Sim card for Scotland and Ireland?

Firstly, no one knows what’s going to happen re Brexit. It has been overtaken by more pressing matters. Most carriers originally said free roaming would continue across Europe.

There are many branches of Tesco’s in Scotland, as it’s part of the U.K. Do you mean Ireland not Scotland? There are plenty Tesco’s there too! Both countries have Tesco mobile services.

I don't know if you would be willing to, but TMobile has service in Europe. We have been to Ireland, England, Wales, France, Italy and Czech Republic and never had any problems. You just let them know ahead of time. I think I paid $20 for an upgraded data package. I've already checked about Scotland and it is the same. I was able, on out last trip to Prague, to chat with my son in America while strolling through the city. Plus TMobile's customer service is top notch. Just a thought.

That's not a good option since T-mobile doesn't cover where we live. Getting a GSM sim card for my phone should be no problem. My carrier (US Cellular) will sell me international access for $.70 per mb, but that makes anything but checking email absurdly expensive.

We seldom call anybody overseas, so purchasing a SIM card makes no sense for us. If we need to call someone we’ll use our hotel’s WiFi and WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, or some other free service. Occasionally we may need to contact a local establishment, but call rates have dropped significantly the past few years and at 17 cents a minute, it’s relatively inexpensive for a few minutes call. When transmitting images, we always use free WiFi. For a phone GPS, we use Google maps downloaded for offline use so you don’t need to use any data. To the original question, Jennifer already answered it.

Besides calling for an occasional reservation, the SIM card is mostly for getting data. Using Google Maps to find nearby restaurants, traffic problems, etc. is a huge data consumer. Last trip I just bought 50mb of roaming data from my carrier and it was gone within a day or two, even though I was frugal. My wife left her email active and used her 50mb in barely one day. Having paid $35 (x2) for 50mb, I could have paid $10 for a 10gb sim card from Tesco or similar. I was hesitant to change my phone number because the Skellig-Michael skipper preferred to use the phone over email, but I won't let that bother me next trip.. There's not always wifi when you're looking for something.

There's a company similar to Tesco in Scotland. It's called Tesco.

I have had good luck with Vodafone SIM bought online ahead of time with EU roaming -- you might check with them in UK to see how Ireland and Scotland will be treated. Since you would get the SIM (with phone number) before you leave you could provide the UK phone number to anyone who needed it.