Ekit review
 

After the recent offering from other supplier on dual number sims for use in Europe and the US I had a closed look at the offers.

Price of the card

Both globalsimcard.co.uk and travelsim.co.uk both active here on the forum

Globalsimcard offers the card including 5 pounds credit for 29,99 English Pounds
Travelsimcard offers the card including 12 pounds credit for 34,99 English Pounds
Ekit offer the card including 5 pounds credit for 10 English Pounds.

Ekit is an offer on ebay.co.uk

As far as I can see all above prices don’t included shipping and shipping is extra. I choose shipping from ekit with tracking number 4 pounds extra. Postage paid on the envelope said 5.53 pounds so they are not overcharging.

Ekit clearly has the lead here for price. Their offer for the card is only 1/3 the price compared to the other 2 options.

When I got the card and looked online I did actually have $10 of credit instead of 5 pounds. $10 is a bit more than 5 pounds so no problems here.

As I am not a frequent user the main reason for me buying the sim was fair use. Both Globalsimcard and Travelsimcard have recently changed their terms and now have a fair use policy active. The problem I have in general with fair use it that it says nothing. You don’t know the rules, the policy nothing. It’s up to them to decide when you violate fair use and above that when they do deactivate your sim they also take any credit you have left on your account. ! So be careful how you use your account as they can shut you down and take your money.
They will tell you that they are tolerant but there terms are clear. They don’t have to give warnings, nothing, just shut you down. I can understand the need for policies but be open about them.

Ekit does not have fair use in their terms and this was one of the reasons I choose to buy their sim.

Website backend

You can login to the ekit website using your number and pincode. It’s nice, you can see your account, change details, forwarding, look at the calls you made, invoices, top up your account.

They have some sort of travel journal that you can use to update friend when traveling. Nice feature but not everyone will use it.

There is a list of toll free customer service numbers in many countries.

You can check the rates that apply to your card online. Ekit seen to offer different packages having different rates so this is a good option.

I also have 2 normal card from above suppliers and they also offer backend information. The ekit website looks more professionally setup and streamlined.

Rates:

As I am in Belgium lots of time, I also noticed that both globalsimcard and travelsimcard are charging for inbound call into Belgium. !

This is strange as Belgium is on of the EU countries and seems the only one now to have incoming calls.

Ekit does charge a 35 cents connection fee for outgoing calls and same fee for incoming calls outside zone1. The rates seem fair and it’s difficult to tell if their offer is better or worse than the others.

So does Ekit have good rates:

What I comes down to is your calling profile. When calling a lot another supplier might be cheaper in your case. When calling less Ekit might be cheaper. It’s all up to the user and there is no way to tell who has the best rates.

To see if Ekit is good for you look at the calls you make, receive, check 2or 3 month usage and compare rates between different provider.

Use:

The ekit sims seems straightforward in use, manual is clear. To activate us calling dial 2 picode when turning on the phone.

I will test the serive in the next few month and during a US trip soon.

bbob:


Good review, and well said. So many people are just looking for the absolute cheapest rate SIM and with free incoming calls they often miss a few very important factors. I have used two of their Passport SIM's for over two years and am very happy with Ekit.

Customer service is really important. And Ekit has some of the best. Also, I really like Ekit's terms and policy to keep the SIM alive. They will even allow you to reactivate a SIM that has been turned off due to lack of use and they will reinstate your expired credit. Most companies just turn you off and keep any credit left on your SIM. I once lost over $30 on a prepaid phone card that expired.

Lastly, I also really hate those innocuous "Fair Use" requirements. Imagine telling your company or family NOT to call you since their incoming calls could trigger a shut off of your SIM if the incoming call ratio becomes out of balance.

Just did some testing and noticed that I do not get any called id when in Belgium. Tested this on 2 networks. I do get caller id when using antoher card in Belgium.

Does ekit have caller id or might this be a local problem

I haven't used my new Ekit Passport card yet in Europe, but the caller ID works in the US (which I realize is a different IMSI, so perhaps it's not illustrative of anything).

I am happy with the service so far.

I am pleased that I have been able to send SMS messages for free to the UK number using my Google Voice account (despite the fact that Google Voice officially supports only US numbers for SMS messages). I like that better than paying 10 ¢ through the ekit website (the travel journal page) to send the SMS messages. Though I won't use the travel journal for actual journal purposes, I think it's a neat idea in that you can have it record the cities/countries your phone is turned on in, which could be a very nice security feature for some families.

