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esim for long term travel

Posted by on

Hi, I'm in the USA and I'm going to study in the UK. According to my research I should get an eSIM for my iPhone on a long term (24month) plan, not a pay-as-you-go or month-to-month like most travelers. I've tried to set up accounts with both EE and 02 and both times they wanted me to have a UK phone number. I don't know if that means I'm not allowed to have an account or if it's just inconvenient and I'm doing it wrong. I really want to get this set up soon so I can use the number in applying for other things I need in the UK, which means I don't want to buy a card in shop in the UK, I really want to set this up from the USA. I also don't want to buy an eSim from a sketchy company I've never heard of on the internet.

  • Can I open an account with EE, O2 or Vodaphone from the USA?
  • How?
  • What are my alternatives, other than a pay-as-you-go card?

Does anyone know?

Thank You!

Posted by
10160 posts

Have you checked Giffgaff? That comes recommended here and I believe you can activate in the US. https://help.giffgaff.com/en/collections/626993-esim That said, there are some caveats:

You can use giffgaff in the USA, but you’ll need a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) credit balance on your giffgaff account to do so (goodybags don’t work when you are outside of the UK and EU). Using giffgaff in the USA will cost £1 per minute to make and receive calls, 30p to send a text message and 20p per MB of data used. https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/guides/giffgaff-international-roaming-faq/

Posted by
17786 posts

Have you checked with the school? You can't be the first American to have this issue.

Posted by
953 posts

+1 for giffgaff- my son was at university in the UK and now works there, and this is what he uses (as do I when I visit). You can get an eSIM, or they can post a physical SIM. Super cheap as well, and allows free roaming in Europe.

" I really want to get this set up soon so I can use the number in applying for other things I need in the UK"

There is a limit to what you can do before you arrive. My main piece of advice is when it comes to banking, use a fintech like Wise - British banks are a bit of a pain to deal with- my son was on the electoral roll before Barclays opened a bank account for him...

Posted by
2000 posts

Add another recommendation for giffgaff. It's easy to get a giffgaff account while one is still in the USA, their service is fine, and the cost is extremely reasonable. I used one of their accounts for two months this summer and it worked great. They are able to connect to all the major networks in the UK, and also in France.

Efforts in previous summers to secure accounts from EE and O2 were unsuccessful, even after landing in the UK. Vodafone took a great deal of haggling in order to secure a single account for my wife.

Posted by
1984 posts

I used the giffgaff app to buy a plan and install the eSIM earlier this year. Very easy to do. I started the process while at the airport in San Francisco and it was working shortly after landing at Heathrow. From memory the video link from giffgaff seems to describe the whole process well. Enjoy your studies in the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acY6suWosq4

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