Vodafone Ireland Red Roaming
 

The Vodafone Ireland Red Roaming now gives 200MB of data per day in Europe, US, and Canada for 2.99 Euro per day.

The charge for data is clear. The charge for calls is less clear.

It says that you can use "your home minutes & international add ons" I'm assuming that means that if I don't have a bundle of minutes, I pay per minute. Do I pay the normal rate for calls within Ireland, or do I pay the roaming rate? It appears the roaming rates within Europe at 23 cents per minute are cheaper than the 35 cents per minute + 9 cent connection fee within Ireland!

And, what, if anything, do I pay for incoming calls?

I'm usually pretty good at figuring this stuff out, but there is little guidance on the website: http://www.vodafone.ie/roaming/rates...pay-as-you-go/

EU Roaming with Vodafone Ireland
 

Hi. I'm constantly updating the prepaid-data-sim WIKI with new offers for EU roaming. http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.c...European_UnionThis forum helped me a lot so far.

Unfortunately, good offers are still scarce for EU roaming cards. The phone companies seem to be pretty sure, that EU roaming charges will no be terminated by law. I think Vodafone Ireland has now the best EU roaming offer from any Vodafone network in Europe: 2.99 € for 200 MB per day. A bit inflexible and only on Vodafone networks, but including Switzerland and Turkey.

They are already sold on Ebay "as best EU roaming" and I will try it soon. May be someone one on this forum has the SIM and give some advice:
- You have to activate the "RED Roaming" by texting RED to 50020. Can this be done already on a roaming network or do you have to be on Vodafone Ireland for it?
- How do you top up VF Ireland SIM cards. The dealers on Ebay say online with Debit/Credit Cards like VISA and Master. Do they accept international cards or only Irish (like in the UK)?
- What is a "day" for Vodafone? 24 hours after first data connection or midnight to midnight on a calender day?
- Any termination of service known? Quote T&Cs: To avail of RED Roaming, pay as you go customers must be active on the Vodafone Ireland network during the previous three months. Customers who do not have ongoing usage on the Vodafone Ireland network will be deemed to be in breach of these terms and will result in removal of RED Roaming from their account and/or termination of service at Vodafone’s discretion.

If you know more, please share your experience with us.

There are quite a few restrictions on this plan.

• You have to have an existing Vodafone Base plan before adding Red Roaming. Charges in Ireland will be according to the Base plan that you pick.
• You have to have been with Vodafone for at least 3 months (this is intended for Irish residents - not visitors)
• Tethering is not permitted
• You have to deactivate Red Roaming if you want to use a non-Vodafone network and then pay at normal rates. This is probably the most serious restriction.
• Minimum top-up is €10

I used a previous version of this product and found the Vodafone-only roaming restriction to be the most awkward feature. It might work for some people, and 200MB for this price is probably ok, providing you can afford to keep the base-plan alive during the months that you aren't travelling.

I don't expect there would be any major problem topping up with International credit cards. Irish companies never have such restrictions as you get in UK, France, US etc. I haven't tried this. The text setup works from outside of Ireland.

If you are travelling to Ireland and looking to roam in Europe afterwards, you should also consider the Meteor Prepay roaming option. Although the roaming data is lower (50MB per day for 99c), it is much more flexible and works on all their roaming partners in Europe. Meteor also have a nice feature which is free incoming calls anywhere in Europe. They have a minimum top-up of €5. There is no requirement to be signed up with Meteor in advance, and you can let it drop without topping up for about a year before you lose the account. And they give free WiFi on the largest provider of hotspots in Ireland - this doesn't count from your data limit. And no restriction on tethering.

Thanks for your advice. I decided to test the SIM card first, before I put a recommendation for it on the prepaid-data-sim WIKI. But I still think, it can make a good EU roaming SIM. The best offer at least any Vodafone network in Europe has right now (except in Italy - but there you have to buy it on location and pay mandatory monthly domestic fee).

