Esim – educate me please

Just looking at Saily i can see I can buy 10gb for 30 days for $21

So now for the numpty questions.

1. Is that a one off purchase?

2. Does that mean I have 30 days to use it?

3. Will I use my providers data automatically first? I’m o2 so all good there.

4. Once purchased is it idiot proof as to how to use it?

5. Anything else?

does your phone take esims?

you can probably switch between  sims for mobile data, maybe even automatically if you dont have a good signal on your default choice

Phone is good, pixel 7. That’s where my knowledge ends

mines pixel 6a, esim seems idiotproof, but havent tried it abroad.

some sim only monthly  deals are a one off, some carry over to next month, or even beyond, what data there is left

Ive no idea about saily

MrsRNP uses Airalo, has the app – buys whatever data/duration she needs for France, ‘activates’ it here then when she lands it hooks up to French network and carries on as per normal.

Flexiroam has worked well for me for over a year now. I’ve got a 3 PAYG sim that handles UK data and a big chunk of the world, and then Flexiroam does the rest. I think I pay about £10/month for Three, and then top up 30GB once a year on the Flexiroam.

Bear in mind that with your data-only SIM you’ll be limited to using WhatsApp or similar for voice, and will pay through the nose to receive calls on your existing number (I think EE are now up to about £2.80 per minute, others probably similar).

Check the reviews of saily. I nearly bought one and was massively put off by the pile of bad reviews. I went for FlexiRoam in the end, which was ok, but seemed to have a habit of defaulting to the worst provider available wherever I was.

Just gone back to a traditional sim after a two week battle with a pixel 7a and tesco mobile

Phone wouldnt delete the esim meaning it could not be transferred to my new s24 Tesco tried everything but I was left without a phone for two weeks

I got a giffgaff sim for 10 quid and simply put it in the phone , no authorizing, de authorizing erasing resetting required

Took 30 seconds and I can switch it  between phones no silly call centre guy telling me to reset this that and the other just take it out insert provider of choice.

Talk about overcomplicating something SIMple

YMMV but im not a fan

Not relevant to the OP’s use of esim – but may be other interest to others. Moving an O2 esim to a new phone is a complete pain. I ordered a new esim online. It’s not instant (why?) and when I went back later to download it I couldn’t log in without a text message 2fa code – which I couldn’t get because O2 had deactivated the old sim. Had to go in to an O2 shop to get a new one.

This thread got me wondering about the SIM setup on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, ‘cos I’m upgrading soon, and while I know most US networks have dropped physical SIMs, I’m not sure about the U.K./Europe. A quick check got me this…

Use of eSIM requires a wireless service plan (which may include restrictions on switching service providers and roaming, even after contract expires). Not all providers support eSIM. Use of eSIM in iPhone may be disabled when purchased from some providers. See your provider for details. To learn more, visit support.apple.com/en‑gb/HT212780.

Fortunately it still uses a nanoSIM, with eSIM as an option. Also seems to back up what others have said about switching providers and roaming, which appears to be tied to the technology.

I got an eSIM for LycaMobile when I was in Ireland for a couple of weeks recently and ran into the GiffGaff data roaming cap. The phone side of the process was really smooth (though I’ve not tried to delete it yet). It (an iPhone 13 Pro) would happily use the ‘travel’ eSIM for data and the ‘primary’ SIM for calls. I can’t recommend Lyca though: their systems are a buggy mess and I had to chase them to disable auto-renewal their documentation says is off by default. A pure data eSIM might be a better choice as it would avoid having to deal with the login by text message systems already mentioned above.

4. Once purchased is it idiot proof as to how to use it?

Based on my experience of Arialo and Yessim for US travel, most definitely NOT idiot proof though I think I understand better now. (Pixel 6a FWIW)

My phone allows me to have a single regular (physical) SIM plus multiple eSims and both providers I’ve tried make it abundantly clear that an eSim cannot be “reused” once deleted so I’ve no idea why those posters above are expecting an eSim to be transferable between phones (and why even bother as they are so cheap anyway?).

