I want to buy a UK prepaid card that:

1) Has roaming capabilities

2) Has the most validity without the need to make a call

3) Can be topped easily from abroad (credit card, vouchers etc)


Any suggestions; :help:

It appears the simplest solution would be a Vodafone UK card.

1. Vodafone (as well as all other UK prepaid) offer roaming capabilities.

2. All UK prepaid (except 3) require 'activity' every 6 months to keep the card active. Make/recieve a call or send an sms is the simplest way to do this.

3. Are you actually in Greece? If so, you can recharge a Vodafone UK account using the prepaid vouchers of Vodafone Greece.

I don't know if Orange still does it or not but they used to match other carrier's plans. I was told that you could get an Orange SIM matching a Virgin Mobile plan so it never expired as long as you had credit.

Thank you both for your answers!

I am normally in Greece. I know this about vodafone. The think that interests me the most is to have a uk mobile number active for the most period possible, without recharge

I will probably buy the card via the internet so I suppose it is not possible to have orange match their plan with Virgin....

If I buy a Uk sim which is unregistered, from ebay, what do I need to do to register it;

Virgin is the easiest to get. The sims are all over ebay and they come already activated, with roaming capabilities, GPRS, etc. Just put it in your phone. AFAIK, virgin has the longest validity (12 months) without the need to make a call. I have even heard of people that have not used their virgin sims in 2 years and the thing is still active.

Bossmman thanks. Will I be able to top it up from abroad;

Do I need identification documents to use it;

I have a Vodaphone UK card. It is now every 90 days you have to have activity. Sending a SMS will do the trick. You have to have a UK address to use in the address area. At least I had to be in the UK to get this done. I had to call CS to get my credit card regestered. Online regester didn't seem to work from the states. Now I am online with a Americian credt card. I can top up anytime. :D I got my sim from www.freedom-mobiles.co.uk/ they shipped it to me in the states with no problem. I hope this helps.

No Identification docs to use it. Yes, you can top it up from abroad for free. Just dial 789. Unless you have a UK issued credit card, you will have to use vouchers from abroad. I bought all my topup vouchers on ebay UK. You can usually get them for about 20% or more discount there. The seller will just email you the voucher #.

Bossman thanks.

What I need is to buy a UK mobile prepaid. This will first be used abroad and ostly used abroad.
IS VIRGIN ok for that;

See what I have found:

Full international roaming is available, for this Virgin Mobile will credit check you, and take diect debit details, you will then be billed monthly for your calls and will no longer have to pay for your call credit in advance.[B]

Yes. They will do a credit check for that. I only use my Virgin sim for voice and data when I am in the UK. Outside the UK, I use it only for data because they charge the same for GPRS usage regardless of roaming or not. On my recent trip to UK, Amsterdan, and Nigeria, I used my virgin card extensively for data. BTW, Nigeria is not even on the list of prepaid roaming countries. It is listed for direct debit though.

Roaming with the virgin sim for voice, even with direct debit, is somewhat expensive though. You may want to look into the international sim such as the IOM sims, that give you a UK number.

So Virgin is not fore me!

IOM cards are expensive for me that I just want a UK mobile number!

So that leaves us with vodafone and orange;

Can they be used firstly from abroad and then topped up also;

What do you want to actually use the SIM for? At a guess, it sounds to me a bit like you just want to receive text messages from someone here.

The Orange equivalent of Virgin tariff that DRN mentions was has been unavailable for some time, and they now seem to have abolished all OVP deals (they are contract though)

Virgin has cheaper rates for post-paid by direct debit, but I don't know if that only applies to UK banks. It may have the cheapest data tariff. It does also seem to have an unofficial longer life than the others that expire at 6 months or so without use (incoming or outgoing)

As far as the cheapest roaming goes, Vodafone's Passport scheme now applies in all EU countries. 75p connect fee, then at the same tariff as here, ie 0p incoming, cheapest 5p off-peak (edit - 10p on tariffs now available) to landlines and Vodafone

O2's MyEurope has 35p a minute outgoing and incoming calls. They have recently started a free incoming calls ?5 monthly option, but this only applies to use in Spain (all networks) at the moment; likely to spread throughout Europe next year, (maybe with the same 25p/min calls? - which would be very close to the cheapest roaming way to call all European mobiles)

As far as easy top-up, I think most can have a credit card registered to them, but ask the others about UK only or foreign ones, and you'd then just apply credit from calling the relevant number and menu section. For voucher top-up, Vodafone can use vouchers from foreign Vodafone networks, and O2 can use any from Starmap alliance networks.

I'm not sure about which (if any; I haven't heard) need first use here. Some need registering to enable them (Orange), but even then I expect you could do that by phone from abroad, though you might need a callthrough to reach the freephone number (try via +442002220700)

If you will actually visit sometime, then Mobile World, O2, Orange and T-mobile all have cheap international calls options from 4 or 5 pence a minute (and you could use a calling card via the cheapest country). MW has a pretty short validity though. In the past, O2 had callthrough numbers available on the 100 free minutes a month package, but they've abolished this, though there is an O2 number for off-peak use from one provider, and some T-mobile callthroughs have rumours floating around.

