# UK phone in Spain



## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

This looks a good deal for those visiting Spain

Vodafone EuroTraveller - Vodafone eForum

£3 a day and you use your phone as you would in the UK, no extra charges.


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## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

bob_bob said:


> This looks a good deal for those visiting Spain
> 
> Vodafone EuroTraveller - Vodafone eForum
> 
> £3 a day and you use your phone as you would in the UK, no extra charges.


I've just looked at the Questions page...



> Vodafone EuroTraveller is available to Pay monthly customers and customers on certain business plans.
> 
> If you are on one of our older price plans, you may have to move to a new price plan to get Vodafone EuroTraveller. If this is the case, one of our advisers will be happy to talk you through your options.
> 
> ...



So... you pay your pay-monthly charge and then you pay an extra £3 a day for each day you use your mobile to call the UK - either by making a call, sending a text, going onto the internet, or picking up your voicemail.

If you are using mobile internet, this plan is definitely cheaper (the usual plan is £8 a day for 100mb).
And I would think that for most people, making a call would be cheaper under this scheme.

But if you are using texts, then £3 a day doesn't match up well to the 11p a text which is the usual charge.

Sounds reasonable though....


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## Gaz_uk1 (Jun 11, 2012)

using a IP phone would be a cheap option, just have a good internet connection, I was in spain last week and internet connection was very fast and they were talking about putting in fibre 

Gary


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Set up "Skype to Go" and you can ring any international number, mobile or landline, from your UK mobile for just pennies. 

Skype To Go - Skype Number - Skype


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## jules 123 (Apr 26, 2011)

Alcalaina said:


> Set up "Skype to Go" and you can ring any international number, mobile or landline, from your UK mobile for just pennies.
> 
> Skype To Go - Skype Number - Skype


But it seems you may incurr roaming charges using a UK mobile abroad.


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## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

jules 123 said:


> But it seems you may incurr roaming charges using a UK mobile abroad.


Exactly. 
Which is why looking at a way of cutting down on roaming charges is always a good idea, even with the advantage of using Skype to Go.
In this case, Skype to Go on its own may still be a better option, but until you take into account other uses of your phone while abroad, you wont know that for sure.


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## jules 123 (Apr 26, 2011)

Solwriter said:


> Exactly.
> Which is why looking at a way of cutting down on roaming charges is always a good idea, even with the advantage of using Skype to Go.
> In this case, Skype to Go on its own may still be a better option, but until you take into account other uses of your phone while abroad, you wont know that for sure.


I would be interested to know exactly what the Skype roaming charges are, if anyone has used it on a UK mobile in Europe.

I was thinking of subscribing to EuroTraveller but at £3 a day, it starts to get expensive over, say, a three week period.


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## chianti13 (Apr 3, 2012)

Could you use the Skype system on a Spanish sim to call back to the UK therefore foregoing the roaming charges or does it have to be used in conjunction with a UK sim?


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

chianti13 said:


> Could you use the Skype system on a Spanish sim to call back to the UK therefore foregoing the roaming charges or does it have to be used in conjunction with a UK sim?


Yes you can. It's only when you use a Spanish sim in the UK or vice versa that the roaming charges apply.

NB If you register a UK mobile against your Skype account, you can't then register a Spanish one. You can register more than one phone, but only from the same country. (I suppose you could set up a second Skype account ...)


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

RebTel.com is supposed to be even cheaper than Skype but I haven't used it.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

As stated, open a SIP account in the UK. Then download a sip to your smart phone (if you have one) and then you have a phone system costing very little, and also people in the UK can call you on a UK number and pay just local charges.

So, a SIP account (I use Draytel) , and a SIP system for your phone (which cost me £4.99 iirc). You do need an internet signal to make call, but there's plenty of those about.

