Urgent - Order a replacement SIM from abroad

[thuylinh0202]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently travelling alone in Vietnam for two months, and I’ve just realised that my EE SIM has no signal at all here — so I can’t receive any OTPs to access my bank apps or other important accounts.

I urgently need my EE number to work . My idea was to order a replacement SIM to my UK address, so my wife in the UK could activate it and receive OTPs on my behalf.

The problem is, I can’t log into my account on EE app or EE website to order a new SIM, because they both require an OTP sent to my phone number — which I obviously can’t receive.

I asked my wife to visit an EE store with my BRP card as proof of ID, and we even did a video call together while she was there. But the staff said they couldn’t accept the BRP — they need my physical driving licence or passport (not a scanned copy), both of which I have with me in Vietnam. They gave us a phone number to call from abroad, but I think that also requires verification with a code sent to my EE number.

At this point, I’m wondering if my only option is to post my current SIM back to the UK to have signal. Is there anything else I can do?

Any advice would be massively appreciated — thank you very much !!

[bristolian]

Back to basics here, are you on PAYG or pay-monthly?

Have you been able to use your EE SIM abroad previously? I don't think you necessarily need a replacement SIM, nor is that likely to resolve your issue.

I'm wondering if you've just forgotten to enable roaming - but in which case, the fix depends on PAYG vs pay-monthly.

[thuylinh0202]

Yes I forgot to text roaming before leaving UK so there is no signal now. I have pay-monthly Full Works plan. I was able to use my EE Sim abroad in Europe and Canada before.

[bristolian]

Enabling roaming is a once-off process unless you specifically request it removed subsequently. So if you've previously roamed outside the EU, then the permissions will be in-place... there is no reason to believe that replacing your SIM will resolve this. It also has a slight hint of going straight for the nuclear option.

Standard advice when roaming is to use manual network search to cycle through each available local network in-turn. Toggling flight-mode can sometimes achieve the same thing, minus the fine-tune aspect. Are you able to manually connect to a local network this way?