Using a esim overseas?

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#3509029 6-Jul-2026 18:31

my son went for a week or so in Australia and used a esim with unlimited data and he used the Whatsup app to use his number to text and ring me and i could do the same from my phone. it was a simple solution and easy to use.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

alinz

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#3509030 6-Jul-2026 18:34

pdh:

I'm on Skinny and wife is on One - both with dual-sim Samsung Ultras (S23U & S24U).

We're heading off in August for 53 days on a road trip in Europe (London and 12 countries on the continent) from France to Sweden to Greece.

My plan is to buy Orange 30 day esims for us each - 50 GB data & unlimited txt/calls for 39 GBP - and renew them once.
These should give us each a French 'real' number for AirBnB's & random calls.
I can get the esims online - and fix the numbers - then they activate when we hit the ground in London.

I'll keep the NZ Sims in the phones - allowing incoming SMS (for 2FA) but ignoring incoming Voice calls from NZ.
We will both disable VoiceMail on the NZ services.
And set the Orange SIM to default for data, calls & messages.
And toggle 'off' Data Switching to avoid pinging Skinny / One if Orange drops data at some point.

This should give us the Holy Grail of full comms in Europe - with no loss of 2FA.
Except for some countries with whom NZ doesn't do SMS (Poland, Slovakia, Romania & Bulgaria ?)
Relying on WiFi calling is out - as our travelling will be in a car (no train stations/airports with free WiFi !).
Total cost is 156 GBP (365 $NZ) for both phones for 8 weeks - about 3.40 $ a day each.

Can anyone see flaws - or improvements ?

This site seems to offer the Orange plans a lot cheaper.

20GBx4 with the coupon listed at the top would be ~$95 nzd,

50GBx4 would be ~$190

KiwiSurfer

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#3509033 6-Jul-2026 19:14

pdh:
Except for some countries with whom NZ doesn't do SMS (Poland, Slovakia, Romania & Bulgaria ?)

As far as I know all roaming destinations support SMS. I believe (but happy to be corrected if wrong) that SMS is mostly dealt with by the home network, and not the roaming network other than to just pass the SMS on. Don't confuse this with support for sending/receiving SMS to people in that country as that is a different issue.

SpartanVXL

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#3509035 6-Jul-2026 20:26

pdh:

I'm on Skinny and wife is on One - both with dual-sim Samsung Ultras (S23U & S24U).

We're heading off in August for 53 days on a road trip in Europe (London and 12 countries on the continent) from France to Sweden to Greece.

My plan is to buy Orange 30 day esims for us each - 50 GB data & unlimited txt/calls for 39 GBP - and renew them once.
These should give us each a French 'real' number for AirBnB's & random calls.
I can get the esims online - and fix the numbers - then they activate when we hit the ground in London.

I'll keep the NZ Sims in the phones - allowing incoming SMS (for 2FA) but ignoring incoming Voice calls from NZ.
We will both disable VoiceMail on the NZ services.
And set the Orange SIM to default for data, calls & messages.
And toggle 'off' Data Switching to avoid pinging Skinny / One if Orange drops data at some point.

This should give us the Holy Grail of full comms in Europe - with no loss of 2FA.
Except for some countries with whom NZ doesn't do SMS (Poland, Slovakia, Romania & Bulgaria ?)
Relying on WiFi calling is out - as our travelling will be in a car (no train stations/airports with free WiFi !).
Total cost is 156 GBP (365 $NZ) for both phones for 8 weeks - about 3.40 $ a day each.

Can anyone see flaws - or improvements ?

If you search for guides on android, you can set up wifi-calling to work over the Orange sim’s data connection instead of just wifi. This lets you use your NZ plan overseas with NZ number.

Note that Spark don’t let you use wifi calling overseas and that includes Skinny under them iirc. One NZ do allow global wifi calling.

mentalinc

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#3509039 6-Jul-2026 21:30

I'd suggest the Orange €99.99 for 90 days plan with 500GB of data and unlimited calls and texts each. "Only" an extra 37 cents per day but you get 5 times the data (500GB vs 2x50). Should be enough over that time to not worry about it, also read about people having issues "buying" the top up, may not work out cheaper if you have issues and have to mess around in a store of calling to get the second top up to apply correctly (or you end up getting issued another phone number)

Just make sure you get the "europe" version not the "france" or single country version.

