Prepaid SIM in Europe
June 9, 2022 4:21 PM Subscribe
My wife will be in Spain, Italy, and Germany for three weeks. Can she get a prepaid SIM card for her iPhone 7, so she has WhatsApp, uber, and maps, that works in the three countries? If so, which company?
Every telecom in the EU should (ie is required by EU law to) provide free roaming across all the other countries in the EU; so any major phone company in whatever EU country she lands in first should sell a SIM that works in all three countries. I've most recently used Orange in Spain as well, but the others should also be fine.
posted by Superilla at 8:01 PM on June 9, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Superilla at 8:01 PM on June 9, 2022 [6 favorites]
I just bought an eSIM card for France that I can use across the the EU. There are many options so please check them out and see what seems best!
posted by smorgasbord at 8:07 PM on June 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by smorgasbord at 8:07 PM on June 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Just FYI you can’t just buy a pay as you go sim very easily in Germany, they make it pretty tough, you need to register and identify yourself with a passport on the Postident app etc. there may be options that I don’t know about but as far as I know this is a country that does not want people having burner phones… so don’t make it the first country you arrive in!
posted by pairofshades at 11:47 PM on June 9, 2022
posted by pairofshades at 11:47 PM on June 9, 2022
Ps- and pay as you go in Germany is more complicated, it means you don’t have a contract but you still set up a direct debit with your bank account… i don’t think you can get simple credit vouchers etc. I will be reading these answers with interest because I’m curious if there are other options I don’t know about.
posted by pairofshades at 11:50 PM on June 9, 2022
posted by pairofshades at 11:50 PM on June 9, 2022
I recommend the e-SIM or a mobile wifi unit, at least you won't need to remove your US SIM card.
ETA: and as they're all EU countries any option will be useable across all so there's no need to switch.
posted by cendawanita at 12:11 AM on June 10, 2022
ETA: and as they're all EU countries any option will be useable across all so there's no need to switch.
posted by cendawanita at 12:11 AM on June 10, 2022
I don’t believe the iPhone 7 has a built-in eSIM, so you’re looking at swapping out the physical SIM.
This is fine and normal, but… SIM swapping makes iMessage and FaceTime confused, and will deactivate your “real” number for send/receive. If you have a spare, older iPhone anywhere, it may well be worth putting the real SIM in it before swapping, so the number stays active on iMessage. Then, you can keep all of the chats going without disruption — people can message your number as normal. Just put the temporary sim in the iPhone 7, sign into iMessage with the same Apple ID. In iMessage settings activate the old number and change “start new conversations from” to the “real” number, and then restart the phone (super important to do this right away). We used to do this all the time on trips abroad, until roaming costs came down too much to make it worthwhile.
posted by breakfast burrito at 4:35 AM on June 10, 2022
This is fine and normal, but… SIM swapping makes iMessage and FaceTime confused, and will deactivate your “real” number for send/receive. If you have a spare, older iPhone anywhere, it may well be worth putting the real SIM in it before swapping, so the number stays active on iMessage. Then, you can keep all of the chats going without disruption — people can message your number as normal. Just put the temporary sim in the iPhone 7, sign into iMessage with the same Apple ID. In iMessage settings activate the old number and change “start new conversations from” to the “real” number, and then restart the phone (super important to do this right away). We used to do this all the time on trips abroad, until roaming costs came down too much to make it worthwhile.
posted by breakfast burrito at 4:35 AM on June 10, 2022
If she is coming from the US, she will need to make sure her phone is unlocked from the US carrier, or the European SIM won't work. Also, depending on the carrier, for that short a time it might just be cheaper and less hassle to temporarily upgrade to an international plan, or add an international feature. If she's with TMobile, they provide... 'adequate' international roaming that I've found to be just fine for maps/uber/texting.
posted by scolbath at 5:09 AM on June 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by scolbath at 5:09 AM on June 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers. She doesn't use iMessage or FaceTime, so those aren't issues. She does use WhatsApp, will there be a problem with that?
posted by signal at 5:14 AM on June 10, 2022
posted by signal at 5:14 AM on June 10, 2022
WhatsApp will retain the number you registered the phone with, and won't pick up the new number unless you explicitly re-create your account.
posted by wesleyac at 5:24 AM on June 10, 2022
posted by wesleyac at 5:24 AM on June 10, 2022
-and pay as you go in Germany is more complicated, it means you don’t have a contract but you still set up a direct debit with your bank account… i don’t think you can get simple credit vouchers etc.
You can get credit vouchers, or use a credit card / paypal etc. for at least some if not all of the pay-as-you-go options in Germany e.g. most of the supermarkets have their own associated mobile phone carrier and you can buy the top-up vouchers there.
But as you mentioned, you can't use the SIM without registering with proof of identity, which makes it a little more complicated. (Burner phones are not a thing here - I even had to try and explain the concept to a colleague the other day.)
posted by scorbet at 8:50 AM on June 10, 2022
You can get credit vouchers, or use a credit card / paypal etc. for at least some if not all of the pay-as-you-go options in Germany e.g. most of the supermarkets have their own associated mobile phone carrier and you can buy the top-up vouchers there.
But as you mentioned, you can't use the SIM without registering with proof of identity, which makes it a little more complicated. (Burner phones are not a thing here - I even had to try and explain the concept to a colleague the other day.)
posted by scorbet at 8:50 AM on June 10, 2022
eSIM is definitely the most convenient but won't work with that phone. I would also worry that your phone doesn't support all the modern LTE / 4G bands. Looks like Orange España uses Bands 3, 7, 20, and 42, and the iPhone 7 supports 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 38, 39, 40, 41. So that's good, the 42 is a high-frequency band, probably not needed for good coverage. But you have to check each operator's bands, which can be a bit tricky depending on who resells what. Roaming in the EU is incredible, just make sure it works in your first country and everything will be fine after that. Probably the best option is to find the staffed place at the airport that sells SIM cards. In France it's the Relax store, they have all the SIM cards and can get you set up.
The other option is to activate a Google Fi line before leaving (can't be activated overseas), not sure how that works with WhatsApp, and obviously that wouldn't be a local number, which isn't a problem for most things but only you can tell. They send a SIM, you swap them out.
I will put in a plug for the iPhone SE 2022, it has 5G support which means much better coverage in the US and supports all the current LTE bands in Europe. It supports eSIM so you can set one up beforehand.
posted by wnissen at 10:03 AM on June 12, 2022
The other option is to activate a Google Fi line before leaving (can't be activated overseas), not sure how that works with WhatsApp, and obviously that wouldn't be a local number, which isn't a problem for most things but only you can tell. They send a SIM, you swap them out.
I will put in a plug for the iPhone SE 2022, it has 5G support which means much better coverage in the US and supports all the current LTE bands in Europe. It supports eSIM so you can set one up beforehand.
posted by wnissen at 10:03 AM on June 12, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers. We don't live in the U.S.
posted by signal at 10:12 AM on June 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by signal at 10:12 AM on June 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Looks like they're offering a SIM that will work across Europe.
posted by burntflowers at 7:01 PM on June 9, 2022