UK / France travel - use NZ Visa or some other payment option / eSim

Forums › Travel (planes, train, cruise) › UK / France travel - use NZ Visa or some other payment option / eSim

1 | 2 | 3

timmmay

20499 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3271175 13-Aug-2024 18:39

Giffgaff's website is a bit inconsistent. I think we'll probably try to get a GiffGaff esim first as having a local number would be handy at times, but if we have problems we'll just use Nomad. If GiffGaff doesn't roam to France, we'll get Nomad when we get there. Nomad has good data only UK and France packages, might cost a a little bit more than GiffGaff but not enough to make a difference. The prices are pretty good these days, and esim should make things a lot simpler. I'll purchase the GiffGaff or Nomad UK package a few days before we go with my Wise card, and activate on arrival at Heathrow.

Thanks all for the advice and help 🙂

panther2

370 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3271186 13-Aug-2024 19:54

Had a gillgaff sim used in Scotland, London Germany, and Greece without any issue. Was good value back at end of 22.

They also posted aim for free to nz prior us leaving

openmedia

3309 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3271341 14-Aug-2024 10:16

I've used physical giffgaff sims a couple of times.

Couple of things

make sure you select a plan with data etc turned off while using WiFi. We accidentally used some pre-pay balance trying to select a plan.
You have to activate/use plan in the UK before you an roam - we tried to active Sim in Germany and failed.
Some of their service are only active during UK hours. I just tried to swap my physical SIM to an e-sim and failed.

I've been considering LycaMobil for an upcoming trip

https://www.lycamobile.co.uk/en/bundle/national-plus/

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

timmmay

20499 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3271351 14-Aug-2024 10:32

Thanks OM. Lyca are cheap but reviews are fairly poor https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.lycamobile.co.uk

timmmay

20499 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3272618 16-Aug-2024 16:45

openmedia:

I've used physical giffgaff sims a couple of times.

Couple of things

make sure you select a plan with data etc turned off while using WiFi. We accidentally used some pre-pay balance trying to select a plan.
You have to activate/use plan in the UK before you an roam - we tried to active Sim in Germany and failed.
Some of their service are only active during UK hours. I just tried to swap my physical SIM to an e-sim and failed.
I've been considering LycaMobil for an upcoming trip

https://www.lycamobile.co.uk/en/bundle/national-plus/

@openmedia best choose another provider. LycaMobile handed winding up order - article link.

Goosey

2793 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#3282213 15-Sep-2024 07:59

timmmay:

Looks like wise gives about 2% better rates than our bank as well as lower fees. Thanks :)

this, recently we looked at rates for an currency exchange kiosk overseas and the wise rate was over 10c better.

timmmay

20499 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3282216 15-Sep-2024 09:00

Goosey:
timmmay:

Looks like wise gives about 2% better rates than our bank as well as lower fees. Thanks :)

this, recently we looked at rates for an currency exchange kiosk overseas and the wise rate was over 10c better.

Kiosks must be expensive. I was comparing with a New Zealand bank credit card exchange rates.

Mighty Ape

Shop now on Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

invisibleman18

1356 posts

Uber Geek

#3283106 17-Sep-2024 11:44

Following along this thread as have just booked a UK/Europe trip for next year and wondering how to deal with money. When we went to USA we just withdrew a bulk lot of cash every few days and did everything that way to deal with tipping but I expect UK is much more like NZ without tipping and more card use than cash. Is wise or some other travel card generally the best option?

Also what's the consensus on the best sim card option? We'll be away for about 6 weeks and also going to Ireland, France, Switzerland. Assume it's better to get a local sim/esim or a traveller one rather than paying roaming charges everytime we want to order an uber etc.

openmedia

3309 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3283204 17-Sep-2024 14:00

Sometimes you won't see the tips come through with Wise due to the way they process US transactions. Unless you enter the tip into the eftpos terminal at payment it won't get paid to the vendor. Usually in the US they have you sign for the tip on the receipt and WISE often won't process those "after the fact" transactions.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

martyyn

1961 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Subscriber

#3283209 17-Sep-2024 14:23

I've spent extended periods of time in the UK, Argentina, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark and France over the last 18 months.

Wise card for every transaction. Local sim for data roaming.

The only issue I've had was the French sim card (surprise surprise) where it would regularly disconnect from the network and wouldn't reconnect for love nor money. The Lebara SIM from NL worked everywhere. I can't remember the one I got in the UK, it was a tenner or something from a petrol station.

