SIM Card/Cell Phone Questions

• My understanding is that I purchase a SIM card or new, cheap mobile phone at the airport. This will give me a new phone number to text, make calls, and use the internet, correct?* Yes, and it will be a number in the country from which you buy the SIM card.

*Next: will my current apps and contacts on my iPhone still work, if I am using it with the new SIM card? *
Don't have an iPhone, but typically, yes, all your apps will be there, there is a chance that those that are integrated to your phone number or an account may not work as seamlessly. For example, if you have apps that text you to confirm access, you obviously will not have that text number active (unless you have dual SIMS or your other phone with your original number)

if I purchase a new mobile, do I download various apps that I need once I’m connected to Wi-Fi, and log into them?
Yes.

Can't answer the specific questions about Scotland.

Elizabeth, some of the answer depends on your needs. Do you need to make phone calls within Scotland? Or back to the U.S.? Or do you just need lots of data for maps, apps, messaging, etc.?,

I am just about to head home from 5 weeks in Scotland and a bit of northern England.

1. Don’t purchase a new mobile phone. At the worst, get a local SIM card after you land and have them put it in for you.
2. If you go with this option, don’t sweat the choice of carrier particularly.
3. Another option is to order a free gifgaf sim ahead of time (allow a couple of weeks) and buy a “bundle” online separately of whatever you need for it. If you go this route, you can change sims on the plane and be ready to use your phone as soon as you land.
4. If you don’t need to make phone calls either within Scotland or back to the U.S, and just want data, a better option is an Airalo eSim. In the technology section of the forum, there is a lot of recent info on how to do this so I won’t go into that now. Inexpensive with lots of data choices. Again, even simpler, you just touch your screen twice while on the plane and are ready to go when you land.
5. Unless you buy a new phone (awful painful thought - don’t), your apps and contacts will all work exactly the same as at home - whether you just get an eSim data package or whether you get a new physical sim that gives you a telephone number. No need to do anything.
6. Recently someone mentioned onesim together with Airalo, but I haven’t tried this. I am going to do more research.
7. I have used Orange Holiday esims twice: once in Spain with a Spanish number and the second time for the first 2 weeks of this trip with a French number. Both had a time limit of 14 days, If you need to keep the number for more than 30 days, it must be registered. You would need to add another data, etc. package after 14 days, as it expires. You didn’t say how long you are staying, but if it is 14 days or less and you definitely want the ability to make phone calls, this is the easiest (to me). I love the ease of esims. I did have trouble getting my number registered (and wanted more than 30 days) so it expired at 14 days - but I have lived just fine for the last 3 weeks on data alone. Could have used a phone # twice but was able to work around it.
8. Most people find that a data package is all they need.

Edit: Paul is right about not being able to access texts to your U.S. # - but unless you use an international plan from your U.S. carrier, this will be true no matter what way you go. (I have AT&T) By using an eSim, I was able to access my texts when I needed a code for an online purchase I was making in a different country for a future trip by simply touching the screen and turning my home cell number “on” and then turning my home # off after receiving the code. Of course, I have to pay AT&T’s $10/day international plan for that day for the privilege- but it was certainly easy!

We took the Giffgaff (there are other choices) route in June and had a seamless transition. I don't think I even needed to re-login with my email. With Giffgaff, you can "activate" your card without actually putting it in your phone (I waited until the whole trip would fit in one month's subscription). I swapped the sim card while on the flight.

Upon activation, you get your new phone number, which you can then add to accounts that using double authentication. All my accounts have email authentication options, so I don't think I ever needed the texting except locally. Many restaurants want advance bookings, and if you're like us, you'd like to call bars to ask about live music, so calling is important. GiffGafff will let you pre-pay international calls, which I did for my wife, but she never used them ($10 wasted!). I added my new number to my banks, bookings.com, airlines, and that was about it.

Paul and TexasTravelmom, thank you. I assume I order a giffgaff SIM from the company? Do I purchase the bundle online from the same source? I do want calling capability within Scotland and to the US but also lots of data. Is an eSim something different from the giffgaff SIM? Finally—do either of you know if my iPad, which only works with WiFi, will work just the same in the UK as long as I’ve got WiFi? Slowly wrapping my head around this and very grateful!

Elizabeth,

• Yes your iPad will work the same on WiFi
• No the UK does not require SIM cards to be registered
• Yes you can order a giffgaff sim direct from them

You seem to be new to all of this. It may be easier and more comfortable for you to go to a shop in the UK to get your SIM card and plan. I would stick with shops from the major telco carriers or a specialist retailer like carphone warehouse. That way they can set it up for you. I have used EE and Vodafone and both have worked well. Cell service is inexpensive in the UK .

Your iPhone may support a hotspot function or tethering. It basically turns your phone into a WiFi spot. It would allow you to use your iPad via the phone. I find that useful for when the hotel WiFi is slow or just doesn’t work.