The actual installation process I found quite fraught as until you’re at your destination, you won’t know whether it’s worked or not (free wifi at arrival airport should help if you need to look up the eSim help documentation – and you might need to as you have to manually type in some fields VERY deep down in the phone settings (ie typically Access Point Names).

Neither Arialo or Yessim processes are fully automated and their documentation isn’t great.

I found that most eSims for US are data only and once you install a data only eSim it doesn’t appear to be upgradeable to include phone calls/SMS. Anything which DOES provide a phone number for call/SMS purposes are usually 30-50% more expensive than just data.

In case you don’t know, you buy an eSim for a certain period (ie one day, one week, 15 days, 30 days etc etc) but can “renew” to extend the initial period and/or buy more data if you use more than anticipated. You can renew a eSIM without the periods being continuous eg I had a 15 day eSim for my trip to the US last year which I was able to re-use this year as I hadn’t deleted it.

On my phone at least, I can maintain the physical SIM for phone calls and SMS (so you can receive incoming & make outgoing calls or texts on your UK number) and use the eSIM for data only or some other combination.

FWIW, I also learnt recently that you can install an eSim in phones without eSim capability:

https://esim.5ber.com/?language=en-US

though I believe that involves some forward planning.

To re-iterate, I don’t know why some posters have deleted the eSims or why they would want to. Unless their phones only allow a single eSim or they need to use a different eSIm providers for different geographical regions, I’d not delete the eSim – rather, I’d just de-activate it in the phone settings. (Granted, I learnt this the hard way and I’ve only tried eSims for US travel – I was pleasantly surprised I could de-activate a one year expired Arialo eSim)

Thanks Vlad, that’s useful information to have, although I’m not planning to use an eSIM in the near future, your advice is probably a lot clearer than many of the tech articles that talk about eSIMs online.

I’m using an eSIM for the first time at the moment out in Canada and it works well. Nord vpn own Saily so as a user I got a 3GB free package which I’ve nearly used up so topped up another 5GB for about £11. As mentioned above you only get data and not voice but that’s not an issue as you can use WhatsApp etc for voice. Setup is very easy and on iOS you setup voice on original sim so you can still receive texts FOC and data on eSIM.

Airalo highly recommended. Activate once in country (or just as about to depart to make sure you have signal initially!) not sure about android but on iOS you can toggle the eSIM features off independently, ie data, calls etc. you can also toggle the whole sim off when you get back home. It’s a one time deal, the length of which depends on the package you bought. When you buy next time, it just reactivates the eSIM again, making it even easier to use the 2nd time round.

Oh yeah, as above, DON’T delete the eSIM once finished with, just switch it off!

Watching as off to the states for a week soon. Hadn’t even heard of esims to be honest!

, I’d not delete the eSim – rather, I’d just de-activate it in the phone settings. (Granted, I learnt this the hard way and I’ve only tried eSims for US travel – I was pleasantly surprised I could de

This is where the problem was it wouldnt deactivate hence it couldnt be transferred to another phone I was using e sim from its rollout so i could use another network as a backup if needed

it wouldnt de activate hence couldnt be transferred to another device in the end the technical people said erase it , after which they said we will send you a code to re authorize it , must have expired and that was obviously tech speak for we dont know.

In the end it never worked again and i got a physical sim , so now you know why a person deleted it , at the request of the technical know how people at the service provider

I suppose my point was rather than f about with codes and e whatever it took less than a minute to eradicate the problem for good and take one sim out put one in

Have used mayamobile for esims in Turkey and US. Very easy process buy online, scan a Qr from the computer screen with your phone and it installs the Sim.(or copy a numeric code from confirmation email) You just need to go into sim settings when you reach your destination and turn your data settings to the esim. It will then autoconnect, may take a few minutes. Keep calls on your sim so number is the same (esims are just data it seems).

If your phone is on contract you may not be able to use an esim. Worth checking first.

Was put off Airalo by reviews being a bit flaky, tho people on here seem happy. airalo is 2.6 on trust pilot, maya is 4.6

Not relevant to the OP’s use of esim – but may be other interest to others. Moving an O2 esim to a new phone is a complete pain

Thanks for the advice. O2 used to have really good support. Now it’s impossible to contact them.