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shk292

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#3509068 7-Jul-2026 09:05

vexxxboy:

my son went for a week or so in Australia and used a esim with unlimited data and he used the Whatsup app to use his number to text and ring me and i could do the same from my phone. it was a simple solution and easy to use.

On a recent Europe trip, I found that contact with locals (eg airbnb hosts, hotels) was exclusively via WhatsApp text messages. I assume they use text translation to make the conversation much easier than talking. I didn’t have a local number and never needed one.

I did try to learn the language beforehand but despite many hours of Duolingo never gained the confidence to speak effectively

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dafman

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#3509074 7-Jul-2026 09:18

shk292:

vexxxboy:

my son went for a week or so in Australia and used a esim with unlimited data and he used the Whatsup app to use his number to text and ring me and i could do the same from my phone. it was a simple solution and easy to use.

On a recent Europe trip, I found that contact with locals (eg airbnb hosts, hotels) was exclusively via WhatsApp text messages. I assume they use text translation to make the conversation much easier than talking. I didn’t have a local number and never needed one.

I did try to learn the language beforehand but despite many hours of Duolingo never gained the confidence to speak effectively

Ditto. 5 weeks in Europe last year and all comms with Airbnb, booking.com etc was Whatsapp. No need for a local number.

Handle9

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#3509132 7-Jul-2026 12:08

KiwiSurfer:

pdh:
Except for some countries with whom NZ doesn't do SMS (Poland, Slovakia, Romania & Bulgaria ?)

As far as I know all roaming destinations support SMS. I believe (but happy to be corrected if wrong) that SMS is mostly dealt with by the home network, and not the roaming network other than to just pass the SMS on. Don't confuse this with support for sending/receiving SMS to people in that country as that is a different issue.

Skinny works flawlessly outside NZ to send/receive SMS with roaming off.

pdh

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#3509135 7-Jul-2026 12:33

alinz:

Total cost is 156 GBP (365 $NZ) for both phones for 8 weeks - about 3.40 $ a day each.

Can anyone see flaws - or improvements ?

This site seems to offer the Orange plans a lot cheaper.

20GBx4 with the coupon listed at the top would be ~$95 nzd,

50GBx4 would be ~$190

Thanks, I'll check that out.
It would be a worthwhile saving.

pdh

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#3509142 7-Jul-2026 12:49

SpartanVXL:

pdh:

Can anyone see flaws - or improvements ?

If you search for guides on android, you can set up wifi-calling to work over the Orange sim’s data connection instead of just wifi. This lets you use your NZ plan overseas with NZ number.

Note that Spark don’t let you use wifi calling overseas and that includes Skinny under them iirc. One NZ do allow global wifi calling.

Thanks but I think this misses the point that I want to have a viable European number for local citizens and businesses to call or text.
I can use WhatsApp for friends over data - but not easily for commercial transactions.

Surely enabling WiFi calling via data on an Orange card - is going to enable me to make calls via One to NZ/Australian numbers.
If I tried calling a Polish number - or they me - it would invoke long-distance costs ?

pdh

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#3509144 7-Jul-2026 12:56

mentalinc:

I'd suggest the Orange €99.99 for 90 days plan with 500GB of data and unlimited calls and texts each. "Only" an extra 37 cents per day but you get 5 times the data (500GB vs 2x50). Should be enough over that time to not worry about it, also read about people having issues "buying" the top up, may not work out cheaper if you have issues and have to mess around in a store of calling to get the second top up to apply correctly (or you end up getting issued another phone number)

Just make sure you get the "europe" version not the "france" or single country version.

