Blanca

Learn from my experience: I was with EE (pay monthly) before I came here and was advised to switch to pay as you go...it was done for me because EE told me I needed to switch or would loose my number (after 60 days in US) ...and my sim card stopped working - had to call EE and get them to send me a new sim card which had to be activated in UK (by making a call and sending a text) it was done by a family member who then shipped the sim here to me and I got the number working again luckily but the amount of money I have spent to call UK EE from US number and then time with no UK number for almost a month - so make sure you check with your provider before. One more thing: I was actually assured by EE "it will work fine, there will no problems" but there was a big one. Now solved but

karenkaren1

I have kept my British number 3yrs + with Three network, I keep the sim in a spare phone and can call or text unlimited to UK. Very cheap too. I think £11 per month

suziesim

How does the card reader allow access?

suziesim

Thats a good idea, how does the duel sim work? can yo have two PAYG sims? and did Virgin se this up for you from an original contract?

tdrinker

Basically, you put your debit card into the card reader which provides a security code you enter into online banking to gain access.

blitzin

Just saw this thread and wanted to add that number barn (numberbarn.com) is a great option, about $6 a month for number forwarding from your US phone number to your UK number. My mom and kids didn't need to learn a new number or pay overseas call charges. This includes Sms messages (to email, not to the uk phone).

My wife and I were able to keep numbers I've had for 20 years that way, parked at numberbarn moved there from at&t. Took 1 day to port in from at&t.

cangrande22

Check out:

http://devyce.com

With roaming fees coming in too in 2022, this provides a great way of avoiding both roaming fees and nuisance of maintaining payments and bank in the UK. You can port your number too.

rjlondon2020

Hi, I found your reply quite useful. I was wondering if you managed to take an contract with Swytch and if it worked? I'm planning to do the same and wanted to check your experience first

ckusa

UK 1p mobile - does as it says.1p/min talk, 1p/text and 1p/MB - while in the UK. They recently changed their T&C so now charge a minimum of 2.50 UKP per month, but if you travel to/from UK, not a big deal - besides their US rate is not too bad either - 10c/min/text... (although I have a T-mobile unlimited for the US). Dual SIM phones are great!.

sparkleandglitter

Get your number ported over to giffgaff - super reasonable packages when you go back to the UK that you can apply as PAYG, use your credit to make calls every 6 months to keep your number. I've kept the number I've had for decades, and I moved here in 2015 and have successfully kept my number this way.

Squirrel123

Long time no reply - sorry! I transferred my original UK phone number, the one I REALLY want to keep, from Vodafone to Three PAYG before moving to the US. I also signed up with Swytch, and it worked fine for me here in California using the UK phone number Swytch gave me although I didn't try using it for OTP purposes. I was expecting that Three would contact me within a few months of arriving here and that I would have to port my original UK phone number over to Swytch.

However, Three seem to be fine with me continuing to use my PAYG account in the US, which I do very occasionally, really just to make the occasional call to my bank (Halifax) and receive OTP from them, HMRC, Paypal etc. This still seems to be the case, despite the fact that I have not been back to the UK since I arrived in July 2021. I therefore decided to pause my Swytch account after a few months. Of course, I also have a US SIM that I use 99.9% of the time and for everything else. If Three DID contact me to say they would discontinue my service, then I guess I would reactivate my Swytch account - though I'm still worried that it wouldn't work for all OTP short code messages.

MidAtlantic

I used Virgin Mobile PAYG for many years after I moved here, but Virgin stopped all their PAYG earlier this year. I then ported my number to Swytch which has always worked fine for me for OTPs.

Squirrel123

Thank you for confirming that!

Exteachtravel

Hi, just reading your post and wondered if you could shed some light. I’m off to US for possible 2 years but want to keep my UK number for family to contact but also need a US one. I’m on a monthly contract here and was planning on carrying on with that. If I get a dual sim…do I have to purchase that in US on arrival and just literally put in on top of other SIM card? Is it easy to switch between SIM cards? Do you just operate the US one until you arrive back in the UK. I’m not IT savvy and am finding this confusing! Thanks

QUOTE=Middlemore;13009085]Can you stay with EE but switch to a PAYG account?
I've had the same number with Virgin UK for over 20 years, its now in my dual sim phone so it automatically comes back to life when I step off the plane in London!
I just get a monthly email bill, they charge me $5 a month to keep it active, and its worth it for the convenience when I travel back, as I still do agency work back in the UK now and again.[/QUOTE]

dwl715

This is a fantastic suggestion.