About the so-called "restrictions":
1.) Base plan: Sure, every SIM has a base plan. But on VF IRL you don't have a monthly fee if you don't use it. So what's the point?
2.) Three months with VF: This seems not to be enforced. I just got my preregistered SIM from Ebay with online access and could activate the RED Roaming right away. I don't think it has been 3 months with VF!
3.) Tethering: It's only a problem for iPhones for which you need a tethering profile. On Android devices this normally works even if banned (one exception is Lycamobile, they sniff and kill tethering connections)
4.) Confined to VF networks: Every domestic user of any VF network is that too. VF and its "partner" networks are all over Europe and often have (one of) the best networks. I don't see this as such a disadvantage after all.
5.) Minimum top-up: 10 EUR - well, the SIM card is (almost) free. For occasional users it's more important how long credit stays valid: For 6 months, then it will be frozen, but can released within the next 6 months by a top-up. This sounds fair to me.

But anyway, I will test if it's a valid choice. Personally, I don't like the rigid 200 MB per day limit. But the rate is great, esp. including Turkey (which can be a tricky country) and the US (on AT&T) for 3€. Who offers a "pay by day" rate on US AT&T at all? If it works as planned, it will be included like the Mundo SIM and Three's Feel at home here: http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.c...European_Union

About Meteor: I know their offer and I considered it too: 99c for 50 MB is OK, but standard rates beyond! This offer is beaten clearly by the Mundo SIM of Spain, which I still think is better. Compared to this, the VF offer just stands out for including more countries and other networks.

I have now checked the Vodafone IRL PAYG SIM card with the Red Roaming option.

On Ebay and Amazon merchants actually sell it already as "best roaming option in Europe".
They charge a steep surcharge of around 10 EUR for sending it out. In IRL their SIM is almost for free.

No need to register it, but you get a bonus when you do on VF IRL website.
There, you can activate the RED roaming option right away. The 3-months rule seems not to be enforced.

Top-ups are easily done with international credit cards. No restrictions like with UK SIM cards.

Entering a RED Roaming country, you get a message giving you the alternative to change back to "regular" roaming or stay on RED Roaming and VF (or partner) networks only.

Pros and Cons as a pan-European roaming SIM card
-> 200 MB daily pack for 3 EUR all over Europe (2 EUR in the UK).
+ 1.5c per MB in pack is way under the standard EU cap of 23c/MB
- 200 MB per day threshold is very rigid, overuse very expensive
+ tricky countries like Switzerland and Turkey are included
+ US and Canada are included for the same price
- you clearly have to disobey the T&Cs of VF. They can switch you off any time.
- a day is not 24 hrs, but based on a calendar day in Ireland time
+ validity: top-up every 6 months plus another 6 months grace period sounds fair
= you are restricted to VF-only networks and their partners but choice is quite good.
? they have announced roaming on 4G/LTE in 2015 for prepaid, but it's not yet available

I don't see any viable reasons, why it shouldn't be a good choice for EU roaming if you are travelling many EU countries.
The disobediance of their T&Cs can only lead to a shut off, if they really detect it. That's where we should keep an eye on.

anyone tried this RED roam on mifi, does it work sharing that way?

does it inform u when you have reached 100% of the red roam? i saw somewhere it informs u when you reach 80% thou

thanks!

€2.99 per day =

200MB

Endless calls/texts home (Ire) and within current EU country.



Seems like a good deal, given the standard rate is base IRE (45c per minute peak, 25c offpeak, 13c a text) + 6c a call and + 2c a text for roaming surcharge calling IRE or the EU country you are in - a two min peak call on standard rate + roaming surcharge is 1.02Euro a minute with data IRE base rate 1.99 for 100MB + surcharge of 6c per MB, 7.99 for 100MB!!!


2.99 is a real bargain with unlimited Ireland and in situ EU country calla and texts with 200MB