I'm buying a British SIM card online but the site strikes me as suspicious because they don't ask me to verify my identity when buying the SIM card. When I buy a SIM card in Australia they ask me to provide my photo ID or if I buy it online then my full name and driver's license or passport number.
Do you need to provide photo ID when buying a SIM card in the UK?
- Thread starter some1whodeletedhisaccount
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Solution
Nope.
I give away SIM cards where I work here in the UK.
I give away SIM cards where I work here in the UK.
As above no restrictions on general sim cards (if they are not given away you might pay £1 in any random newsagent/general shop/supermarket, they want you on their network and drug dealers they deem worth catching stopped with burners years ago, not that there was anything restrictive back then either) however probably best to elaborate on what is available as it is not necessarily what people might be used to. If you have a network locked phone/carrier locked phone I don't know which of the two Australian ones have reciprocal deals with EU counterparts to allow things, if any.
Pay as you go. Prepaid is what US types call it, not sure what horse trailer uses offhand. Here you go to said newsagents, general shops, supermarkets and whatever else and buy credit to use the network. Said credit lasts for 12 or 18 months, though might be less or have some kind of need to make a chargeable act once per month or something depending upon the thing. On a per call/text/data block basis it is the most expensive but reasonable enough for most if you are just organising things with friends or something. Longer term tourists tend to use these.
Pay monthly. A newer concept than the other two but around for a few years now. Here you pay a given amount and get a block of minutes, texts and data that expires a month later (and can buy more during and after). Can vary in price for what you get (shockingly enough if you give them more money and get proportionately more), and you get "bolt ons" where you might be able to pay say £10 and get a bunch of data or a chunk of minutes, similar things do also occasionally appear in the payg approach as well and you can get a month long data boost or something/block of something if you pay them a larger chunk of money.
If you are doing less than a month or don't care about changing numbers then this is what most tourists go in for. You can also set these up to take from a card if you run out of data so be careful there if you do that (can have things set to make you aware you are pushing limits)/make sure to cancel (easy enough to do, they don't make it difficult like some subscription services).
Contract. This is your classic 12 (rare these days), 18, 24 or 36 month contract. Need to qualify for credit for this one, presumably ID needed as well, as it is a contract using it. Per call/sms (probably free) and data (limited per month usually but as long as you are not watching video you are probably good) the cheapest of all. Can be sim only or tied to a phone they might renew every year or two, sim only being cheaper.
There was once a scheme where if on a certain network (even PAYG, yes I saw people step around the corner to a shop to get one and stick in to do it for £1) you might get quicker entry into concerts and entry into other things so be aware of stuff like that.
Free wifi is kind of available but how common and how good it is varies considerably.
Pay as you go. Prepaid is what US types call it, not sure what horse trailer uses offhand. Here you go to said newsagents, general shops, supermarkets and whatever else and buy credit to use the network. Said credit lasts for 12 or 18 months, though might be less or have some kind of need to make a chargeable act once per month or something depending upon the thing. On a per call/text/data block basis it is the most expensive but reasonable enough for most if you are just organising things with friends or something. Longer term tourists tend to use these.
Pay monthly. A newer concept than the other two but around for a few years now. Here you pay a given amount and get a block of minutes, texts and data that expires a month later (and can buy more during and after). Can vary in price for what you get (shockingly enough if you give them more money and get proportionately more), and you get "bolt ons" where you might be able to pay say £10 and get a bunch of data or a chunk of minutes, similar things do also occasionally appear in the payg approach as well and you can get a month long data boost or something/block of something if you pay them a larger chunk of money.
If you are doing less than a month or don't care about changing numbers then this is what most tourists go in for. You can also set these up to take from a card if you run out of data so be careful there if you do that (can have things set to make you aware you are pushing limits)/make sure to cancel (easy enough to do, they don't make it difficult like some subscription services).
Contract. This is your classic 12 (rare these days), 18, 24 or 36 month contract. Need to qualify for credit for this one, presumably ID needed as well, as it is a contract using it. Per call/sms (probably free) and data (limited per month usually but as long as you are not watching video you are probably good) the cheapest of all. Can be sim only or tied to a phone they might renew every year or two, sim only being cheaper.
There was once a scheme where if on a certain network (even PAYG, yes I saw people step around the corner to a shop to get one and stick in to do it for £1) you might get quicker entry into concerts and entry into other things so be aware of stuff like that.
Free wifi is kind of available but how common and how good it is varies considerably.
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