Rats, tabernash2. That is what I am afraid of. Verizon rarely knows what they are talking about but I have not found a better company in terms of coverage.

Anyone bought a SIM card online to use overseas? Then I would be all set and would not have to mess around with that once I arrived? But it means I would have a completely different phone number, for my time there, right? I am usually not worried about people being unable to reach me but I'm gone for over a month.

Get a Google Voice phone number before you leave the US, and install Google Hangouts Dialer on your phone. Then you can keep using a (new) US phone number while in Europe even if you get a foreign SIM. (You can enable Hangouts Dialer to ring on incoming calls.) Hangouts Dialer uses the internet for calls but that means it's completely free to call or receive calls to/from the US with it on WiFi. Even good for calling landlines.

Google Voice gives you a completely different US phone number, though, so you will have to give people that number to call. You can put the Google Voice number in your voicemail message on your Verizon cell phone if you want.

marvelousmouse...the sim cards most readily available on ebay are UK sim cards. Although the sim cards themselves when bought in the UK are free, almost every one of the major UK networks have sim cards available for 99p. Shipping varies...I purchased a 3 sim card for 99p with 50p for postage.

They usually come with no value but you can go to the site mobiletopup.co.uk to top up any of the networks for an additional fee of 99p. (Bargains especially with how the UK£ has fallen recently). Thus you can set up a British pay as you go account from anywhere in the world and arrive in Britain up and ready. You'll have to read the various telcom web sites for the various plans and roaming within Euope. 3 seems to have a very good plan for roaming which allows you to use your top ups in most European countries the way you do in Britain (and believe it or not, the USA is included in their feel at home countries) although they have restrictions set up to prevent non residents of Britain from taking complete advantage of their rates. Intra European roaming rates are dropping and one of the British sim cards may be worthwhile looking into for any Europpean vacation even if it doesn't include Britain. And with that mobile top up site I mentioned, the whole thing can be set up before arrival in Europe.

marvelousmouse...the sim cards most readily available on ebay are UK sim cards. Although the sim cards themselves when bought in the UK are free, almost every one of the major UK networks have sim cards available for 99p. Shipping varies...I purchased a 3 sim card for 99p with 50p for postage.

They usually come with no value but you can go to the site mobiletopup.co.uk to top up any of the networks for an additional fee of 99p. (Bargains especially with how the UK£ has fallen recently). Thus you can set up a British pay as you go account from anywhere in the world and arrive in Britain up and ready. You'll have to read the various telcom web sites for the various plans and roaming within Euope. 3 seems to have a very good plan for roaming which allows you to use your top ups in most European countries the way you do in Britain (and believe it or not, the USA is included in their feel at home countries) although they have restrictions set up to prevent non residents of Britain from taking complete advantage of their rates. Intra European roaming rates are dropping and one of the British sim cards may be worthwhile looking into for any Europpean vacation even if it doesn't include Britain. And with that mobile top up site I mentioned, the whole thing can be set up before arrival in Europe.

I had wondered about the uk ones. So I can use those without a uk address and credit card? Because I was under the impression that I needed both to set the account up.

Andrew, is there an app to use, to make voice and text calls using wifi? So no
SIM card would be required, and no new phone number?

It would be limited service, to wifi spots or your hotel. Maybe better than a more complicated plan.

Yes, the app is called "Google Hangouts Dialer." (You may also need to install the "Google Hangouts" app as well.) That lets you call OUT from your phone on Wifi or mobile data, whatever.

If you want to receive calls as well with Hangouts Dialer, you need to sign up for Google Voice with your Google account. This will give you a new phone number - but at least it's a US phone number so people in the US trying to call you don't have to make an international call.

Google Voice requires existing phone service - a cell phone or even a landline - when you sign up for it the first time. It's sort of like a forwarding service but also kind of like Skype (but free to call phones, even landlines, so the other person you're calling doesn't need any Google apps at all.). I used my cell phone for Google Voice. When you call my Google Voice phone number normally, by default it rings my cell number. But if I have Hangouts Dialer on my phone, I can receive calls on that same number without a SIM card - just on WiFi, with Hangouts Dialer.

marvelous mouse...you can register on all the UK networks. However, with the exception of vodafone, to top up you need a creit card with a UK addrss if you do so online on the telco's web site. Vodafone recently began accepting paypal for this which they all should. Why they have this asinine policy for a £10 top up is ridiculous. However, the web site I gave you takes paypal for top ups and emails you the code to enter to top up. You can then browse the telcom's web site to see what bundles you wish to ask. I've read through 3's web site and they seem to have an interesting program called feel at home which allows you to use in selected companies the same policies as in the UK. Their basic pay as you gl plan is 3p/minute for calls, 2p per text and 1p per mb for data. You can also make very cheap international calls by dialing a code in front of the number. All these details are on their web site although I am possibly misinterpreting. You can check it out yourself. UK sin cards require no registration as it stands right now although there are some in the UK who feel terrorists take advantage of this and want to change it. But for the moment, it works.

