ekit dual number [US & UK] SIMs

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by wookv

Hi everyone,
New to this ekit dual sim card thing. Someone on howardforums recommended it. I'm traveling to France and Portugal in a week and I bought a ekit France passport off ebay ($20).
I emailed customer service to clarify a couple of features listed on their website that seemed to contradict:
# FREE to receive calls in more than 60 countries (on your Global number)
# FREE for family and friends to call you (USD 39c per minute surcharge applies)

And I got this response:
> In order to receive Free Incoming calls you must be in a Free Incoming
> call country such as France. Furthermore, in order for the call to be
> free you must receive the call to your Global +44 number. If you receive
> a call to your US +1 number the call will not be free.
>
> You will receive a Toll-Free number making if free for friends and
> family to contact you at your Global +44 number free of charge for you
> for the first 30 minutes. After using the Toll-Free number for more than
> 30 minutes a .39 cents per minute surcharge applies to you. As long as
> people call you direct to your Global +44 number and you're in a Free
> Incoming call country then the call would indeed be free. Surcharges
> only apply when receiving calls to your US +1 or when receiving calls
> via the Toll-Free number AFTER the initial 30 free minutes.

And after further clarification, I got this:
The 30 minutes is for the lifetime of the phone. 30 minutes is the total
you get it does not reset itself or start over when a call is done.

Has anyone been charged when you went over 30minutes of free incoming calls?

Thanks in advance!

The toll free number in the USA is generic...people then have to enter your US +1 number; as noted they don't pay and after the 30 minutes, you pay 39¢/minute to receive.....but note it's only 19¢/minute to receive a call in zone 1 made to your US+1 number....let them call the US number and you pay only 19¢ and that's unlimited...or you can have them call the +44 number and you receive for nothing but they pay whatever their ld carrier charges for a call to a UK mobile and these rates vary very widely....now I have had two choices....I have had a variety of UK sim cards (they literally give them away and whatever is the best deal of the month is the one I use; I just used vodafone UK for my last trip to Europe but of course their wonderful summer promotion is now finis like in finished like in done)...the way I do it is I use remote call forwarding off my verizon landline (verizon allows remote call forwarding to foreign numbers, not all landline companies do)...I pay 30¢/minute through my ld carrier's foreign plan (in my case AT&T| but if I call forward from landline to my mobile, I pay a one time NYC charge for a local call (9¢ total not for minute) and then the call from my mobile to the US+1 number costs 19¢/minute....not bad (I don't have unlimited US ld on my landline so this is the cheapest way)...it works.

It seems to me that ekit, right now today (but can't guarantee tomorrow of course) is a good deal especially for receiving calls and apparently they don't have the free usage hang up some of the Isle of Man carriers have...all you need do is make one paid even every nine months.

I just don't see any pitfalls (although some of the Isle of Man guys here such as Easy Roam point out that countries like Bulgaria on ekit are very expensive, something to be aware of if you travel to Bulgaria).....

Just a quick other note....calls to the +44 number do not, unfortunately, support caller id...you will receive some sort of London 020 7... number as the calling party while calls to the +1 number do support caller id and you see the number, if available, of the calling party. Don't know how important this is to you.

[rfranzq]

What you want your callers to do to get the 30 free minutes is to call the ekit 800 number and then put in the UK number. [Incoming calls are free on the UK number, right?] The free 30 minutes is used up by calling the 800 number. You DO NOT want them calling the 800 number to call your USA number because: 1. They shouldn't be paying to call a US number anyway and 2. you will be charged 19cents a minute to answer your US number.

SO: Only used the 800 number to call the UK ekit SIM number and that will be free for 30 minutes. The 'free' is 30 minutes of 800 number use, NOT free to the UK number--that number is free to the free incoming countries.

[wookv]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

What you want your callers to do to get the 30 free minutes is to call the ekit 800 number and then put in the UK number. [Incoming calls are free on the UK number, right?] The free 30 minutes is used up by calling the 800 number. You DO NOT want them calling the 800 number to call your USA number because: 1. They shouldn't be paying to call a US number anyway and 2. you will be charged 19cents a minute to answer your US number.

SO: Only used the 800 number to call the UK ekit SIM number and that will be free for 30 minutes. The 'free' is 30 minutes of 800 number use, NOT free to the UK number--that number is free to the free incoming countries.

Thank you very much Matha531 and rFranzq for your responses!

[bbob]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

I just don't see any pitfalls (although some of the Isle of Man guys here such as Easy Roam point out that countries like Bulgaria on ekit are very expensive, something to be aware of if you travel to Bulgaria).....

It's always wise to check the rates for the countries you are traveling to. As for easyroam he might want to point out that he does charge for incoming calls in Belgium a country still visited by many users, more than Bulgaria is my guess. Also he might want to change his website to state more clear that he works on fair use bases, using very unclear terms that can shut you down. Also when not using the card for 30 days it's turned of and has to be reactivated.

Ekit for now has a good offer, no fair use crap, good backoffice to check rates.