Most economical cell phone plan for UK and europe

I’m curious how you’re going to be in the UK for 10 months. Do you have a special visa?

I would recommend giffgaff, which is a UK operator which has a generous EU roaming allowance. They do both physical SIMs (which they will deliver overseas) and eSIMs. I am in the UK about five times a year and travel regularly in Europe and use them. The only catch is you have to use the SIM in the UK first before roaming.

@Reederman, it's not clear the OP's nationality, but there are a whole range of visas people may have. For example, if they're Commonwealth citizens (ie Canadian, Australian etc) and they have British parents or grandparents they can live in the UK (and may indeed be dual nationals). Or they may have a visa.

If not, the biggest issue may be where you live - if you're looking to rent, landlords will check your immigration status, which is easy now with digital immigration accounts.

Thanks for the information Simon. I will check into them. Hopefully we can purchase at the airport. It's good to know they have roaming in Europe.

Another vote for giff-gaff.
I’ve used them twice.
Once first activated in the UK, you can roam in the EU with them.

"Hopefully we can purchase at the airport. It's good to know they have roaming in Europe."

Looks like WHSmith would be the only airport outlet. Otherwise it's supermarkets or convenience stores, or you can ask them to post a physical SIM to you.

Obviously if its an eSim you want you can do it all online.

https://www.giffgaff.com/blog/where-can-i-get-a-giffgaff-sim/

You should be able to use the Verizon international plan for up to 90 days, so no need to purchase at the airport.

Thanks for all your replies. Looks like Giffgaff will be what we use.

During my recent trip, I found that getting a UK-based SIM with EU roaming included—like from giffgaff or Smarty—was far cheaper than international roaming from my home provider. Activation was simple, and plans under £20 covered all my data and calls across multiple countries. Just be sure to check their fair use policies for EU roaming before extended stays.

Using a company like giffgaff which uses the O2-Virgin network does have European roaming. Most others don't. Only the O2 network goes into Europe now - the others, and those who piggyback off them, don't.

I can tell you my experience but solely for the purpose of demonstrating how maddening the subject is. For recommendations, listen to Nigel. He lives it.

When I moved here I got a Telecom account. It’s the local equivalent of TMobile that I liked in the states. I got their best plan. Turns out I can call anyplace in the EU, maybe Europe (haven’t tried), but certainly not outside of Europe. Now the insane part. While in Kuala Lumpur or the US or Australia or Ukraine or Bosnia or Albania I can call anyplace in the world. Very little additional cost and my data works just fine. So good luck.

A second important question is do you keep your US phone with you in Europe. I did and I am glad I did. First, I can call anyplace, any time. Never a bad connection, not even in Ukraine. My data works everywhere … but most important the texts from the bank to validate credit card use, the occasional need to change a password that requires a texted code to validate, access to my State offices to renew my US drivers license and professional registration work (otherwise blocked to foreign IP numbers), sometimes is better if your financial institution doesn’t know you are a tax resident of another country so they can keep calling you on the US number, friends, family, emergencies …… 3 years TMobile hasn’t cut me off yet. But they will the minute I go to the US. I know that will happen. A trip to a TMobile store and in 30 minutes I will be working again.

So no recommendation. Just things to consider.

I think Nigel and Mr E are talking about different things (correct me if I'm wrong.)

Nigel is talking about the ability to make calls from outside the UK (roaming) and I think more specifically free roaming. Practically everyone lets you do it for an extra cost.

I think Mr E is talking about the (in)ability to call from Europe (or maybe just Hungary) to outside Europe. Which is odd, and I think a quirk of his network not a Europe thing.

Re Giff Gaff you can call to the US on it but they are priced differently than intra-Europe calls. If you have one of the pre-paid bundles that include calls it probably won't include the US so you will need to add some credit to pay for those calls. If you don't do that the calls won't go through.

Back to the original question; the UK phone market is fairly competitive so things change quickly. If you want a local SIM you could play with a price comparison website such as https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only-filters/

You can filter for what you want, probably exclude 1 yr contracts and include EU roaming but you know best there. Then at least you have a price base to compare against.

(edited to add that there are other price comp. websites available)

If you only want data then a travel eSIM like airalo might make sense - again you'd have to check the prices as it might not make sense long term. Then your phone number would say the same but any calls or SMS would be on the Verizon tariff.

This is what I do in reverse going to the US. Keep my UK number for calls (which I rarely use) and get a travel data eSIM for while I'm in the US.

Peter, like I said, i was just illustrating the crazziness that the OP is going to be facing when choosing.

Using a company like giffgaff which uses the O2-Virgin network does have European roaming. Most others don't. Only the )2 network goes into Europe now - the others, and those who piggyback off them, don't.

I don't think that's true. I changed my SIM to Lebara last week and I have EU (and Indian) roaming. Lebara uses Vodafone.

The SIM deal I got was on price comparison site Uswitch. I pay £2.60 per month for 30GB data and unlimited calls and texts. That's for 6 months and it goes up to £7 per month after that. No contract, so in effect I could cancel and find another sub-£5 deal before that really cheap period is up. I ported in an existing number and it wasn't instant, but I'm pretty sure I could stay under a fiver if I was willing to do the port in process now and again. Network coverage seems fine; 4G in my living room (about 25mb/s down [edit: much slower on testing again today, but my phone is on wifi at home anyway]) and 5G full bars every time I've looked at the phone outdoors.

https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/sim_only_deals/
https://www.lebara.co.uk

Just go to Verizon and get their Unlimited Ultimate plan. Pick England as your base country. That's all you need to do. It runs $55/mo per line, or $100 for just one line.

If you find you need an EU local number you can then add a esim with a local carrier. But you may not need that.

I have both, the UU plan (just reviewed this week) and an esim with Telecom. But I've been here 2 years (this time) and need both an international US and a local number.

A few minutes ago, I went online from my home Wifi in Europe to use the points on my Merril Lynch credit card for a hotel booking. I got blocked by the travel site they use. I turned on my US phone, and linked my laptop to it, and the website worked as it should.

If you are going to be out of the US for an extended period of time .... among the things to consider.

Thanks for all the replies everyone, I appreciate all of your input. We've decided we're going to use Giff Gaff.