European Cell Roaming

October 23, 2017 9:17 PM

I'm traveling to Greece in December from New York and was just starting to look at my usual go to for cell service while away at the prepaid sim wiki. However, I have some old spanish SIMs and I'm wondering if I can take advantage of the new EU roaming laws.

I have two SIMs from Orange that I bought last year in Spain and used for about two weeks using prepaid packages. I haven't touched them since. I was wondering since there is apparently free roaming in the EU if I could top up those SIMs online a few days before I left and just use them for a week or so while in Greece.

Alternatively, any way to get a Greek SIM before leaving the country would be A+ too.

posted by jourman2 to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

I don't know the situation in Spain but in other parts of Europe, SIMs aren't valid indefinitely when they're not in use (or topped up) for a certain amount of time. So it's worth checking that before trying to top it up. If the SIM hasn't expired, Orange appears to have a website specifically for your purpose: Orange Top Up.
posted by Ms. Next at 12:03 AM on October 24, 2017

What's your usual carrier? Mine, T-Moble, has free international data roaming (at 3G, nominally, but when you hit the bandwidth cap it throttles you down to 2G, which is infuriating). Texting/calling, while not cheap at 10¢ each and 50¢/min respectively, is affordable if you're just using it for logistics. I've used it internationally for the past five years--though I'm grandfathered onto a slightly older plan--without a hitch, though data speeds get poky at times.
posted by tapir-whorf at 3:05 AM on October 24, 2017

This wiki will answer all your questions on SIMs in Greece.
posted by mdonley at 4:53 AM on October 24, 2017

really its not worth the hassle of swapping sims anymore.
posted by JPD at 10:04 AM on October 24, 2017

Thanks, ended up buying a SIM on ebay, a guy is mailing it from Greece, hoping it all goes well!
posted by jourman2 at 5:52 PM on November 23, 2017