Using PAYG iPhone abroad

[Sapphire42]

Hello everyone

I currently live in France. For the last five years I have had a Nokia 201 with a UK phone number on PAYG. I was able to make calls and send texts on it in  France without problems. I used it for emergencies and to contact family in the UK if my internet or landline was down.

I now have a PAYG iPhone which I purchased in the UK when I was staying there last week.  So that I could keep the same phone number, Iordered and received a nano-sim which is in the phone  and  worked well while I was in the UK. However, I am now back in France. Although I can access the internet and make calls on it while on my home WiFi, I can't make calls or send texts while out of the house.  I understand that I can use Roaming for short periods such as holidays, but how do I make calls otherwise, on a long-term basis?  I see that there is an option in Settings to turn the 'Mobile Data' on. Will doing that just when I am out of the house allow me to make calls and send texts if I need to?

I would be very grateful for any advice. Many thanks.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

Calls don't go over data unless you're using WhatsApp or similar so I would guess you have an international bar on the account. You'll need to contact customer service to check http://www.o2.co.uk/contactus

[EmilieT]

Hey @Sapphire42, and welcome to the forum!  Please do let us know how you get on with this, and if the info above helped you get it all sorted. 

Which area of France are you? I know the Bordeaux area quite well, and have some family around Marseille in the South too

[Sapphire42]

Many thanks for your reply. I will contact customer support then come back and let you know what they say,

[Sapphire42]

Hi EmilieT and thanks for your welcome.  We live about thirty miles north of Poitiers in the Deux-Sevres (dept 79). We have lived here for about nine years but will be putting our house on the market in the New Year because we want to return to the UK.

[EmilieT]

There are some really pretty towns in Deux Sevres @Sapphire42, a great place to live for nine years I'm sure . It'll be interesting to come back to the UK after so long!

I hope it all goes well with Customer Service, looking forward to your update 

[Sapphire42]

Hi Emilie. Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I've had some electrical work carried out to my home and the power has had to be switched off several times over the last few days, so I decided to wait until the work was done before trying to get my mobile phone problem solved!

I contacted the O2 customer chat line and a very helpful person has hopefully helped me to sort out the problem I was having. I still need to test that the solution has worked but I am confident.  It seems that I am able to 'latch' on to one of the networks that O2 has 'tie ups' with. My network automatically changes from O2 to Orange as soon as I get back to my home in France. Orange is my landline and broadband provider so I think that means that Orange is one of the network tie ups and will allow me to make calls and send texts while I am away from my own WiFi.  

It also turned out that I was on a very very old tariff so I have now been updated to the Classic PAYG tariff. The rates look very good so I am happy with that.

As you say, Deux-Sevres is a pretty department. We live in a quiet semi-rural hamlet which is part of a small commune. It's lovely here, as it is in most of France, but the call of family and the buzz of life in the UK is calling us back!  On visits back we always slot right back in so I have no worries about going back apart from the traffic which will take some getting used to after nine years of driving on the quiet roads and nearly empty motorways of France!

Thanks to all those forum members that have replied to my initial query.  I am very grateful.

[EmilieT]

@Sapphire42 That's fantastic, thanks for coming back and updating us! 

France is only a short trip away, you'll still be able to visit every now and then and enjoy the empty quiet roads after you've moved back permanently here 

[Sapphire42]

Yes, I am really pleased. Hopefully, I am now properly connected to the rest of the world!

I expect we'll visit France often once we've gone back. We have relatives here so plenty of places to stay!