[e] The only place I've tipped was Argentina and I took USD over from NZ.

timmmay

20499 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3283325 17-Sep-2024 20:06

invisibleman18:

Following along this thread as have just booked a UK/Europe trip for next year and wondering how to deal with money. When we went to USA we just withdrew a bulk lot of cash every few days and did everything that way to deal with tipping but I expect UK is much more like NZ without tipping and more card use than cash. Is wise or some other travel card generally the best option?

Also what's the consensus on the best sim card option? We'll be away for about 6 weeks and also going to Ireland, France, Switzerland. Assume it's better to get a local sim/esim or a traveller one rather than paying roaming charges everytime we want to order an uber etc.

Because we're mostly going to be UK based I'm getting GiffGaff esims with a prepay plan. Family in the UK use GiffGaff so it's probably a safe bet. We think that it will automatically roam to France for the week we're there, but it might take more time to activate than that. If so I'll get us Nomad esims - no local number (we won't need it there) and only US$10 for 7 days. It's 1GB / day at full speed then 512kbps after that. You might find you do well with a Nomad SIM for each country you go to.

timmmay

20499 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3283529 18-Sep-2024 13:44

I have a question about dual SIM cards on Android, Pixel 8, with the second SIM esim. Are both SIM cards active at the same time, or do you need to switch between them?

I want to mostly be using the UK Sim for phone calls and data, but I want to be using the same WhatsApp as my main phone, rather than having to create another WhatsApp account. WhatsApp seems to be associated with a phone number rather than a person. In the past when I swapped out my old Sim and put in an overseas sim WhatsApp still seem to keep working as usual.

invisibleman18

1356 posts

Uber Geek

#3284082 19-Sep-2024 16:02

As far as I'm aware the phone number for WhatsApp is just the login and doesn't require the sim card with the same number to be active as it operates over the internet like messenger etc. You need to be able to receive the verification text to get into the account but once logged in it should be fine. I haven't tried it with 2 sim cards in the same phone but have used a WhatAapp account under a different number to the one in the phone.

timmmay

20499 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3299258 20-Oct-2024 21:22

Reporting back...

GiffGaff esim worked great, in various places in the UK and also roaming in France. The way to do it is get the app on your phone and register for a GiffGaff account before you leave, then when you arrive in the UK you select your prepay plan and pay for it. It was activated quickly, I don't know how long, but not long. Make sure to turn off auto renew if you don't want it to renew. Other providers let you purchase in advance but not GiffGaff.
Once you have two SIM cards you can select which SIM to use as default for calls, for txt, and for data, or you can configure it to ask you each time you use it. You can also disable your original SIM card to avoid roaming charges.
The Wise card worked well. In practice I loaded a virtual wise card onto my phone and paid for virtually everything using my phone - no surcharge and normal over there. I didn't have any cash in the UK or France at all. I don't know if it saved us any / much money, but it didn't hurt.

Thanks all who offered advice, it was appreciated and helped a lot.

Also, if you get into a taxi in a western country and they say "credit card machine is not working" or "meter is not working" or similar, tell them you have no cash and get out immediately. We got scammed in France by a taxi driver. If you do get scammed make sure you take a photo of the car including number plate, the charge on the meter, the driver, and ask for a written receipt. Or better yet, call the police while they're standing there. I managed to get a photo of the number plate and reported them to the police who are actively following it up, and if I can work out their name (it's hard to get a name from a license plate in the EU) I'll also start a civil / small claims suit to recover the relatively trivial amount of money, just to take up their time and piss them off.

cb1

336 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3299316 21-Oct-2024 09:59

timmmay:

kiruti:

I personally prefer Revolut over Wise, very generous limit of $2,000 a month exchanged for free during weekdays, after that limit and during weekends it's 1%. You can also hold GBP in app.

Interesting option. $2K per month free free isn't that useful if you're travelling, but the fees after that are comparable with wise. Paying GBP4 / 8 per month gives you higher or no limit on that fee free transfer but it's an annual plan you can't pay monthly.

All in all Revolut seems to have some benefits but they come at the expense of complexity.

Seems like there are a number of people getting scammed using Revolut. See this BBC new article

Glad you enjoyed your trip Timmmay

1 | 2 | 3