Morning all. I am moving to Switzerland next month. The move may not be permanent and so I would like to retain my UK number.

Having found a good SIM only deal from 3, there are some rules around using this on a semi-permanent basis. If they see you are using it exclusively from abroad for two months or more, then it sounds like they will impose extra charges. I do not intend to be a heavy user at all - just a handful of calls a month probably. Any advice would be great!

Second part of this post is that I will have a Swiss number too -any suggestions for good SIM only with European usage will be appreciated.

Thanks all and stay safe.

I have a contract with 3, I got a text in May saying I would get surcharged but to date I have not paid any extra. I have not spent 24 hours in the UK this year, just 3 day trips & only once in the last 8 months. I use it as my main phone & have done for the last 5 years.
The surcharge is very little in any case, they used to deactivate PAYG sims that were not in the UK at all after 3 months, not sure if this is still the case.

I’m in Switzerland 9 years and have 2 uk phones with O2. One of them is used very little, mostly for bank logins.
Second one first few years I had with a contract, than I switched to pay and go, but kept the same number and I use it quite a lot but mostly for incoming calls. Never got charged anything extra.
As for swiss sim I have yallo with free calls and roaming all over Europe and Turkey.

I've been using my UK number (Vodafone) for the past 6 months just like I would do in the UK and haven't heard anything from the operator about extra surcharges.

Awesome! That is great advice. Thank you to you all.
Stay safe.

Check out business packages. They usually don't have that restriction.



I have a Vodafone small business contract, with worldwide roaming and fixed price international calls, plus loads of data.


It allows you to be abroad pretty much all the time. I never pay any extra for calls or data, just the same amount per month.



Had similar for 5 years now... you do need to review every time the contract runs out, though. Each time I've done it, price has gone down!



Regards






Ian

I have a dual sim Samsung S10 loaded with Swisscom and Tesco Mobile (o2 network) sims. It's set to accept calls and sms from both sims, data is on Swisscom only and outward calls and sms prompt a question asking which sim I want to use. I've had that set up for 3yrs now without any issues from Tesco Mobile. Switched over from 3 because they no longer had a signal which covered my uk house and sent me warnings about unfair usage every 3 months or so.

You will be surprised by how quickly a short term contract ends up being ten years down the road and still here!

Yallo or Yallo post paid were both really good low commitment and great value Swiss networks to join.

As for UK phone. If you have your deal and want to maintain it fair enough, but if like most of us here, you like Switzerland and all thats on offer and end up staying much longer term, the use of your UK phone will be reduced to almost nothing. Having a simple pre paid sim just for trips back will be enough, virgin or something similar.

We tend to become attached to a number. When you run 2 in parallel it ends up being not such a big deal to switch numbers.

I think it's probably a better deal to just have a PAYG Swiss phone for incoming calls for people who don't want to righ a UK no. Swiss contracts are way overpriced, I received a call on Friday on my Swiss no, 6 years after leaving CH, a real call from a client rather than someone selling health insurance. 10 CHF top up lasts a year or so.

This is also what I do. I've only ever had issues with Tesco PAYG when I was using a data package every month. Otherwise no problems with just maintaining a number. When I was looking recently most suppliers say simply having the phone away from the UK for long periods of time could be enough for them to impose charges or cancel the number. It's easy though to just try it, see what happens and change supplier if you're not happy, keeping the number.

+1 for that. My Swisscom work phone contract gives me less overseas minutes, less texts, less roaming data and costs about 6 X the equivalent contract in the UK. Yet allegedly it's one of the best deals for my usage pattern.



Kind regards




Ian

I've had a Virgin PAYG for at least 15 years,a nd for the last 6 years have not used it in the UK at all, but until recently (when Swisscom offered good deals), exclusively in the EU. I never had any warning on using it out of the UK and no surcharges.

However as Switzerland is not part of the EU i had to pay a lot for call to / from Switzerland. I wonder if this will be the case from January 1st again??

That sounds like a great idea. Never thought of a dual SIM option. Many thanks

That sounds great, thank you. I'll have a look at that.
I have no idea how long I will be in Switzerland - so would like to retain UK number and basically keep my options open!

Virgin have a generous fair-use policy but as you wrote, doesn't include Switzerland in it's 'roam like at home' so is a poor choice, because some others do.





I don't understand. Switzerland will still (not again) be out of the EU on Jan 1st :-)
*Maybe* you mean there might not be any EU 'roam like at home' anymore after Brexit?

3 will keep its roaming, they never restricted to just EU either

Yes, that's what I meant . I wonder if Virgin will continue the "roam like at home" service after Jan 1st. I've had no notification nor can I see on the website if anything will change!

I have a PAYG UK SIM from O2
It's fine, but you have to top up at least once every 6 months to keep it active.
No idea if other providers have similar reqs, check the small print.

I had the same here with 3 during lockdown when I was here constantly for 3 months and using my phone regularly. I also had no extra charges in the end either.