Airalo.
Going to the States next month for a couple of weeks. My own plan doesn't have international roaming so an add on plan is £60 with my provider.
I came across e-sims which look to be quite a bit cheaper. Anyone got any experience using them?
Thanks for looking
Airalo.
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
- Bender Bending Rodríguez
I used Airalo on a recent trip and it was great.
If you sign up with a referral code you get $3 off your first purchase so let us know if you want one and m I’m sure someone will sort you out.
Have used Airalo, and am currently using Holafly in Greece now.
Found Holafly easier to set up but both work fine
Malc
Sorry, didn't realise there was one started.
Cheers for the feedback
Yep. Used one in Egypt recently.
Use a comparison site though - lots were priced at about $40 - $50 for 10Gb for 7 days. I ended up paying $15.
Airalo. Not that easy to set up the first time. Much cheaper than my regular provider
I work for an American company and visit fairly often and can concur with the recommendations for Airalo.
I didn’t find it difficult to setup and easy to use when you are there. Just remember it’s days only though!
Not the states but used an eSIM when I visited Australia for work. The Gen z girl in the counter set everything up for me in a speed this millennial could not follow 🤣 Was one of the larger provider and paid next to nothing compared to roaming.
Im also using eSIM to have two lines on my phone, Swedish and British. Definitely one of the better things that have happened to phones.
Yes, many times. I use Mobimatter to purchase.
Used Airalo recently inspired by the other thread. Faultless and pretty simple to set up.
I like the look of and the prices available on Airalo so thanks for signposting me to it. A rookie question if that's ok please? The plans say 'Data Only' and I'm assuming that means I'll be able to call and text using my data. I know that sounds blindingly obvious but there's three of us needing this so I have to be sure.
Many thanks.
You’ll be able to make calls using FaceTime and WhatsApp but not a real phone call where you dial 079 or 0208 etc
When I used an Airalo eSIM in the States I found on my iPhone that Apple Pay did not work nor did iMessage to some contacts. I think it was because you have no mobile number with the data sim. Some iMessage contacts worked as I think I also had their email. Apart from that everything else worked no problem. When my daughter used it for South Korea she actually got a new number with the sim as the government use it to send emergency notifications. So I guess it depends where you go as to exactly what you get. Either way an eSIM is very handy and dead easy to use. The one thing I would say is to activate it just before you go as it needs internet access for that part if you get to your destination airport and can’t get on their WiFi you can’t activate it. The charging period does not start until it connects to the country in questions mobile service anyway. I did find I needed to flip airplane mode on and off to fully get it to connect up properly in my case.
Great help, thanks a lot folks. Another Brexit benefit eh 😩
Worth checking who the network provider is before committing.
I’ve just come back after staying just under a month in Turkey and Airalo there used only one network which wasn’t the best. By contrast Simlocal (which I didn’t get a chance to use) operate under both Vodafone and Turkcell which would have given me 100% signal vs 20-40% and the ability to swap operators in the event of bad coverage.
Went for the Airalo plan in the including 10gb, 200 minutes and 100 texts for £22. My own network wanted £60 and that was just data only