Roaming PAYG, possible to add £10 Data Pack while overseas?

[andrewilley]

My daughter is travelling around SE Asia for two months in Nov/Dec. She won't need her Three PAYG account for the first month (no roaming zones, will be using a local SIM instead) but for the second month she'll be in several Go Roam countries so will want to activate a £10 pack at that point to give her 30 days of roaming calls, texts and data.

Prior to that point, her Three PAYG SIM will be overseas but dormant. The SIM itself was previously activated and used in the UK in August, and was last used in September in the USA - so it is a live number, and will be for 180 days, but currently it has no credit loaded.

Am I right in thinking that I could top up £10 into her account (online from home) and use that amount at the start of December to pay for a £10 30-day add-on, which will then become active without any further need to be used in the UK first (she will already be overseas at that point)?

Andre

[Proseccobubbles]

Know what forget it, be dead by the time yous get in contact.So another one leaving, your going to go bust 💯💯💯🙏

[Frankst237]

A comment and a question about PAYG Roaming and the term Calendar Month.

Comment - my daughter went to Australia on 16th November after activating (in the UK) her new Three PAYG SIM with Data Pack on the 11th November.  The SIM works great in Australia and in time for the 10th December she added a second data pack to take over from the first one on 11th December after 30 days.  That has continued to work so she is happy.

Question - on 21st December she received a text telling her that she had used 80% of her roaming data allowance and warning that she would be charged a supplement (3p per Mb) if she went over 12 Gb.  We expected this at some point but are confused about the timing.  We checked the daily usage in the account on line and found the following:

• From 11th Nov when she activated the new data pack in the UK she had used 2Gb to the end of Nov / 7Gb from 11th Nov to 10th Dec (the full 30 days for Data pack 1)  / 10Gb from 1st Dec to 20th Dec (combination of data pack 1 and 2) and 10.5 Gb from 1st Dec to 29th Dec (when I am writing this).  She had used 5.5Gb from her 2nd data pack between 11th Dec (when it went live) to 29th Dec.
• The data packs run from 11th to 10th of the month
• The warning text message from Three looks like it runs from 1st month to the point where 80% of that CALENDAR MONTH (in this case from  1st Dec to 20th Dec) data has been used.

Does anyone clearly understand how the dates and usage figures (for each monthly data pack) work / are the warnings all based on 1st month to the end of the month - and will she suddenly start to be charged a supplement if she uses 12Gb + in December, despite this coming from 2 individual data pack add ons (which seems wrong given the wording about roaming and data packs).

Sorry if this is complicated but I didn't want to even try a call or on line chat to Three Support to ask the questions.

Thanks, Frank

[andrewilley]

Thank you for your herp @StephR . I thought it ought to work that way, but all of the staff in our local Three Store in Tamworth (Staffs) were adamant when I asked them this morning that any Add-On would need to be first used in the UK before any roaming use could work - rather than merely the SIM card/account needing to have been activated in the UK (which it has).

I was starting to worry that they'd get as far Vietnam (which will be the fourth week of their overall backpacking trip, up to which point she'll be using locally purchased Tourist SIM cards) and she'd find her own Three PAYG card wouldn't allow a £10 30-day Add-On to be applied online and used without coming back to the UK first. They are then going to Vietnam, Indonesia/Bali, and Singapore over the following 28 days - so a real adventure already, without finding her phone stops working. 🙂 Many thanks for your reassurance.

Andre

[StephR]

Ah, sounds like the store team might be erring on the side of caution there, Andre, sorry about that. 

A Pay As You Go SIM does need to be activated and used in the UK before it can be used abroad. As that's been done, you or your daughter should be able to top-up her SIM or buy a Data Add-on once she's reached Vietnam. As Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia are Go Roam destinations, your daughter should then be able to use the allowances from that Add-on in each location.

Do let us know if you run into any trouble though, we'll do all we can to help 😊

[StephR · Accepted solution]

Hi Andre

Yep, you're spot on. As your daughter's SIM has been activated and used in the UK prior to travel, it should work fine abroad.

You should be able to buy a Data add-on in December and that should be instantly available for your daughter to use while she's in any Go Roam country (subject to our fair usage policies).

We hope she has an amazing time, what a trip!