topic Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO in Roaming

Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

jaquiharris — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 09:43:05 GMT

Hi,

I have an EE number and am already in South Africa and did not know about setting up roaming before I left. Now when I try and call a number or text a UK number while here in SA it tells me these calls are barred. So now I cant phone 150 it says its barred, I cant phone any number it just says its barred. I can received text messages and calls, but cant make any. My problem is that i dont know how long I will be here for and if I dont make a "Chargable" call they will deactivate my sim card and then I wont be able to use my credit cards or anything wht HMRC as they all send "Pins" out to the phone to enter when logging on to the sites.... Please advise how I make my phone roaming. I am constantly on WIFI and have signal so network issues are not a problem. I am on an android phone.

I have already had the problem where they cancelled my last number and I spent ages changing the mobile number on all my associated accounts and things and DO NOT WANT THIS HAPPENING AGAIN !!!!!

I can see nowhere on the site where I can email EE or chat to them on line.... (quite bad for a 1st world country).... Please dont suggest that I call them form another phone, I did try call the UK from my SA mobile and it cost me R700 for 8min.... I dont have that sort of money to waste, especially since some have spent 3h on the phone trying to sort out similar problems.

thanks in advance for your replies and help

Regards, Jaqui

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

bristolian — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 10:37:46 GMT

|Your ability to get coverage abroad (which calls, texts & mobile data rely on) is dependent on roaming being activated - which allows your phone to connect to foreign networks. An inability to get a network connection normally means roaming is not enabled.

On the basis that you can receive calls, then your roaming facility seems enabled - thus manually swapping between local networks is often a good technique to rule out issues with one specific operator. Equally, receiving calls abroad is chargeable, thus this should be sufficient to avoid your SIM being hibernated. The rule is that chargeable usage needs to be incurred at least once every 179days.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

jaquiharris — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 10:45:29 GMT

thank you for your reply, I will go through the networks on my phone and
see if I have any luck. Is there no setting that you can do on EE's side
to make my phone not hibernate ? My phone is an older model PIXI 4 and
cant even do Whatsapp, although I know this does not count as my chargbel
expences....
thanks

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

Schockwave — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 10:58:37 GMT

@jaquiharris , sorry, no, you have to make sure that you make a call, text chargeable as per the rules here:

https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Pay-as-you-go/What-is-pay-as-you-go-and-flex-hibernation-and-how-do-I-stop-it/td-p/1198642

This down to you to do so, we have no way of stopping your sim going into hibernation.

If you are on pay as you go, please make sure that you have enough credit on your account to make calls and text and to use data, otherwise eventually it will go into hibernation and you will eventually loose your number.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

XRaySpeX — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 16:10:49 GMT

The only roaming setting-up that a PAYG no. needs is having made a call or text in UK on the EE mobile network before leaving the UK. The fact that you can receive calls while abroad shows that has been done & your roaming is enabled.

EE offers no email contact at all & Live Chat is only for contract users.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

jaquiharris — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 18:10:29 GMT

Hi I understand this but the problem is that the roaming is not working, it
wont let me make a call or send a SMS.... I can received but not make. I
am in South Africa at the moment. How do I get it to make a call... ?

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

XRaySpeX — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 19:21:32 GMT

When did you previously make a chargeable action? EE PAYG SIMs are deactivated after 6 months of non-chargeable use. You then have a further 3 months period of grace to call EE to reactivate it before it is lost completely.

You needed to make a chargeable action like making a chargeable call or text, topping up or buying a Pack or Add-on, not just using your mins, texts or data from your pack.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

bristolian — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 20:04:40 GMT

In your first post you mentioned " I can received text messages and calls". If you can receive calls, you are roaming.

I would suggest checking two things. 1: Swap manually between local networks in SA, are the symptoms the same across each one? If yes - this suggests an account issue. If no - this suggests a local network issue.

An account issue could well be hibernation as has been suggested.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

jaquiharris — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 10:38:29 GMT

Hi,
I have checked all the local networks manually. Some immediately say "this
number is barred" when I dial a UK number, other networks just show "Call
Ended", and say nothing.

I had a call from an EE representative and said that I may need a new sim,
but siad I had to pay a security deposit between £1 - £30 and they would
debit my account with the amount then when I receive the sim they would
credit me the amount back, does this sound right ?

