Prepaid in UK/Europe
I'm gonna be going to the UK and Europe for an extended stay in a few mths,
wondering what the best prepaid deal would be in terms of call rates to UK
mobiles and back to Australia.
It would also be handy if the prepaid could have roaming, as trips to
various parts of Europe will be made but if this makes the other costs too
high (or the roaming costs are too high which I suspect they might be) I
guess it's best to just use starter packs in the other countries and toss
the SIM's when I leave?
-Virgin Mobile UK. Buy a SIM on ebay before you leave AU (then you can tell
friends your number). Can roam overseas (Europe no probs); only disdvantage
is that you have to have bought the topup vouchers in the UK before you
leave (ie: can't buy them online or anywhere else in Europe). And they don't
accept non-UK-issued Credit Cards for ccredit top-up either.
-Have a look at http://alan.uni-hd.de/Handy/UK_SIMs-ENGLISH.html for a
guide to UK PAYG.
Another plus with Virgin is the calls can be made to Australia using
the increasing popular "call-though" services in the UK. By dialling
an 0845 or 0870/0871 access number, which Virgin charge at 10p and 15p
per minute respectively, a saving can be made over Virgin's 20p per
minute rate to Australia. For examples of "call-though" services see
http://www.niftylist.co.uk/
As a Virgin customer I find there roaming rates for Europe some of the
most reasonable, but of course buying local SIMs will always be
cheaper.
See also http://www.riiing.com/ and
http://www.oneroam.co.uk/sim-cards.aspx which might be of use for
travel in multiple countries.