Anyone used Woolworth roaming SIM overseas?

[traveller (Bo)]

Has anyone used Woolworth roaming SIM in England and Europe?
I am travelling to England, Denmark, Sweden, France and Italy in September and someone at work recommended Woolworth roaming SIM, but the reviews are pretty abysmal.
Someone also recommended 3 UK as it charges very little for EU roaming. Has anyone used it?
Any other SIM and pay as you go packages you can recommend? I will use phone and message for hotels and meeting appointments etc maybe 10 mins a day. Data would be minimal as I will try and use wifi hot spots where I can.
Cheers
Bo

[gregbradley]

I used a Covermore one but it failed to work in some of the countries it was promoted to work in.

Greg.

[Malcolm]

I used 3UK (UK only). Bought a sim at Heathrow.

[traveller (Bo)]

Thanks,
Greg, which countries did it fail to work in (and how long ago was it)?
Malcolm, how long did you use the sim and what was the pre paid amount?
Bo

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Bo, I'd recommend picking up a SIM while you're over there. Roaming rates for an Aussie SIM are outrageous

[LewisM]

My wife recently came back from a global jaunt with our first daughter.

MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper to buy a local pore-paid sim. MUCH!!!!!!!!!!! Don't even think about using your Telstra/Optus/Virgin/insert rip off merchant SIM. The charges are exorbitant to put it mildly. We did active Virgin roaming before she left, JUST IN CASE, and even the Virgin rep WARNED us, told us to turn off all apps etc etc etc.


In the end she didn't use the foreign sims once - just used Skype and Viber at free wifi spots.

[sharkbite]

Yep buy one over there.

The Mrs and i I bought a pre-paid each from "A1" in Austria for EU$30 last year.

Unlimited mobile to mobile calls and 2G data for 1 month.

It was not supposed to work in other countries - but it
worked fine in Italy and the Czech republic.

Data came in real handy for getting around with the GPS.
(despite what they say, the google "offline" maps did not work anywhere near good enough for navigation on foot)

On the way home - for fun and while waiting for the plane home in Dubai,
i tried it, and bgr me it worked there as well!

roaming costs are a joke.

Some of those travel SIMS bought from here don't work as you'd expect.... the reason they are so cheap is that incoming calls are not charged....
what you have to do is dial the number you want....your phone will then call you back once the other party is connected.
It's all routed through estonia, so the call quality can be Ker-rap.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Telstra partners up with Orange in Europe which is Bouygues as well. Just a matter of telling your local ISP to activate global roaming and the O/S provider will pick it up automatically. Make sure you don't pick up the phone if anybody calls your from Oz while you're there or you will be charged the long distance call.

[traveller (Bo)]

Thanks everyone.
Definitely not roaming with my current telco, so that's why I am looking at a pre paid sim as way to go. Will look into Three as a first option, seeing they have EU roaming at reasonable rates.
Other suggestions still welcome.
Bo

[Renato1 (Renato)]

After getting a monster international roaming bill ten years ago, I've been using the Flight Centre E-Kit sim card for overseas travel ever since (it's cheaper getting it from Flight Centre, than from the E-kit website). I use the cheap Explorer service, for phone calls and SMSs. Data looks too expensive to me.

http://www.flightcentre.com.au/trave...and-phonecards

My Association recommends this organisation, which I've never actually used.
http://www.roamingsim.com.au/

One hint - if you fly or drive through countries where you won't use the phone, don't turn it on, or alternatively, disable the SIM card in the menu, as some places are fond of sending you a welcome SMS and charging you a Euro or so for it.

Regards,
Renato