Thanks, Andrew, I thought there was a simpler way to do it.

What about setting up Wifi Calling on an iPhone:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032

If you have WiFi calling on your phone and your carrier supports that? Sure. Hangouts Dialer works with mobile data too, though, and I did use it to make free voice calls on a recent trip even when not on WiFI. But if you want to stick to only WiFI calls and your carrier has WiFi calling, go for it. My phone didn't have WiFi calling so wasn't an option for me last time. I was addressing this suggestion to the poster above who was talking about getting a local SIM and a foreign phone number, which would make WiFi calling not an option while that other SIM is installed.

Thanks, Andrew.

<i>which would make WiFi calling not an option while that other SIM is installed.</i>

That is not necessarily true. There are a lot of VoIP providers, many more than just Skype or Google. If a phone has VoIP capability, virtually any provider can be configured to provide service. I typically use www.diamondcard.us but there are many others.

Sarastro: <i>which would make WiFi calling not an option while that other SIM is installed.

That is not necessarily true.</i>

The poster was talking about the mobile service's "WiFi calling" feature (that's the name of the feature - "WiFi Calling") that allows, for example, a T-Mobile user to use his/her phone on WiFi and make/receive calls for free WITH THEIR ORIGINAL PHONE NUMBER, without any other VOIP service.

But you can't use T-Mobile's "WiFi Calling" feature if you remove your T-Mobile SIM. That's all I was saying. I didn't say you can't make calls over WiFi with your original SIM.

Marvelous mouse is not going to be in the UK, so the UK SIM card isn't going to help her. Vodafone UK has a roaming plan for PAYG users for £3 a day, but it's only for calls and texts to UK numbers. It lets you use "Big Bundle" texts and minutes and includes a piddling 100 mb of data. It really would be a waste of money for someone going to Venice and Munich.

Depending on which city you'll be in first, you should get either a German or Italian SIM card with a roaming plan that allows you to use it in other European countries.

I live in Italy and can help if you will be in Venice first. If you'll be in Germany first, Lycamobile might be your best choice, but maybe someone knows of something better.

http://www.lycamobile.de/en/roaming-sim-card

bvlenci...the only reason I brought up UK sims and somebody else asked about them is they are readilly available on ebay for next to nothing, there is no language problem on the websites for English speakers and there will be some intra-eu roaming in the near future that will prove helpful.

As I said, I may be mis-interpreting the current roaming of 3 in the UK. It seems, but I admit I'm not sure, that for a two week period you can bring their 3p-2p-1p payg plan to a variety of countries both winthin and outside the eu inclyding the United States. But as I said, the advantages of the UK sims is they do not require registration and they can be both purchased and set up outside the UK unlike say Italian cards. Now just how advantageous that is resides in the eyes of the beholder. I found it very helpful to me as London was not my first stop on my last trip across the pond.

Xyz, you can't you top up a 3 PAYG SIM card online without a UK credit card.

See the note on this page.

https://www.three.co.uk/Web_top_up

Someone above said that only Vodafone allowed online topup without a UK credit card, using Paypal. I know I was able to do that this summer with a Vodafone Payg card. Everything I said above about roaming applied to Vodafone.

Actually, I see that it was you, xyz,who said only Vodafone allowed topping up online without a UK credit card. So 3's roaming plan would be irrelevant for Mouse's situation.

One problem here is that several people, with different situations, have joined this thread.

Hetismij said <i>
Oh, and I also always store my contacts with +country code number, even for local contacts I am unlikely to need to call when travelling. </i>

I always do that, too, but it didn't work for me in the UK. I had a Vodafone PAYG plan, and when I tried to call people whose UK numbers I had entered in international form, I got a message saying my plan didn't cover that type of call. Every time I wanted to call someone locally, I had to edit the number to remove the +44.

I have all my contacts in Italy entered with +39, and can call them from home or abroad.

bvelenci...you're right. But you missed the post which pointd out there is an internet site, wwwmobiletopup.co.uk where you can absolutely top up all UK networks but with a 99p surcharge and they do accept paypal. Somebody I worked with bought on ebay a 3 sim card for 99p with 50p postage and topped up with £10 on that web site. Worked perfectly. He was quite happy to pay the extra £1.45 for postage, sim card and top up. Signed up on the 3 web site to get one of the bonus offers and when he stepped off the plane at Heathrow, used the card immediately with no problems whatsoever. From my research, it's the only alternative to pre-purchase a functional European sim card on ebay before arrival in the UK or indeed use the eu roaming. And 3, unlike other British telcoms, does not steal your credit for inactivity after 6 months or a year unlike the other British telcoms. As good a plan at TIM might have for visitors, for example, you have to wait till you get to Italy to get the card and have to register it, right?

That still doesn't make it any less ridiculous that the British telcoms insist on a UK address to use a credit card on their websites to top up. But mobileco.uk solves that problems for 99p.

Website should be


www.mobiletopup.co.uk