Greetings fellow travelers. Last trip to Italy was in 2019 in Bologna where we picked up Vodafone SIM cards loaded with the tourist plan. We still have those SIMs and hope to re-use them as we're headed to Milan next week for a couple of weeks of helping the Italian economy recover. Does anyone have experience recharging SIMs that haven't been used in a couple of years? If so, I'd love to hear how that went, where (online/in person) you reloaded, and whether you have to reload another tourist plan or just some set euros. Grazie mille!
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15202 posts
It's too late now. After 11 months of inactivity the number expires.
Generally I keep my Vodafone SIM cards alive by going to:
https://www.vodafone.it/area-utente/fai-da-te/Common/PaginaUnicadiLogin.html
First you need to register, then you can add numbers to your account. But your numbers need to be alive because they send an SMS text to your number when you add a number to your account.
Then I visit my account regularly, enter my credentials and add money when the balance is low (you can use a credit card or Paypal).
I do so only on some old numbers where I pay by usage. I use them on flip phones and I keep them alive to receive confirmation code texts from my Italian banks. I don't even know if they have those plans anymore. Most plans (or maybe all) are monthly data+voice plans, and unless you travel to Europe regularly it may make little sense to pay 25 or 30 euro a month for 12 months a year if you use it only for a few weeks a year. You are better off buying a new number each time you go.
However now I use my T-mobile Magenta/Magenta Max plan which includes international data. Google also offers the Google Fi plan now. I haven't inquired into that one, but it might be a good deal (check into that one).
For data in Italy I buy a SIM card only for my tablet, which is cheaper than the phone. For texts and calls all my friends in Italy use Whatsapp anyhow, so no need for a local Italian phone number (aside from my old flip phone).
Posted by
near San Francisco
4650 posts
I have a Vodafone UK SIM that I use on my trips. I use the phone with that SIM to send one text every 90-180 days to keep the SIM active. Once I let it go a little too long (maybe more than 180 days) and I was able to chat with Vodafone UK and they were able to reactivate it for me. But it was less than 1 year and had only been marked as "inactive."
You can buy another Vodafone UK SIM before your trip and load it with a 30 day Pay-As-You-Go plan just before you leave the US. Here are the instructions I used to do that:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/vodafone-uk-sim-card-for-use-in-europe