Lowest Plans, Overseas

[Stephehhector87]

Seeking a little help and advice, I've got three pay monthly phones which are pretty expensive. It's costing me over £200 a month and I'm I'm trying to but we're going to be living overseas for a long time so I want to put them either to the lowest possible pay monthly plan or put them on SIM only or possibly even pay-as-you-go but I don't ever want to lose the numbers. I need the phones to be active to get security SMS and the odd call but it won't be used aside from that.  Any recommendations?

[XRaySpeX]

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@Stephehhector87 wrote:

we're going to be living overseas for a long time

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EE plans & their roaming benefits are intended for those who make short trips or holidays abroad, not for those residing abroad. You are subject to showing you have Stable Links with the UK whereby you use your phone abroad for no more than 2 months in any 4 month period.

[bristolian]

If you take the PAYG option, then you should be aware of the hibernation policy

1:PAYG phones require chargeable usage at least once every 179days to avoid being suspended, with a further 3months grace before outright disconnection.

2: To use PAYG phones abroad, roaming need auto-enabling which is done on first use in the UK. A pay-monthly contract needs 30days notice to cancel & migrate to PAYG, so...

You need to allow at least those 30days for notice to expire, to allow you to use (what will be) your new PAYG line in the UK first before travelling abroad and being aware of the hibernation policy.

[Stephehhector87]

Yes, I do not use roaming. I use it for the reasons above and when I return home. Are you suggesting its a breach despite having a UK address and payment method?

[XRaySpeX]

Making the odd call will be roaming. Being away for a long period you won't be able to show that you use it much more in UK than abroad, which is another criterion for having a Stable Link. You might get away with receiving the odd text. 

[bristolian]

In order to maintain your number, you will have to take one of two choices.

1: Maintain a pay-monthly line, keep up the monthly payments, but be aware that any inclusive-usage options you take, will fall foul of the Stable Links policy sooner or later. What happens if & when that gets flagged, is at EE's discretion but probably also depends on which country you are in.

2: Convert to PAYG and don't fall foul of the hibernation policy. That means incurring chargeable usage at least once every 6months - which if you are abroad, means roaming.

The latter is usually the more popular.

[Schockwave]

@Stephehhector87 , if you do change to pay as you go, remember to activate your SIM cards in the UK first, otherwise they will not work abroad, even though you have now monthly contracts, which if you want to change to pay as you go, you have to give 30 days notice and only then can you activate your pay as you go SIM cards , to make sure that they work abroad.