UK SIM for iPad

I have had a UK Virgin SIM for many years. I've created a login on the UK Virgin site and can top-up my card from there using a VISA card. I believe you can also top it up via the phone but I don't know the procedure. I just checked eBay and there are several people selling Virgin SIMs. This applies to a Virgin SIM, I don't know about others.

Note if you top up a UK SIM from the US it will show up on your VISA as a UK purchase. You may want to call VISA and let them know what you are doing or they may put a block ( on ALL purchases) on our card if you don't.

One thing I forgot to add. If you buy a UK SIM card while in the US, you will probably need to be in the UK to initialize it. By initialize I mean you need to turn it on so the network sees it.

You can buy SIMs everywhere here, some are as little as £1. Phone calls and texts are cheap but data can be super expensive, and is often limited to 1-3Gb. O2 is the best network imo, if not the cheapest. Free wifi is fairly widespread. You can connect to McDonalds wifi without even going inside, Barclays too. Sometimes you have to enter a few details to login, this can include your home postcode, so make a note of your hotels postcode.

Giffgaff worth a look as they do data only SIMS, relatively rare beasts.They also are a good servIce ,I have used them for 6 years they run on O2's infrastructure.
Vectone seem like new boys on the block.. and tescos one of the biggest supermarkets do very good deals too, they also run on 02's masts.

Thanks to everybody for your contributions. It looks to me like O2 might have the best coverage, especially in the areas we will be visiting (Cotswolds, East Anglia).

Mark