Thanks - good suggestions and I may do an asymmetrical purchase - one 500 GB and one 50 or lesser amount.
It's always hard to guess how much data you'll really need.
We'll be doing a lot of inner-city (away from the car's nav) Google mapping / street view stuff - and perhaps some Android Auto mapping if the Peugeot Europe's in-car nav doesn't do good detailed maps in (say) Slovakia or Bulgaria.
Plus evening research on places to stay / go - including video - which can burn through data.
Some of that last line will be on WiFi - but that's not always guaranteed.

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KiwiSurfer

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#3509146 7-Jul-2026 13:05

Handle9:

Skinny works flawlessly outside NZ to send/receive SMS with roaming off.

That would only be possible with VoWifi if not roaming.

pdh

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#3509149 7-Jul-2026 13:16

KiwiSurfer:

pdh:
Except for some countries with whom NZ doesn't do SMS (Poland, Slovakia, Romania & Bulgaria ?)

As far as I know all roaming destinations support SMS. I believe (but happy to be corrected if wrong) that SMS is mostly dealt with by the home network, and not the roaming network other than to just pass the SMS on. Don't confuse this with support for sending/receiving SMS to people in that country as that is a different issue.

From what I can make out from Skinny, they _do_ promise SMS everywhere they sell roaming packs.
But the list of countries to which they sell roaming packs is pretty damn short.
(Although, to be fair, it likely covers 95% of kiwi travel.)
But it misses out on Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Roumania & Bulgaria - in all of which I'll be spending time.

Skinny don't appear to commit to sending SMS messages to my Skinny SIM in countries where they don't sell roaming packs.

I think it'll be suck-it & see.
I can WhatsApp a friend in NZ to SMS me when I get to Denmark.

KiwiSurfer

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#3509155 7-Jul-2026 13:32

pdh:

From what I can make out from Skinny, they _do_ promise SMS everywhere they sell roaming packs.
But the list of countries to which they sell roaming packs is pretty damn short.
(Although, to be fair, it likely covers 95% of kiwi travel.)
But it misses out on Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Roumania & Bulgaria - in all of which I'll be spending time.

Checking the Skinny list I am surprised to find you're right. Quite a limited list compared.

A few of those (e.g. Romania, Hungary) are casual roaming so you can still connect to a network in those countries and receive SMS. Just be sure not to phone/SMS/data as the rates are astronomical -- reminds me of Vodafone roaming rates 25 years ago!

But I can see a few (e.g. Slovakia, Bulgaria) where they're not listed at all. You may be lucky and connect to a network (given parent Spark does have roaming agreements in I am sure all those countries) but have limited connectivity (maybe receive SMS OK but not send) or most likely Spark will block it entirely (as I assume their system checks eligibility) and you'll have nothing at all.

Seems to be a very mixed bag for Skinny customers. Given 2deg/One can do daily roaming to 100+ countries (including most/all of the ones you have listed) it is a poor offering IMHO.

10 years ago I went thu similar countries (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey) and had daily roaming the whole time with Vodafone.

For you a local SIM or eSIM would make sense to cover the gaps.

pdh

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#3509157 7-Jul-2026 13:40

KiwiSurfer:

Checking the Skinny list I am surprised to find you're right. Quite a limited list compared.

A few of those (e.g. Romania, Hungary) are casual roaming so you can still connect to a network in those countries and receive SMS. Just be sure not to phone/SMS/data as the rates are astronomical -- reminds me of Vodafone roaming rates 25 years ago!

But I can see a few (e.g. Slovakia, Bulgaria) where they're not listed at all. You may be lucky and connect to a network (given parent Spark does have roaming agreements in I am sure all those countries) but have limited connectivity (maybe receive SMS OK but not send) or most likely Spark will block it entirely (as I assume their system checks eligibility) and you'll have nothing at all.

Seems to be a very mixed bag for Skinny customers. Given 2deg/One can do daily roaming to 100+ countries (including most/all of the ones you have listed) it is a poor offering IMHO.

10 years ago I went thu similar countries (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey) and had daily roaming the whole time with Vodafone.

For you a local SIM or eSIM would make sense to cover the gaps.

I want the Skinny SMS receive capability _only_ for its ability to give me 2FA notifications... so I can't easily replace that with a local SIM.

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