The SIMs are pretty cheap from the networks' websites, like 50p or sometimes free, hence the numbers available on eBay. (On forums, people have been known to complain that there are no so many that all of the ones they got to resell are now virtually worthless!). And I've got a few free ones here.

Andy thank you for the reply!

Your guess is right. I do need it mostly for texting from abroad!

So I want a prepaid card that has the longest validity possible, and can be topped from abroad as well as activated from abroad....

Any suggestions;

you mean receiving texts, or sending them as well, in which case we probably just need to find the cheapest roaming tariffs for text messages - some are 40p each, and maybe none are cheap

you might look into those firms that can send sms via wap/grps, from around 3 or 5p a go. I had no success registering smsBug on an O2 SIM, and they didn't reply to the last couple of follow-up messages. Babble are apparently doing this, in beta at the moment

I have seen it said that the inclusive texts option on an O2 SIM can be used abroad at the rate of 4 for 1, but I'm not sure if this was a mix-up on the thread discussing it - it is certainly true on contracts, but I'd have to ask to confirm about payg

Mostly receiving sms from UK. I will use it abroad.

I think it's a clear case for Vodafone, thanks to the ease of topping it up. Passport is another good reason - Virgin's roaming charges can be steep. You should be able to get an activated card on eBay. Just remember to send an SMS with it every few months and you'll be fine.

If for some reason this is not possible, then go for Virgin, as getting the cards on eBay is easy. Topping up is a bit of a pain, but you can get the cards on eBay and often save money, so it's not that much of a problem.

There are sometimes free (?10 at the moment) Virgin SIMs with ?5 credit on, which could be used for 1MB of wap/gprs triggering of calls to other phones. I've got 6 here and would have to check if they all have the ?5.

O2, Orange and Vodafone all have free SIMs at the moment, and T-mobile are 50p, so try entering a foreign address on their websites or send me a PM

if your after uk sim cards will trade ya one for one any uk network? payg only, pm me for details ok

How easy is it to do this? I assume you have to go into a Orange shop to get a deal like this?

Regards,
James

The tariff people were talking about for Orange was "OVP Virgin." OVP Virgin has not been around for a long time. If you had it, you can keep it. I still have it and love it.

I'm not sure how Bossman passed a Virgin credit check. It is pretty thorough. I passed an Orange credit check and was turned down by Virgin. I'm not a Brit, but have UK bank account, credit card, and contract mobile (the OVP Virgin). Virgin did things like check electoral roles which made it hard on any non-citizen. You basically need an in country employer will to vouch for you and possibly provide a salary certificate to get through Virgin.


Stu

Stu,

I have never done a UK credit check. I have a Virgin prepaid (bought on ebay) which does not require any credit check to get (AFAIK, no UK prepaid requires one). The sims roam out of the box and they have GPRS activated. I do not have a UK bank acct. or credit card, so I there is no way I would have even attempted to sign up for the automatic payment option with Virgin UK prepaid. The roaming rates are a little bit lower on this option. One other thin I like about Virgin UK prepaid is that their GPRS rates are the same ragerdless if one is roaming. So, It's not a bad card to use just for data while roaming. And that's pretty much what I use it for. I buy my topups(at about a 20% discount) on ebay UK.


As for registering your details with virgin (which is not required) you can use any address. But one will definitely need a UK CC, bank acct. employment history, etc. in order to get the Pay by Direct Debit option.

the orange ovp was a contract only price plan

I have had virgin SIM for 3 years in USA. It still works. I never make call or send SMS. I do use the sim built-in feature to call the top up line free from USA. This tells me my balance. I have never topped up; still using the original balance when I was in UK 3 years ago. I have not found a way to request text delivery of balance.

I got Orange SIM last year in UK and did top up. I could then use the "free minutes" calls to many overseas locations as described in www.yourcallworld.com as "included minutes". Also got internet data access for #1/day.

My experience:

for local calls/texts and long SIM life use virgin.

for data and overseas calls use orange

what free minutes are they? I think they are talking about minutes included in contracts, or did you use add-on call packages?

Whilst YCW is useful for calling foreign mobiles, there are cheaper ways to reach landlines from payg

an Orange Call Abroad has 5 pence a minute calls to landlines in USA, from where you could use a callthrough provider to about 50 countries' landlines including UK

O2, T-mobile and Mobile World also have some int'l call rate options in the same area

For calling European mobiles from UK payg, I'd suggest use Virgin and 0871 callthrough numbers at 15 pence a minute, or try T-mobile and 07744 numbers at maybe 12 pence (this needs checking, but 07744 is incl on T-mob contracts)

top up with orange prepay gave me some "included minutes" which acted like post paid.

At the moment, there is a package of free evening calls, which dates from about a year ago, but this is only to Orange numbers

I'm surprised by your remarks, as I really don't remember such an option on Orange, though O2 had 100 free minutes on a ?10 top-up.

07744 numbers have been in and out of inclusive minutes on different networks. They were not included by Orange between mid-April and mid-September 2005. T-mobile reintroduced them recently, about the same time as O2 discontinued them

:sad:

You are right; it was O2 that gave the included minutes on prepay with topup.

I used orange only for internet access.