My biggest caveat with Ekit would be to remember that they have FOUR different SIM cards, each with different rates. I think that is very confusing.

highered:


When you sent an SMS to your UK Ekit number from Google Voice, were you in the US when you got the SMS? Were you in US or Global mode on the Ekit SIM. I also did a test of Google Voice SMS and sent it to my UK number. I turned on my phone in Global mode here in the US and the SMS was received. But I was charged 10 cents.

I was in the US with the phone on in US mode when I sent the SMS to the UK number using Google Voice. I was not charged for receiving the SMS.

When I sent an SMS through the ekit Journal website, I was charged 10¢ (as expected). When I sent an SMS through Google Voice to my US phone number I was also charged 10¢ (as expected).

I have the Passport SIM.

I do note that the SIMple SIM (ekit, SIMple Calling SIM card) states that there is a 15¢ charge for receiving an SMS while in the US.

I just receive my Telestial/ekit Passport SIM card. Everything worked great for both voice and SMS on both the US and UK numbers roaming on the Rogers network in Canada. Their customer account website worked great and charges were posted within seconds. Their customer service is exceptional! A comment I sent, re a small error on the printed instructions that came with the SIM card, was answered by Benjamin within a few minutes plus “as a sign of goodwill” they added a $10 credit to my account. Customer service doesn’t get any better than that!

in which website i can login to my account? I ordered trough telestial.

https://www.ekit.com/ekit/Signin/
enter either your US or UK phone number (with country code) and the four digit PIN.

You can also log in at: Recharge Minutes

Yep. That'll work. It takes you to the same place, but it's a little easier to remember I think.

Logging in to ekit's website is a good place to see which service/rates you have on your SIM. Once logged in, click on My Service or go here to be taken to the page specific to your SIM program: ekit, Mobile Purchase

eKits website info and 24 hour customer service is quite good. Much better than the other global SIMs I have used.

Question for bbob
 

Hi, have you tried the sim with the pbxes.com
Callback feature. Does it work?

yes have tried callback and seems to work.

Only problem for now if here in belgium I don't have any incoming caller id on any network.

Ekit is terrible for travel!
 

i recently purchased one of these phones to use while traveling. all it has given me is trouble. most might assume that when you dial a number, you will get an immediate response. this however is NOT the case. for example, i've been in a few situations where i've needed EMERGENCY assistance (i have read and know how to use this phone, and double checked after the fail attempts to use this phone) i dial the number and if i'm LUCKY the phone will dial through several minutes after the fact, there have been many times i've waited up to 5minutes for the damn thing to connect it's call. it's unreliable, and i regret not getting something from a reputable cell phone provider back home. i do not and will not recommend this phone to any friends, and am posting to warn any people who might been looking for alternatives, as my husband says "you get what you paid for."

-Sincerely.

Sorry to hear about your problems. I have had my Ekit SIM's for several years with little problems. I must admit I have not used one in South America. But I do know they have excellent customer service that's available 24/7. Did you contact them?

A few times I have had problems dialing straight out and have to use a string such as: *126*12025551212#. Ekit will give it to you exactly if you call them.

Also, I found that if you text the phone number to 1234 problem calls often work. It's a free text. Again, ask EKIT for details.

Once again EKIT has sent me an email reminder to make a call or text message to keep my U.S. SIM number active. This is a great service. Once I lost some money on a phone card for forgetting to make a call every 90 days. EKIT said in part:

"As you have not used the service within the last two months, your US Number will be removed shortly. ... To avoid this you can extend the life of your US Number by simply making a call or sending a paid text message within the next 7 days....If your US Number is removed, you will automatically get a new US Number when you use the service again..."

I thought the de-activation of the US number period was supposed to be 4 months of inactivity....also in checking my history on 03 August I received text messages on both my ekit US numbers and was charged 10¢...I don't know if they have changed the terms and why the receipt of the text message for 10¢ would not turn the clock back so to speak......maybe these were sent out en masse?

I actually had a note about my use date. It was September 18th. They sent the reminder note on September 1st. BTW... I also thought it was 4 months and not 2 months as per their e-mail.