Statham2016

I am heading back to the UK for a short trip (first time back after emigrating). Kind of strange having to think about these kind of things but was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on :
Using their Canadian mobile phone? I have a simple monthly plan with 'Chatr' here in Ontario. I haven't contacted them as of yet to see what they can or will offer. But I was actually thinking it may be just as well buying a cheap pay as u go and credit in the uk?

Driving a car? My options are obviously hire one. Or can I 'borrow' one from a family member and get some sort of short term insurance to cover me?

Twitcher1958

My daughter was in the UK for a month last year and bought a SIM for about £15 - similar deals from all the usual suspects to include texts, some calls, some data - I've seen vending machines at airports selling SIMs. Depends how long you're there for, access to wifi, your age etc as to what it's worth.

pdarwin

Contact your phone company. They probably offer a foreign data and/or voice plan. If you only want to use it in case of an emergency call or just to make very, very few calls, ask if your phone will work in the UK and how much it will cost without a voice plan. Then weigh up the odds.

For car hire, I always book Avis at Heathrow because you get a discount code from Air Canada and depending how long you use the car for may more than offset the slightly higher price of AC flights.

Siouxie

https://www.chatrwireless.com/web/content/roaming

$2.50 a minute

Personally, I'd just grab a sin card when you get there.. or one of those international calling cards where you have a number to dial and it's low rates.

https://www.tescointernationalcalling.com/ (1p a minute)

bats

We have a UK phone bought in Tesco. Dead cheap. Free wifi is easy to find.
You'll need to hire a car as getting on someone else's insurance will cost them a fair bit, I usually make do with public transport and taxis which works out cheaper for me than rental.
Make sure you gave health insurance, ours is covered by my husbands work plan,

quiltman

Hire a car. It's extremely difficult to add a non resident onto a UK insurance - there are a couple of threads on here about it. Here's one http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...rs-car-869494/

Make sure your phone is unlocked and buy a sim from Tesco, ASDA or Giff Gaff is supposed to be good value.

Snowy560

I maintain a UK SIM for £5 a month with Virgin UK. I use it so some people can text me on that number (who don't do WhatsApp etc) and I have to have it for Barclaycard who text me on it now and again to check purchases if they think there's a fraud issue.

When travelling to the UK I call Virgin UK up and ask for some extra minutes and data pointing out I've used very little. I always get it. The bonus this year was that we went to Gibraltar as well and all calls, texts data etc were free using the UK SIM to Gib and to Spanish numbers plus calling the UK because Virgin UK had abolished roaming charges (voice, text and data) within many European companies at the beginning of June. I reckon the £60 odd we'd spent maintaining that SIM was money well spent for the hassle free factor and not having to worry about usage. My husband does the same and coincidentally had to ring Spain a couple of times for work and family in the UK all from Gib. We were with our daughters and one's bf. We created a WhatsApp group to all keep in touch when out and about as they only had Canadian SIMs.

I have a dual SIM phone so don't have to switch SIMs around.

Hurlabrick

Good luck with borrowing a car and getting it insured! I looked into this for a Canadian buddy who came over to visit and had to give up!

J-A-UK

Never used to be an issue but it is now ...... Uk insurance companies will not now add non residents.

Car rental away from the airports are cheaper - If you have no one to pick you up or no where to stay then airport rental is the way to go

We always borrow a PAYG phone from a relative

Collie

Check if your (Canadian) credit card covers you for car hire. If so, get a letter from them confirming this and take it with you - for declining the insurance offered by the car hire firms makes car hire in the UK really quite cheap.

uk_grenada

Get a free sim with Giffgaff and either use it pay as you go or just buy a monthly goodie bag which you don't have to renew every month just buy when you want it.

kimilseung

I was added on to my dad's Liverpool Victoria insurance last year with my US license for a few weeks.

Just done the same a few minutes ago, but under different circumstances.

Residence was asked but it was not a problem.

uk_grenada

Make sure small print of the insurance actually insures you, most UK insurers will no longer add people on ordinary car insurance policies unless they are UK resident. As most of these transactions are done online you sometimes don't notice or avoid saying where you live because the policy is already based in the UK address but if there's a problem the first thing the insurance company is going to do is check.

glendem4

We had no issues adding my sister-in-law from Toronto onto our Aviva car insurance policy.

Get a SIM only package form Giffgaff https://www.giffgaff.com/free-sim-cards

You can get the SIM mailed to a family member in the UK, by ordering online.

dbd33

Not sure how this works, do you then forward calls made to your usual number to the giffgaff phone?