Due to Brexit, most of the major UK network operators have now reintroduced roaming charges when you are in Europe. You can always pick up a local SIM of course, but there are options you can consider whilst in the UK to avoid the roaming fees as well.
[O2]
As of today, O2 still doesn’t charge any roaming free when you are in Europe. Good news for those who are a customer with them.
[Three]
Three used to have a fantastic feature called Feel at Home / Go Roam that allowed free roaming in Europe and many other international destinations. Unfortunately it terminated last year and is no longer included for new contracts starting in or after October 2021.
However, Go Roam is still valid for Pay As You Go (prepaid SIM) customers. It sounds as if Three was punishing their loyal customers under a contract, which is a bit weird.
Go Roam supports many more territories than just Europe, including United States, Australia, Israel, Brazil, Hong Kong and Vietnam, just to name a few. If you are heading to one of these destinations, just grab a pre-paid SIM before you go – at the time of writing the cheapest plan costs only £10.
[Airalo]
If your destination is not included in Go Roam, or you don’t have time to order a SIM card, Airalo is your friend.
Airalo sells eSIM for over 190 countries, so wherever you are travelling it’s most likely that Airalo has an eSIM that works for you. Because you don’t need to acquire a physical card, it’s more convenient and the process is almost instant – that’s assuming you have a compatible device of course.
I travelled to the United States recently and tried it out. I purchased an eSIM with 10GB data for $16:
Installation was fairly easy and reception was satisfactory throughout my two-week trip. Note that it’s for data usage only and cannot be used to make/receive calls or SMS.
If you are interested you can sign up on their website or via the app. Use my referral code KAI2510 to save $3 on your first purchase.
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