Hi all. Have taken a new job and am going to be away for at least 3 weeks at a time and really don’t like the idea of being out of touch with those nearest and dearest but am worried about huge phone bills. Can anyone suggest any good good networks or sim cards that might not be too expensive. Have heard that it is possible to pick up sim card off the net from somewhere outside the EU which offers reasonable rates. Any help would be much appreciated.
I know this might not be an amazing amount of help but its the solution I use:
At BAA Airports (For definite at Gatwick and Heathrow all terminals) they have vending machines in the check in areas.
Its between £10 and £20 and you buy a “Euro” Simcard which gives you not ‘credit’ as such but minutes in air time.
So for £20 you might get 150 minutes of talktime in France, Belgium, Germany etc, or 100 minutes in Poland, Bulgaria etc.
Given that 3 days in Denmark a few months back cost me almost £100 in phonebills for only 80 minutes phone use, I always keep one of these SIM’s in my travel kit now. They aren’t exactly convenient to get as I’ve only seen them at airports, but its certainly paid for itself many times over.
I think they have a 6 month “life” as it were.
Might not be the best option for you, but its reasonable option none the less.
Alex
I have a package with vodafone,
Called stop the clock & passport.
This means provided I’m using the Vodafone network or a European Vodafone network I only pay 75p for the first 3 minutes, I then pay no more for that call.
It’s a cross network package so the other person can be on any network or even landline.
I’ve spend the best part of an hour talking to somebody and look at my bill and it’s still only 67p+vat Plus my free minutes on top of that.
The only thing is to make sure that you are on a Vodafone network (SFR in France) when you call or it’s normal mobile rates.
Try VODAFONE on pay as you go or contract, get their passport tariff it is free.
it then costs:
75p connection charge and then comes out of your free mins when you run out of free mins you pay the same as in the UK.
To recieve a call it costs 75p connection fee and it is then free for 1hr.Better than paying 35p per min + to recieve.
The other options are ;
If you are in the same country a lot buy a local sim card or
If you have a laptop with wi-fi download SKYPE and just connect to a local wi-fi hotspot and use SKYPE it is free to talk SKYPE to SKYPE to anywhere in the world for free.
Vodafone is the cheapest network I have found by far.It has got my bills down from £250+pm down to about £75 pm and I use my phone a lot.
I use vodafone passport aswell and her in doors is on the same. She rings me and it only costs me 75p for an hours talk then if she puts it down and then rings me back its the same again but who wants to talk to her for 2 hours!!! Thats why we do this job for the peace and quiet isn`t it. 
i gotta agree , im on vodafone passport too , pretty much every country is covered . i dont think you can beat it . the only thing i will say is just check what network your on before calling , sometimes in whatever country your in you might lose the vodafone network and get a local one to that country . normaly vodafone will text you to say OI ■■■■ !!! get back on the vodafone network but occasionally they dont . theres nothing like finishing a call and seeing your on movistar in spain or bouygues in france .
hi all i got two o2 one for germany and one for uk then i got a pay and go for germany as well as one for belgium . the only thing with that is 4 sim and two handys just got to keep changing them over i will have a look at voda as well .
i have a orange pay as you go and if you put ten pound a month on you get magic numbers and with that you you can call three nominated numbers for fifteen pence for an hour thats ok for the uk and when im over the water i pay seven pound a month so when people ring me it costs me nothing to recieve the call
i’ve got a global SIM card from oneroam.co.uk/ which is far cheaper to phone home from and best of all, it’s free to receive calls. It costs £15 and this gives you a SIMcard registered in Estonia and some credit- £10 I think.
So if you then phone it through a re-router such as dialaround.co.uk/index2.php then you can call the mobile for 13p per minute from a UK landline and that’s all you pay. There is a cheaper re-router which I use which is 9p per minute but I can’t find the number at the mo.
I have used the Vodaphone “Passport” package for three years - basically when out of my home country I pay 99 Euro Cents to receive a call and 99 cents plus my normal call tarrif to make a call.
I am also often away for up to three weeks and call home every night - also I often make and receive calls from other mates who are driving in various parts of Europe - my average monthly bill is 220 Euros (Im on Vodaphone Spain).
I’m not on the vodaphone passport thingy, but just to make it clear to anyone considering it, once over the water you would need to go into your phones menu & select “choose network manually” then scroll thu’ to vodafone.
Driveroneuk:
I’m not on the vodaphone passport thingy, but just to make it clear to anyone considering it, once over the water you would need to go into your phones menu & select “choose network manually” then scroll thu’ to vodafone.
Not really unless I live mine on auto network and it normally goes to the Vodafone network, but you do need to check before you dial or it gets expensive. 
if you leave your network search on auto then you may find your on a non-vodafone network when you are called and lose all your credit/incur a large bill as you are then on standard vodafone world tarrif (which aint cheap)
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