topic Re: Change physical sim to an eSim in SIM cards & Porting

Change physical sim to an eSim

Edorah — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:16:43 GMT

Hi,

I recently went out of plan and have moved abroad. I still require to keep my Sim but want to change it to an eSim. How can i do this? Nothing seems to work and cannot seem to contact EE to help. I was a customer for years and have moved to a different country.

Thanks

Re: Change physical sim to an eSim

bristolian — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:37:39 GMT

A few bits here. EE's services are designed for UK residents not those long-term resident abroad.

Changes of SIM are not recommended whilst abroad, whilst the process can sometimes work it's not guaranteed - and you have to accept the risk of being taken offline until a return to the UK.

To add, eSIM are only available on pay-monthly and it would be unusual to remain on pay-monthly if you're resident abroad. Most people convert to PAYG before leaving the UK.

Re: Change physical sim to an eSim

Edorah — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 18:29:27 GMT

Thanks for this.

it’s a PAYG sim but want to keep number and covert to eSIM. How can this be done?

thanks

Re: Change physical sim to an eSim

Chris_B — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 18:45:35 GMT

@Edorah you can’t, eSIM are for contract customers only at present and PAYG is not supported

Re: Change physical sim to an eSim

Rezajamali — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 19:48:00 GMT

hi I would like to convert my SIM card to an ESIM

Re: Change physical sim to an eSim

Peter_W — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 08:15:00 GMT

Welcome to the Community, @Rezajamali.

If you're looking to switch over to an eSIM, you can find all the details you need on our help page here.

Just as a heads up though, as @Chris_B mentioned above, this is only available for pay monthly customers at the moment.

Also the same applies to @bristolian's advice around doing this when abroad; if you're outside of the UK we would not recommend doing this, as seeing this counts as a new SIM activation it's best to be connected to our main network.

Peter