uk_grenada

You could do that but assuming that your usual number is in Canada that means that your Canadian number will be making international mobile calls which might be rather expensive.

What I suggest you do is change your Canadian number so that they go through to voicemail where there is a message that says if you want to talk to me now contact my temporary UK mobile number which is xxx if not leave the message and ill hear it when I return.

If you actually meant your usual number is actually a UK mobile number then yes you can transfer that to Giffgaff using sonething called a pac code.

dbd33

It seems a lot of faffing around for $10/day (the roaming charge cap) and you'd have to reconfigure all your email addresses to forward to the temporary phone. I like to present a seamless interface, no one should have to know if I'm on holiday or gardening or at a desk Obviously that doesn't work if a second number has to be called.

Statham2016

Ah interesting. Do still have a UK licence also though?

Stinkypup

If you no longer have your current residential address on the UK then your UK licence is no longer valid until you return to residence in the UK so I'm taking a reasoned guess that the answer will be no. I'm pretty damn sure that you cannot hold two licences UK/US, UK/Canada, even if you have a copy of your original UK one. The agencies communicate with each other.

Snowy560

You can't hold both. If you have both, live in Canada and try to hire a car in the UK, you'll get told your UK licence isn't valid. Information is shared.

kimilseung

No, they knew I was not a UK resident so a UK license would be invalid.

bobhinde

I've just returned after 3 weeks in Hampshire.
I paid 50p for a SIM card from ASDA, it gave me 10 calls; 10 texts; and 10MB data - all for free, and for £5 and up there are various 30 day plans.
Car insurance varies by company, my brother wrote :-


Just toconfirm I’ve put you both on my insurance for your visit in August, We checkedwith Mary’s car but her insurer doesn’t cover US residents. £13.94 with £300excess should you have a fire/theft/accident


I didn't think to ask for the insurance company names, but I could.

CanadianSpruce

Have a look at https://www.insuredaily.co.uk/quote if you want to get insurance on a borrowed UK car, but beware it can be a bit pricy

bgpz

voip.ms and an unlocked smartphone with a data plan is great for this.

I've got a data-only SIM card (Fido 3Gb/$15/mo), and run my voip number through my phone.

So long as I've got a data plan in the country I'm in, my phone is seamless (although my Canadian voip # can only support SMS to/from North America: this isn't an issue for me, but can appreciate this may be for others).

If I'm working remotely, I just set my office call forwarding to my voip #.

Outbound calls to North America from my voip.ms account are same as normal, as I'm just going through an internet connection.

When I'm in the UK, I'm using voip.ms for my North American calls, but also have a UK number for inbound/outbound domestic stuff.

I've had a giffgaff SIM for years, which doesn't seem to get cut off even though it's usually inactive for longer than the stated time to lose the number.

The one issue I did have with giffgaff was this summer, where they refused to give me free EU roaming as I wasn't UK resident (plenty of coverage on the giffgaff forum about this).

As we were spending a week or so in the EU, the day I arrived I ended up buying a EE SIM at a pound store (which are the "free" ones that are eligible for the internet-only plans which offer a lot more inclusive data) and using that for most things.
I've got a dual-SIM phone, so could still take inbound calls on my giffgaff number, but informed people I'd be using a second SIM for outbound stuff this trip only. A very minor hassle in the overall scheme of things - hopefully giffgaff get their act together in the coming months over this, but typically my trips back are UK-only so hopefully this is a one-off.

The other good thing about giffgaff is that calls to Canada are something silly like 1-2p/min (I forget exactly) and while this isn't part of a goodybag's included minutes, this hardly breaks the bank and I usually have some residual credit on my SIM which makes this a good backup (e.g. if I'm in the countryside and have poor data reception which isn't great for using VoiP).

dbd33

I suppose I should have said that I don’t use voice (well I get incoming calls telling me I`ve won a cruise or junk solicitations when I visit the TD bank but those are, pretty much, the only voice calls). The phone, to me, is a portable email/WhatsApp device so what counts is a consistent email address and number. I`m too lazy to learn about forwarding messages (if it`s even possible), nevermind remembering to configure forwarding.

uk_grenada

You might be able to provide an even more seamless option. Voipfone offer a service where you have a virtual switch, and pay a nominal sum for extensions with all the commercial service goodies you would expect. You can port uk or us geographic phone numbers to their gateways and call costs are extremely low and naturally free between virtual extensions which in my world are my families mobiles plus home phone behind a little Cisco voip box they provision. When I move homes around the world the Cisco box comes, plug into a router and my uk and us number rings in Grenada or Georgia... voicemail is sent to me as email.

uk_grenada

I also use Giffgaff, but may stop as there are now new cheaper options, as the operators now sell eu wide flat rate packages. I am a uk registered user, but it doesn't help much, as their us and caribbean rates are easily beatable this year, fast changing marketplace at present.

Tangram

Any ideas what to use for data when visiting Spain ( apart from hopping from bar to bar using their wifi ) ?

Snowy560

I was in Gibraltar and Spain in July. My UK SIM allowed free calls, texts and data in Europe. My SIM is on Virgin UK.