You said purchasing an international plan from your carrier was no longer an option. What company is your carrier? Does your cell company have wifi calling?

An eSIM is an electronic SIM card that many recent phones handle that will allow you to have a physical SIM card for one phone account and use the eSIM for another phone account. Both can be active simultaneously. If your iPhone is a recent model, it probably is set up for eSIM use. If so, I would consider getting a T-Mobile account or a Google Fi account for the eSIM "slot" just for the time you are on the trip. That should get you the data connection you need while allowing calls to the U.S. for low rates.

I found it valuable to know my future phone number before leaving on my trip (notify friends, banks, travel sites, etc.). If you have two weeks to order a GiffGaff, just do it today. If you never activate it, you never pay a dime (or a pence). Although they ask you to pick a plan when you order it, you have to re-pick at activation. Once you're on the plane, you need a paper clip to swap the sim card. Not a technical challenge. Maybe you watched the saleperson do it when you bought the phone - or watch YouTube.

In the case of Giffgaff, $10 or so gets you 15gb of data or so and unlimited UK calls and texts (prices change all the time). You have to pre-pay international calls/texts as an extra, but another $10 gets you plenty, unless you're a real talker with family. You always have an option to re-fill your balance. When you have wifi, you can email photos to family, etc.

In three weeks, using Maps daily (mostly for restaurants etc) and having my email running all the time consumed about 3gb. I had a dash mounted GPS, so I didn't use a phone for most navigation, which would have driven that data rate up quite a bit. We never needed the international calling/texts, but we're sort of recluses. If you're planning to stream movies while there, you might want a more expensive "goody bag".

We found wifi at all lodging, but restaurants often had complex passwords that weren't worth entering. There are places, especially in the islands where GiffGaff did not have coverage, but we were WAY OUT in the boondocks.

Most US carriers have some sort of international plan, but they are typically $10 per day or very small amounts of data. Our carrier, US Cellular, is $35/mo for 250mb of data, which will disappear in a few hours if you don't know how to control your phone's use of data. Plus a restaurant is not going to make an international call to confirm a booking. A local phone is so much better! If changing SIM cards or losing access to your normal number is a worry, buy a second phone. A GSM phone will works for years to come for your future trips, even if it doesn't have the latest bells & whistles.

Sorry, but a pet peeve. "GSM phones" used to be what one might call an international phone. (Originally, GSM was characterized as 2G technology.) No more. GSM in its technical sense is just about dead. In Europe and the U.S. it meant old technology usually using 4 radio frequencies. No more. The radio spectrum is limited, so phone companies have been converting the technology once taken up by GSM networks to the newer technology of 4G LTE and 5G, which are faster and have more capacity. The old stuff will not work, or will stop working soon. Older phones will not work.

As an example, 3G technology, which was itself sort of an enhancement to GSM, is going away worldwide. See The 3G Shutdown. For more on the subject: Time to Walk Away From GSM.

Bottom line: To ensure connectivity when traveling, you need a newer phone, and the newer the better to get the full range of what is available.

I’m going with giffgaff—I’ll get the SIM card now and activate as soon as I land in Scotland, correct? Question: we’ll be in the Highlands and on Skye—should I get a GPS with our rental car because it will be more accurate in getting us to unknown places than a phone with spotty coverage? Thanks to all—each answer has helped me in some way.

Elizabeth we used giffgaff for a month long trip to England and Wales. I used google maps for navigation everywhere we went and it worked great. If you download the Scotland map so it can be used offline, when your cell service is spotty google maps will flip to the offline, downloaded map. We drove 1500 miles in four weeks and never got lost. By the way unless you are using data to stream you will probably use less data than you think. I bought 20GB, only used 6GB. And that was using google maps for navigation almost every day.

Thank you, Katheryne!

Actually, this is another question. Will the giffgaff sim card allow my phone to work in Iceland too? (We're stopping there for a few days on our way to Scotland.)
Thanks for any help,
Annette

GiffGaff in May. Had it delvered to our home in Canada, easy install in London, worked everywhere all the way up to the Orkney's, great value. Usual dead zones where you might expect with no population or mountains but very useful to us.

I got the Orange Holiday eSIM card with French phone number-15G for $20. I purchased it online and received an email confirmation with a QR code that I scanned when we landed in Edinburgh. You wait until you’re at your destination to activate it and that starts the 14 day subscription. Instructions are clear and easy to implement. I’m on Isle of Skye now and it’s working well enough to run maps and on the fly research. I like that I can switch SIM cards with a tap or two on my phone and make local calls when out and about. We will be in Europe for 3 months and I think that I will recharge this eSIM for two more weeks and then get a new one two more times. You need to submit a scan of ID to register and I’d rather not do that. It is so much cheaper than signing up for AT&T services abroad and easy to use, even for this 72 year old!
Report back on what you ended up doing for your trip!