Call rates example
UK 0.9p/min
Europe 1p/min
USA & Canada 0.9p/min
UK Mobile 9.5p/min


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

I did say its a good deal for those *visiting Spain*. In the past I've bought local sims but won't in the future, £3 a day for net, text and calls from your *UK allowances* is a good deal plus you only pay for the days you want to use it. I use skype video for chatting to chums overseas if I want to see their ugly faces but my international to landline/mobile calls are an add on from Talktalk, think I pay a tenner a month, maybe less can't remember. I don't know if this is a good deal for you full timers.

I'm a low user of mobile phones except for when away so I use PAYG but if this deal is a good as it looks I'll get a vodafone monthly sim card, over a three or four month trip it could well be a cheaper option than buying local top up cards.


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## CapnBilly (Jun 7, 2011)

I use this type of system, but I use localphone.co.uk. I have a sip phone at home people can call me on using a uk number, and I can use if I want to appear to be in the UK (I.e Sky). The uk number costs me 25p a month, but you don't need one to use the system. I also have a smartphone app on my Spanish mobile, and can use my account with that, either using wifi or 3 g or if I am out using my free minutes. This works by them routing your call via a Spanish number ( in Madrid), so as I have free minutes it doesn't cost me anything locally. The app allows you to input the number and it tells you the cost of the call, which ifind helpful with special numbers which are generally more than landline costs e.g 0845

UK landlines 0.4p
UK mobiles 4.0p per minute
UK 0845 8.2p per minute
UK 0870 4.1p per minute
UK 0800 free 
Spanish mobiles 4.9p per minute
Spanish landlines 0.8p per minutes


I just top my account up with £5 every so often.


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## chianti13 (Apr 3, 2012)

My dilemma is that even though I'm moving over at the end of August I'm tied into my UK phone contract until December 2013! Also my partner is in the army so it's rare that there's an opportunity for 'landline' calls, it tends to be mobiles and texts which is going to be insanely expensive if we're constantly doing international calling/texting so if I can figure out a way to keep calls down to local rates (or even better included in my free minutes/texts) that would be brilliant. I'm really not tech savvy at all but am going to look into this SIP malarkey and see if I can make some sense of it, I'd never heard of it before today...this is exactly the reason I joined this forum...I'm learning new things everyday!


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

This could pay if you use the net a fare amount.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

chianti13 said:


> My dilemma is that even though I'm moving over at the end of August I'm tied into my UK phone contract until December 2013!


I'm sure you can terminate your existing contract without paying a cancellation fee if you are moving abroad. There was an EU directive about this recently.


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## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

Alcalaina said:


> I'm sure you can terminate your existing contract without paying a cancellation fee if you are moving abroad. There was an EU directive about this recently.


But I would say that many people take out a mobile contract to get a free phone (especially when it comes to expensive smartphones).
So where would this directive leave them? 
I'm assuming they would have to give the phone back and start again out here.


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## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

bob_bob said:


> I did say its a good deal for those *visiting Spain*. In the past I've bought local sims but won't in the future, £3 a day for net, text and calls from your *UK allowances* is a good deal plus you only pay for the days you want to use it. I use skype video for chatting to chums overseas if I want to see their ugly faces but my international to landline/mobile calls are an add on from Talktalk, think I pay a tenner a month, maybe less can't remember. I don't know if this is a good deal for you full timers.
> 
> I'm a low user of mobile phones except for when away so I use PAYG but if this deal is a good as it looks I'll get a vodafone monthly sim card, over a three or four month trip it could well be a cheaper option than buying local top up cards.


As I said at the beginning of this thread, I think that for those making calls and wishing to use _ mobile_ data on limited occasions, I think its ok - not great, but definitely better than some international deals you can find.

And I agree, that for those visiting, _who are on a UK Vodafone contract_, then this could be a simple answer for them. At least it will take away the worry of incurring extortionate roaming charges and it will mean they can use their UK allowances here, rather than wasting them.
But it isn't really that cheap if used every day of a visit.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Alcalaina said:


> I'm sure you can terminate your existing contract without paying a cancellation fee if you are moving abroad. There was an EU directive about this recently.


Must be recent because I had to keep my Vodaphone running for a year after I left some time back


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