A good UK SIM Card for a 4G Phone

[FrodoOne]

I may soon travel to the UK for about 21 Days.

My (Australian) provider wishes to charge me the equivalent of about £5:00 per day for the privilege of using my Mobile Phone there,
for Local calls and for To and From "Home".
Total £105:00.

My current 'Phone is a Galaxy S21 G5 - with an E-SIM - and I do not whish to "fiddle" with that.

However, I have the previous 4G Galaxy "Phone", which I have used Internationally with the "Local Providers" in South Pacific countries.

My question is
"What is the Best/Cheapest option for me to purchase a Local (International capable) SIM card for a 4G Galaxy 'Phone when first arriving in the UK."

(Yes, I DO know that a UK Number will be required.)

 

[spile]

I can recommend the Lebara Sim only deal bought through Money Saving Supermarket.
Update £4.49 for 3GB or £4.99 for 5GB currently.

 

[StephenStephen]

I'd recommend giffgaff

 

[Murdochcat]

Certainly a sim only pre payment method

But maybe check the coverage if you are going to be in the same area for much of the time as the mobile coverage in the UK varies a lot depending on the service provider

 

[securespark]

Which? magazine (the consumer association) have 5 recommended mobile providers. In order of customer rating, from the best (83%) to the worst (78%), they are:

Talkmobile
Giffgaff
Smarty
1p Mobile
Lebara

Of these, Talkmobile, Smarty and 1p Mobile are also classified by Which? as Great Value.

These providers are all Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) in the UK, who piggy-back off one of the networks in the UK, which are:

EE
O2
Vodafone
Three

The first was the product of a merger between Orange and T-Mobile and a merger took place between the last two last year, creating the imaginatively named VodafoneThree, but they are still being run as two distinct brands.

As far as coverage go, they all seem to claim 99%+ coverage, but you do get dead spots, especially in rural areas and inside buildings. Inside buildings you can mitigate by using WiFi calling, as long as:

You are logged onto WiFi!
Your phone supports it.
Your network supports it.

You can check coverage accurately by using the coverage checker, but you need to know the postcode of the location.

Signalchecker.co.uk

Back to getting your SIM. So, you could go to a phone shop outside the airport and buy a SIM then load it with an amount of cash and then convert it to a data pack for a month.

Or if you don't fancy that, you could just buy a pre-loaded SIM at the airport.
You will pay more, though.

From memory (as an example), Three do a pre-loaded SIM with 50GB of data (calls and texts included) for £20.00. This lasts for 30 days.

 

[secureiam]

I guess it depends on how you use your phone.

Where you are going, the uk has lots of service issues with some providers in certain areas.

It’s crazy in this day and age that so many areas even built up areas have crap phone signal service.

I go to jobs and have to drive round 0.5 a mile before I hit a better signal area for my provider. I can have multi eSIMs and a physical sim.

However even with 2 different providers I still can get issues. I am considering a multi roaming sim for certain apps keeps costs down but allows google maps, whats app and some other apps to work worldwide. Some offer £50 unlimited for the year but its apps only and not all apps are included.

For example what’s app can be covered on a roaming sim that supports apps so you have messaging and calls but not standard mobile phone calls.

So I am back to how and what do you want to use your phone for ?

 

[CountryFan]

Have a look at Lyca mobile as well

 

[Koolpc]

Giffgaff....

 

[securespark]

IDK why, but I often get scam calls on my second SIM from companies insisting it is an O2 number and they want to put me on an iffy contract.

Don't get any of those on my main number and the joke is the second number has never been given out to anyone, whereas literally thousands of people have been given my main number over the decades I have had it.

 

[FrodoOne]

Thank you all for your responses.

I am likely to be only in London (or close to it - in a nearby "City" or "Major Centre").
I won't be driving myself anywhere,
so "poor coverage" should not be of concern.

 

[secureiam]

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-coverage-checker you can check the coverage anywhere in the UK by network provider.

as for best price, we have 4 Uk networks and many of the other cheaper sims are for those that piggyback off those 4 networks

 

[securespark]

All UK MVNOs piggyback off either Three, Vodafone, O2 or EE.

Of the ones recommended by Which?, Talkmobile use Vodafone's network, Giffgaff, O2's, Smarty use Three's (in fact Smarty are owned by Hutchison who operate Three), 1p Mobile use EE and Lebara use the Voda network.

The other one mentioned here, Lyca, uses EE.

Other popular choices are supermarket-run Asda Mobile and Tesco Mobile (Vodafone and O2 respectively).

If you're bothered about poor signals and are thinking of running a second SIM to get a signal in a poor area, to my mind, there's no point having a Three-based SIM and a Vodafone-based SIM, as they are now merged and share their network masts.

So, have a Three OR a Vodafone SIM (or one that piggy-backs off them), and an O2 or EE SIM (or one that piggy-backs off them).

 

[cdbe]

It's more about what you can buy in a supermarket or corner shop (as you probably won't have a proper address to get it delivered to). I'm on holiday in Cornwall and bought a £22 Asda mobile prepaid one month "unlimited everything" SIM (no account to set up/cancel/get credit checked for etc) over the counter at the local Asda, just chuck it after a month. You can get cheaper ones with limited data for less but we use it for a fire stick.

 

[mattylad]

You can walk into any supermarket and get a pay as you go sim.
Or you can try something like giffgaff (o2 network) and see if they will send you a sim.

Whilst you have an esim on your current phone, does it not also have a slot for a std sim?
You can have that and still the ability if needed to use your current number.
All payg sims have their own number.

 

[FrodoOne]

Whilst you have an esim on your current phone, does it not also have a slot for a std sim?

No.
However, it has the capacity to add a second ESim.

This is a facility which I will check out with a Samsung outlet before I do anything else.
(Galaxy S21 5G Model name SM-G991B)