Just discovered that my cell phone serviced by MetroPCS won't allow me to make calls when I am overseas. I can use the internet if I am connected to WiFi.
I was told that they have SIM cards they sell that I can put in my phone so I can make and receive calls. Anyone have any experience with this? Where do you get them? Will the same SIM work in all 3 countries? Any scams to watch out for?
Last year our BOE 14 day trip started in Paris. I bought a SIM card at a Vodaphone store in Paris for my unlocked iPhone. I used that same card in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Italy. I believe Europe, or maybe just continental Europe did away with roaming charges early 2017. I'm not sure about England. We just got back for Italy. I bought a SIM card from TIM at the Rome airport. In both cases, I bought plans aimed at travelers which were for a limited period of time and consisted mostly of data.
Your MetroPCS phone must be unlocked if you want to use it with another SIM card. If you bought your phone from them, it may be locked. if your phone bought from them isn't yet paid off, they may not unlock it - but if the phone is paid off, they should. Just ask them. They will give you an unlock code, which you won't use until you insert another SIM card the first time. Then you type the unlock code once after powering up the phone with the new SIM, and that's the only time you'll ever need to use the unlock code.
You won't have your MetroPCS US phone number while you have another SIM card in place. You'll get a new phone number (e.g. a UK number if you buy a UK SIM card) until you put your old SIM card back in.
The EU has done away with most roaming fees for residents of the EU. However, tourists can usually take advantage of the free roaming too - but not in every case it seems. Some mobile companies may require you to use the SIM for a couple of weeks in the original country before they will enable the EU roaming (an attempt to make sure you are a resident). I have read of anecdotes about some UK SIMs having this enforced. I have a Dutch Vodafone SIM, and I have never had a problem roaming - in fact, I have never even used this Dutch SIM in the Netherlands - I bought it on eBay last year and have used it in France, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and Portugal - but not in the Netherlands.
In any case, just buy a SIM in the first country you arrive in - buy it at a mobile store, and ask about the roaming. If for some reason it doesn't work when you get to the next country, then just buy another SIM there. You will need to take your passport with you in some countries to activate a SIM card.
If you want to make calls home to the US for free, even to landlines, install Google Hangouts on your smart phone (and also the Hangouts Dialer app if you have an Android). You can make free voice calls to US numbers from within the Hangouts/Hangouts Dialer app, while you are on WiFi or with mobile data. Just make sure you add the +1 prefix to the front of a US phone number first. Also consider a free texting app like WhatsApp or Google Voice.
You will find some good tips here https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/phones-tech.
Maybe worth mentioning, but you seem unfamiliar with this, when you get a SIM in Europe, you also get a different phone number. As for scams, no real ones, except I suggest buying a sim card from a major phone store, and have them install and activate it. Just picking up a SIM from a tobacco or magazine kiosk is not a good move for a beginner.
Just a word of caution about buying a SIM card from Orange in France. You can buy one to use internationally - we made calls from Hungary, Austria and Germany - but you can't top them off online or via your phone, as they presently do not accept non-EU bank cards. We inadvertently used up all our minutes because of a bank emergency while we were in Prague, and we couldn't increase our minutes with our U.S. Visa card. We tried to buy a SIM card from Vodaphone - there was no Orange in Prague - but Orange blocked it. I believe that this is a relatively new policy, as I seem to remember making a "rechargement" via our phone in past years.
Rory, I'm not quite sure what you mean about Orange "blocking" a Vodafone SIM - that doesn't make sense. Unless you buy a phone from Orange and they have locked it, they can't "block" another SIM you have inserted in some other phone. If you insert a Vodafone SIM after having used an Orange SIM, Orange is no longer involved with your phone.
But you are right about needing to worry about topping up your SIM remotely if it runs out of credit and you aren't in the original country anymore. I don't know how to do it with Orange (It may be possible - all depends which country the SIM was from and their policies). And FYI, Orange may operate in multiple countries but they are not technically the same company. You can't buy a top-up from an Orange in a different country to top up your Orange SIM - if it's a French Orange SIM, you need to get the top-up from Orange France.
Some providers do allow top-off online. I am able to top up my Dutch Vodafone SIM online with my US credit card. UK SIM cards can (I believe) be topped up using Paypal if you can't use a US credit card. YMMV.
FYI, if you need to make calls to the US, consider installing Google Hangouts (and also Hangouts Dialer for Android phones) on your smart phone. Then you can make free calls to US numbers, even landlines, from Europe or anywhere, as long as you have WiFi or a mobile connection. I don't use my European SIM cards to make calls to the US (except for using data, not minutes) - there is no point when it is free with Hangouts.
