM supplier would you recommend?

Thanks,

intouchsmartcards.com has a great website. There is good info about using and buying phones and cards. I've used them a number of times. Good customer service. I'm sure you can find just what you need there.

Thanks to seamus's recommendation, I used Lebara for my UK visit. Calls to the states are 4 pence/minute, in UK 10 pence. I got mine within a week to ten days after I ordered it. I was able to upload my old SIM directory to the phone. They are cheap enough at 5 pounds each including airtime.

You may do better with the Vodafone Passport plan through Aug 31st, no roaming charges throughout 35 countries. I think they will send you a SIM also.

Thanks for these prompt replies. I had intended to go with United Mobile, since friends had used their cards successfully. Unfortunately, when I went online I found they have folded.

I will explore your suggestions.

Try this for Germany:
It roams in the US, but would be expensive to use there, so don't make calls before you arrive.
ebay #230324977254

Ships to USA, accepts Paypal.
Calls to German landlines 4ct/min, 15ct to USA.
15€ for card and shipping. 3€ on card.

This is the cheapest German SIM for national calls to landlines. Works on E-plus. I've used it all over Europe because of the auto recharge via credit card function.

Feldie - hope that worked out OK for you.
OP - one of the complicating variables is that your daughter will be visiting three different countries. Hard to evaluate logos999's suggestion as the website in in German. I did find this one that looks interesting: http://tinyurl.com/lkwdl6 looks like it offers decent rates.

You need to be able to shop on ebay, even if it's in German. I'd consider how to use ebay in any language a basic skill of survival on this planet.

OK, logos, when does the adult ed class convene? Sign me up!

Seamus, imagine Walmart is broke, Sears, Costco are closed and all that's left is ebay.de
I'll sign you up for a basic class next week, if that's o.k. with you.
First word we'll teach will be "Shopping" in 128 languages.

Hey logos...

Why don't you become an ebay merchant and start selling that German sim card (Sonomoa)......you could make a fortune!

That's boring. They won't buy anyway. There's no money in SIM cards. Don't sell to individuals, only to bigger companies or the state. Individual customers are trouble, they don't know how things work and want everything explained for free. And they worry about the $20 they spend instead of being happy to have solved a problem.

Honestly, would you want to have to deal with private customers?

...obviously some do...especially with UK sim cards...hundreds of listings.

Only if you're willing to be my manager for customer complaints, bag all the SIMs and bring them to the post office every morning.

I'm going to count the money in the meantime.

Feldie -- Do I recall there was some problem in using a US credit card to order a Lebara SIM card online for delivery to the US? Maybe I'm misremembering that thread.

Anybody -- If I order a SIM card and have it delivered to the US before I travel (in my case, to the UK), will I know my cell phone number before I leave the US?

tahl: no problem ordering a SIM and getting it to me with my US credit card HOWEVER to top it up I would have had to buy a voucher from a store since I didn't have a UK credit card.

And yes, I knew the # - it was on the package. We sat in the airport programming each other into our phones.