Looking at esims here in Greece for when my O2 roaming runs out. Aralo seem to use WIND network which doesn’t exist where I am so if anyone has experience of Bytesim please shout up 🙂

We used Nomad esim when in Asia earlier this yr, travelled through many countries zero issues and great coverage

I was looking into eSims but they all seemed to get terrible reviews.  I’m with O2 and rang them and got a deal that is half what I was previously paying, 5 times as much data, and full roaming in something like 70 countries including US and Canada (O2 has always included Europe roaming).

So I didn’t bother with an esim.

I’ve used Maya mobile twice (Thailand and Spain) with no issues. Sounds like Android and iOS are the same as I’m using a pixel 7 and could cost to use the eSim for data and my normal SIM for calls, or leave both on for data and choose which one I want it to use first. You can also set a data limit per SIM, so there was no risk of me going over the prepaid amount and racking up extra charges.

Thanks all. I’ve downloaded two. For Italy simOptions looking like a good deal.

I’ll report back.

The actual installation process I found quite fraught as until you’re at your destination, you won’t know whether it’s worked or not

The trick is to install the esim at home, so you know it’s there, but don’t activate it until you get to your destination.

I’ve used Nomad when I went to the UAE …. No issues whatsoever.

Re moving eSims between phones, my Pixel 6 wouldn’t allow it but my 8a does so it may be hardware dependant.

I’m with O2 and rang them and got a deal that is half what I was previously paying, 5 times as much data, and full roaming in something like 70 countries including US and Canada (O2 has always included Europe roaming).

This is a very roundabout way of saying that you discovered O2 absolutely took the piss out of you. :-p

I’ll be going in the opposite direction at Christmas, from Spain to the UK – what’s a good esim to get in the UK (data only)?

Easy so far. Sat in the airport. Went with simOptions. Bought a 10gb. Looked like the best deal.

It creates a QR code that I screenshot. Then in phone network settings scan the qr code from photo. I can activate it from there but the simOptions app says it will turn on automatically.

This is for a pixel 7.

Idiot proof…. So far

It creates a QR code that I screenshot. Then in phone network settings scan the qr code from photo. I can activate it from there but the simOptions app says it will turn on automatically

This step is unbelievably stupid as you cannot read a QR code which exists on the device with the same device.

It’s fine if you are travelling with another person and you can Bluetooth the screen shot to their phone to then scan on your own phone (or do the same on a computer) but if you’re travelling solo and don’t have internet access or another device, you have to follow the manual process which usually involves copy and pasting things like access point names deep down in the phones setting.

It’s all doable if you’re reasonably competent and have access to the help documentation but that’s not always possible. Anyway, once installed, it’s a doddle to toggle the eSim on/off and top up with extra credit, if needed

For anyone travelling to the US, its worth checking which of the three main providers (AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon) has best coverage in the area you are travelling. Arialo seem to only have agreements with Verizon and T-Mobile whereas (from memory) Yessim have agreements with all three. I presume the same applies for other countries. Either way, my Pixel 6a can automatically switch between providers based on signal strength.

Used them once in Canada and twice in the US.

Mixed bag.

The first was in Canada with e-Sim2Go. Pretty difficult on my Pixel 6. Ended up in long conversations to tech support and eventually just about got it going – but I was about 3 days into the trip.

The second was Holafly on a Pixel 7. Straightforward set-up. They have an app which is helpful as it manages the e-Sim install and removes the ridiculous QR shenanigans @Vlad pointed out above. However, the data transfer was almost unusably slow on whichever network it connected too. This was eventually rectified by changing phone settings to select a particular network, rather than auto-select network. Not sure why, but this fixed it.

Third trip was US with Holafly and it worked fine. All wrinkles ironed out and ended up using so much data I had to renew.

So, would thoroughly recommend a provider that has an app to manage the install. Holafly were OK, better than eSim2Go.

And as @sharkbait says, install before you go, just don’t activate til you land.

I’m off to Morocco next moth so anyone have any recommendations for an eSim provider out there?

Likewise any recommendations for Latin America – specifically Ecuador Chile & Argentina?

Went with simOptions. Bought a 10gb.

But you said you were on O2 …your existing data allowance is useable in Europe, no extra cost?