Setting up MAXroam and SIM4travel for cheap roaming calls
So, today Mr and Mrs Roberts, Kintan and Isha (their children) and Bunny and Dotty (the dogs) are starting out on a massive family tour. We will be travelling in Germany, Belgium, London, Liverpool, Lancashire and back again via Bruges.
In order to practice what I preach; I just set up MAXroamon my spare Sony Ericsson Walkman for my husband and SIM4Travelon my Nokia N95.
MAXroam
MAXroam is a cheap roaming service allowing for low cost roaming globally.
What was the setting up experience
Setting up MAXRoam was easy. The only mistake I made was typing in the wrong setup code to activate the SIM. I read the instructions wrong and ending up typing the example, instead of the proper code! So I typed LOA 12345678910! When I realised the mistake, set-up was easy.
The sign-up is no frills and simple. I didn’t like the fact that I had to pay for a UK number (EUR 4 per month). I think this is steep and one number should be inclusive when you pay for EUR 25 call credit.
Also EUR 4 per number is too expensive in general and more needs to be done here for flexibility we suggest: one price for 3 changes per year. The default for my SIM was a +32 number.
SIM4travel
SIM4travel is also a low cost roaming solution (owned by Truphone - which I also just downloaded on my iPhone)
Signing up SIM 4 Travel
The front end sign-up is sexier than MaxRoam but the questions for security are terrible. I really felt uneasy giving a low cost phone provider “my mum’s maiden name”. These types of questions are personal and for a bank and if I wasn’t testing this I would have just cancelled and used maxroam for the anonymity.
With this I got a UK phone number.
So – anyone can call me or SMS if you want to talk to me (the more calls the merrier!)
Maxroam: +32489962018
SIM4travel: +447509252029
Hi Bena
MAXroam came with a free number, the +32 also
if you are not from the UK the +44 number is the same as the +32 number
you can add numbers from 60 countries to your MAXroam which is our USP, also please remember to add your mobile APN
APN: web.be
username: web
password: web
MAXroam is a voice and Data sim card unlike others.
any probs give us a shout
have a great trip
Very interested to hear how you’re getting on with these two options. We’ll be traveling to Europe in October and right now these seem to be the best bets for cell phone use. Any idea yet how these compare to buying a local SIM in each country? A quick rate comparison shows that MAXroam charges for incoming calls where SIM4travel does not, and MAXroam charges about twice as much for mobile to mobile calls as SIM4travel.
Cheers!
John, it has been a nightmare. I have a horror story coming up and will publish soon! When are you going on holiday?
Wow, not what I wanted to hear. We’re leaving from the USA in early October.
John
John, then I would recommend getting a US phone number when you are out there - this is VERY VERY easy. You can go to any ATT store if you have an un-locked phone. I will try and write up SIM4Travel and Maxroam tomorrow or Friday and then you can decide. If you use them effectively they may help you - but you realy have to be on the ball.
bena
Bena, thanks for the feedback. We do have unlocked AT&T phones but their EU roaming charges are very high. We would probably just pick up a SIM card locally in the UK and France for our trip if these two companies aren’t the answer. John
Hi Bena; just read your review and thanks for doing that! Just to clarify, we live in the US and will be visiting the UK and France in October, so we were looking for a simple solution to the high roaming charges from our US carrier, AT&T. Based on your issues with both MAXroam and SIM4travel, I think we’ll just use a local SIM card (whatever is the least expensive) in both countries. John
For travellers to the USA, we offer a low cost, highly reliable service.
With UK2Abroad you can divert all your phone to us (you divert to a standard UK landline number) and we route the calls onto a local US SIM we provide.
We charge £0.10p/min to receive a call, plus £0.12p/min to make a call (to the UK) - plus the SIM card charges around £0.12p/min for all calls - so total cost of call is around £0.20p/min.