Tldr: Is there any?
I’m about to travel abroad for a few months+, and trying to find a provider that at the very least will allow the sim card to remain active and receive texts (maybe calls) indefinitely. No texts = no OTP = no bank account = no money>no food>death. Officially not good :)
Unfortunately between conflicting info on roaming, pay monthly vs payg, eu vs row, specific tech issues in certain countries, and various other stuff, it’s hard to pin down exactly what will and won’t work (especially the basics like receiving texts). Not even the ID employees seem to be sure, summed up by this thread where one claims they can make no allowances for roaming termination because it’s a fixed system, followed immediately by another employee saying the exact opposite:
And I’ve seen thread after thread on here with similar stuff. T&Cs state it’s very simple to continue roaming by providing documents. CS state you can’t provide documents because they have no control over it at all. Another CS hears someone’s stuck in Ukraine and magically now they do have control over it and will re-enable roaming if contacted, as per T&Cs. Many threads have people complaining the account was totally shut down after a few months, not just data roaming. Another CS suggests using a PAYG sim instead of pay monthly whilst travelling.
Best I’ve been able to determine is the following:
- Sim will continue working in the UK so long as a chargeable event (text/call/whatever) happens at least once every 120 days.
- 12GB/pm inclusive EU roaming (and other EU Roaming perks) will continue up to 120 days or the longest you last used the phone in UK (whichever comes first).
- Demonstrating “strong ties” to the uk “like a UK bill or bank statement. - https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming/fair-usage-policy” should keep inclusive roaming going, but apparently won’t. Or might. Or is physically impossible to do. Until it’s not. Yeah, ymmv with that.
- But for any useage at all after 120 days abroad (receiving texts/not getting the account and number suspended)…. i don’t know. Seems to differ depending on who answers, and there doesn’t seem to be anything specific in terms. With other networks - Smarty (also on 3) claim they’ll disconnect you entirely if you exceed their fair use roaming period abroad. Giffgaff (on O2) say the opposite - that they’ll never disconnect you just because you’re abroad, just stop inclusive roaming.
So… whilst loosing inclusive roaming after 120 days is likely, is it possible to keep a sim (PAYG? PM?) active and receiving texts past this time whilst abroad? And is anyone from iD able to give a consistent answer that won’t immediately be contradicted by someone else, backed up by published text in T&Cs? Would be nice as you’re deffinately less pricey than giffgaff :)
Thanks.
