What to do with Sim card when travelling to south east asia | iD Mobile Community
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What to do with Sim card when travelling to south east asia

  • October 15, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 55 views

In a weeks time I am travelling to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and then staying in Australia for a year. I am aware that my SIM card won’t work when in these places and plan to get a physical sim when in each place, although I want to keep my uk phone number so I can still contact people through WhatsApp with this number and when I come back still make use of it. I have heard that you have to send a text from it every so often to keep the number active so how would this work with being in these places. Would I be charged etc?

 

As well as this I want to change from a monthly contract to pay as you go as I won’t actually be using the contract at all so is the best option to pay of the remaining bill on the contract and move to pay as you go sim. Should I get this e sim if I plan to get physical sim when travelling.

 Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I’ve I’m struggling to get in contact with customer service on the live chat .

2 replies

andewhite
Platinum 
Contributor
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  • Platinum 
Contributor
  • October 16, 2025

If you pay monthly for your iD account, and continue paying while overseas, then your number would remain active on the iD network, ​@elleforbes

The “I have heard that you have to send a text from it every so often to keep the number active so how would this work with being in these places.” option would be applicable if you’ve got an iD PAYG SIM, not a pay monthly iD SIM.

🍀


iD Support
iD Mobile Employee
  • October 16, 2025

Hi ​@elleforbes 

 

Thank you for the above.

 

What ​@andewhite mentioned is correct and to add on, we suggest contacting us every few months to confirm that you are still liable for the account while you are on your travels.

 

Michael Z