Many Thanks

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

jaquiharris — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 10:40:29 GMT

Hi,
So because I cant make any calls, as it just say that the number is barred,
if I top up online, with this stop my phone from going into hibernation ? I
got the new sim in Nov/Dec 24 as my previous one was deleted...
thanks
Kind regards
Jaqui

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

Schockwave — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 11:52:01 GMT

@jaquiharris , if you are abroad, then you cannot receive a new SIM card, as it has to be sent to a UK address and activated , in the UK first. You need to make sure that you have credit on your account, but if you have not used your SIM card for 6 months, then it will have gone into hibernation and here is how you will have to get it activated again:

https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Pay-as-you-go/What-is-pay-as-you-go-and-flex-hibernation-and-how-do-I-stop-it/td-p/1198642

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

Leanne_T — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 12:52:42 GMT

Hi there @jaquiharris

We would only need a deposit for a pay monthly account if the credit application advises this is required. This is not something we would need for a pay as you go SIM card.

The link @Schockwave has provided has details on pay as you go hibernation and how to contact us.

Leanne.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

jaquiharris — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 09:53:34 GMT

Hi,
Can you please help me, I have noticed 3 transactions that have gone off my
account and I dont know who has taken them off. Can you confirm if it was
yourselves ? the amounts are as follows
Mon 11 Aug ... Apple.com/Bill.... £14.99
Tue 12 Aug .... Apple.com/Bill.... £0.99
Tue 12 Aug.... Apple.com/Bill....£14.99

I know I spoke to a Justin there about my Roaming issue I was having and he
said he had to take a deposit off my account to send out a replacement sim,
I told him not to worry I didnt feel comfortable paying a fee that would be
refunded, as this this not sound correct, so EE is the only one who has my
card details. I did not respond to the text messages when I recevied
them... Please can you look into this and correct it. I have this morning
toped up my mobile with £5.00 to keep it from going into hibernation. I
told Justin that I did not want a new sim.

Please can you let me know what happens now, will you refund me the amounts
?
Thank you
Kind regards
Jaqui

[Mod edit - Number removed, please don't share any personal details in public]

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

XRaySpeX — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 10:26:10 GMT

@jaquiharris wrote:
he said he had to take a deposit off my account to send out a replacement sim,

There is a charge of £1.50 when you order a replacement SIM by phone. It is only free when you get it from an EE store. It is not any type of deposit. It will be sent to your UK home addy.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

Schockwave — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 10:45:48 GMT

@jaquiharris , we cannot confirm anything as we have no account access, but it must be something you have signed up to pay with Apple, like a reoccurring payment, check on your apple account to see what it is, you can do this by logging into your Apple account and see subscriptions, as that is something you have actually decided to pay with Apple.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

jaquiharris — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 16:48:29 GMT

Hi,
I dont have anything with Apple AT ALL... thats why its so scary... I gave
one of your chaps who called me from EE my card details to get my
roaming sorted and he said I needed to get a new sim and needed to take a
security deposit.... and then these transactions started to go off....I
have now blocked the card. I dont like Apple !
Thanks
Kind regards
Jaqui

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

jaquiharris — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 16:54:29 GMT

This all sounds rather funny to me, he said it would be an amount between
£1 and £30 and would be refunded when I got the card... anyway there were 6
charges that went off my account that I did not recognise and the bank has
now stopped my card.
I have now topped up with £5 so hopefully my card wont go dormant now for 6
months and then I will top up again.....
Kind regards
Jaqui

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

XRaySpeX — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 18:34:18 GMT

@jaquiharris wrote:
he said it would be an amount between£1 and £30

Those Apple transaction add up to circa £30 + £1. None of what you were told by the CS guy makes sense, compounded by the coincidental charges to an Apple a/c you don't have. It's all very suspicious.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

Leanne_T — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 08:05:54 GMT

Hi @jaquiharris

What was the number that called you? Did you request a call back from an EE guide after getting in touch with us? Did they call on a different number or the EE number?

Leanne.

Re: Calling to the UK from South Africa on a PAY AS YOU GO

jaquiharris — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 08:17:29 GMT

Hi Leanne,
I sent an email because I could not phone, and gave them my SA number to
contact me on, so he called on my whatsapp number from 07871023398....He
asked for my card details to take the security deposit from me and said
that when he requests a new sim card then all my details have to be
re-entered on the system including my banking details that I buy my top up
from...
Hope this helps.
Kind regards
Jaqui