Three UK extends Euro roaming on prepaid SIMs for voice, data
By Chris C., August 17 2016
Three UK will add 24 new countries to its ‘Feel At Home’ roaming pack next month, creating what could be the ideal UK/EU package for Aussie travellers.
Covering both pre-paid and post-paid plans, major destinations like Belgium, Germany and Greece join the roster, as does Hungary and the Netherlands, among others.
They'll join the current 18-strong line-up which includes France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Finland from September 1, among others.
In a similar concept to Vodafone’s $5/day roaming offer in Australia, Three customers pay nothing extra to use their regular data allowance in participating countries, to make calls and send texts to UK numbers and to receive calls from any country.
Three’s range of ‘pay as you go’ pre-paid SIMs are popular with Australian travellers visiting the UK and then continuing their trip around Europe as the carrier’s ‘Feel At Home’ roaming deal lets you stay connected when outside the UK at no extra charge.
The trick for pre-paid customers is that you’ll need to buy credit, and then use that credit to purchase an add-on – avoiding any ‘Essential’ pre-paid plans which don’t qualify for free roaming.
Three UK roaming: what it costs, what you get
Just £20 (A$33) is enough to unlock a monstrous 12GB, along with 300 minutes and 3,000 texts to UK numbers, all to use within 30 days.
It’s not the perfect solution if you need to make calls within the same country or back home to Australia, but for data, it’s hard to beat.
For instance, you could start your trip in London where you’ll buy your SIM and get connected, and after a week (or even a few days), move onwards to France, then to Germany, then Italy and finish up in Sweden, all at no extra cost.
Australia is also among Three’s ‘Feel At Home’ countries, so if you return to Oz with data to spare, you could even use it up on home soil before switching back to your regular SIM.
Just note that ‘Feel At Home’ roaming is limited to a maximum of two months (or roughly 60 days) in any rolling 12-month period, and that accounts which aren’t recharged and are only used to receive free calls while roaming risk being deactivated.
For a full list of countries covered and to be covered by ‘Feel At Home’ roaming, visit the Three website.
Also read: The best local SIM card when visiting the UK only
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Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
17 Aug 2016
Total posts 7
This is a great deal but it should be noted that 3 don't allow tethering for data while using "feel at home" although I have no experence of how they would or could police this. Still a great deal but possibly not for people wanting to use the data on other devices besides their phone.
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2424
Hi twitch1979, Three 'technically' bans tethering from your smartphone while roaming, although you are allowed to use Three SIMs in portable modems for data (and connect other devices to that modem such as your laptop or tablet in addition to your smartphone), which could be good way to go if you need to browse across multiple devices and don't want to be caught tethering. ;)
17 Aug 2016
Total posts 7
Great pick up Chris and you have raised a very valid point! Do 3 however make you purchase a data only sim for a portable modems and dongles to they also allow the use of a voice and data sim in such fashion ?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
21 Mar 2013
Total posts 132
For those bypassing the UK, hopefully Simcorner picks this up so it can be ordered from Australia. Orange's Go Europe plans are good value but not that good.
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2424
Looks like Simcorner already keeps these in stock, but sets the price at an all-inclusive $50 (rather than SIM, plan and pack): https://www.simcorner.com/shop/uk/uk-prepaid-simcard.html
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
21 Mar 2013
Total posts 132
Looking at the restrictions on topping up, seems like you'd still want to be passing through the UK. Good to know you can get your number sorted in Aus though.
19 May 2016
Total posts 15
I'm currently travelling through Europe and both my wife and I picked up a Three sim whilst in London for this deal. So far, so good. If you want to pay by CC in the store they want a passport (DL not accepted since their system won't scan it), but pay with cash and no ID is required. £10 gets you 1GB of data, 300 mins of calls and 3000 texts to UK numbers (12GB was overkill for us). So with my wife and I each getting a sim, we can easily stay in contact plus use data.
I originally tried to buy a data only sim (the ones they sell for iPads etc), since our plan was to just contact each other with Skype and WhatsApp. But the Three staff member I dealt with advised that this was not allowed and that their technology would pick up the use on an iPhone and block it (whether this is possible/true I don't know, but it wasn't much different in expense to just go with the prepaid SIM option). I also believe that Three has some kind of technology that picks up if you're tethering, so we haven't tried it.
The major negative of this SIM is that you cannot recharge outside the UK if you don't have a UK credit card. So before we left the UK for almost 90 days in the Schengen zone we each bought £30 of credit for 3 months of recharges. If you buy top up vouchers in the UK you can apply them to your account once in the EU, via their website.
We're actually in the Netherlands for 2 weeks from September 5, and this was going to be the only period of time not covered by their roaming deal, so I'm very pleased to see the country will now be included from Sept 1!
28 Oct 2016
Total posts 2
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