Can’t use my phone abroad

[mikeodi]

I’m in Switzerland studying right now. I previously had a monthly contract but given that I was spending do much time abroad, I switched to a sim only PAYG and would top up when needed. I had enabled roaming in my account when I had a contract and I’d assumed (wrongly apparently) that it would remain the same with my pay as you go account. 

I got a text that my number will be deactivated in the next 24 hours so now I’m trying to make a chargeable action to show its still in use but it appears that because my roaming isn’t turned on, I can’t do anything and I also can’t call EE directly. I need to maintain this number because it is linked to my bank account and also many other verification formats. what can I do to resolve this?

[Chris_B]

@mikeodi  You don’t need to active roaming on PAYG it’s already enabled.   Did you use that sim in the UK first before going abroad after it became a PAYG sim ?    
And you only need to top up your account to keep it active you don’t need to call/text 

Roaming is chargeable and you need an add on in order to use a PACK allowance or credit on the account to pay for calls/texts. 

[bristolian]

All new PAYG SIMs need to be activated on EE's UK network, before roaming is auto-enabled for use abroad. This includes migrations from pay-monthly.

Now that your SIM is a new PAYG one, it therefore needs usage in the UK before roaming is enabled. If you've not done this, it will not work abroad until it's first used on EE's UK network.

You may be able to reactivate your SIM temporarily, by contacting EE-CS once the line is hibernated. You will still then need to incur some chargeable usage within the following 6months, otherwise the whole process will repeat.

[mikeodi]

I can't remember if I used the phone before leaving, I think the call to
switch to PAYG was made on the way to the airport.

I topped up today as a precaution. Does that mean my number will not be
deactivated?

[Peter_W]

Good morning @mikeodi, welcome to the Community 😊

@bristolian is correct here that all pay as you go SIMs need to be activated on the EE network here in the UK before they're able to be used abroad. 

This includes SIMs that are previously on pay monthly and we recommend that you need to be in the UK when this change takes place, so I'm really sorry if this wasn't the case when you called to request switching. 

When will you next be back in the UK, or do you have any friends and family that would be able to help out? 
We should still be able to get you connected, but there isn't any workaround for the requirement of connecting to our network in the UK.

Peter

[mikeodi]

Thanks for responding. To answer your question, I'll only be back in the UK
in February so I'd be able to use my phone then but my parents are still
there. What would I need to ask them for to be able to help me out?

Thanks

[Peter_W]

Thanks for confirming that @mikeodi.

The way around I'd recommend would be to contact our team, and get them to send a pre-activated replacement SIM to your parents address. 

They can then pop this in a phone to activate it on the network, make sure it's topped up with credit and has used some of this to make a chargeable call, then send it back out to you. 

If there was a solution that didn't involved posting the SIM then I'd absolutely recommend this, but as I mentioned before there's no way for us to go around the requirement for this to connect to our network. 

When you're abroad, you can contact us via a local number or from a VOIP service like Skype on +44 7953 966 250.

Peter