PrePaid Europe (UK THREE) sim card 12GB data+3000 minutes+3000 texts for 30 days with FREE ROAMING / USE in 71 destinations including all European countries

I am finishing up a 17 day trip to Europe, where I used this Sim card during the entire trip. It certainly performed as advertised! I used it in a Nexus 6P android phone, which has the capability to work on a GSM cell network (most of Europe), as well as the CDMA network in the states, depending on the Sim card used. Couple minor hickups I'll mention later, but it provided excellent coverage and reasonable speed throughout Spain and Southern France. I followed the instructions on setting it up in the U.S., and it was good to go from there once I reached Europe. Something to note- don't initially set it up until your entire European visit is within the 30 day usage period. The 30 day clock starts when you initially set it up in the states. Couple additional notes and hickups. We traveled directly from the U.S. to Spain, and the 444 call for updates on balances (talking minutes, texts, and data) worked well. However, when we traveled through Andorra, and I no longer got any data connectivity. Cell service seemed to work, but no data available. Not sure that totally meets the advertisement of "works in every country in Europe", but our Andorra adventure lasted only for a stop for lunch, so it was not a big deal. Driving into France, it connected to the France cell network cleanly, but I still couldn't get data. Maybe it would have eventually connected for data, but I was impatient, and restarted my phone. Both cell and data connections were reinstated once the phone finished it's power up. Another slight hickup after that though, is that I could no longer get balance updates by dialing 444. It kept asking for a 16 digit Voucher number (which I didn't have), and would auto hang-up after I failed to enter a valid voucher number. Even after driving back into Spain later in the trip, it did not allow me to get my Sim balances, and continued to ask for a voucher #. Not sure if that was a ploy to get me to add minutes/data, or just a system malfunction, but it was only a minor annoyance for me because my phone keeps track of my data usage, and I could tell my data balances with my phone. Although I mainly bought the Sim card for data, I did have reason to make some phone calls within Europe, and it connected fine. Just remember to dial your number as though you are always calling from the UK, not the local country you happen to be in. Overall, it was a valuable addition to my trip accessories, and allowed me to research hotels/attractions/travel options as though I was in a big city in the U.S. It ended up being a good investment for my Europe trip!

So I bought this through Amazon a week before I left for the UK. As indicated in the instructions, I activated it the day before I left to test it out in my unlocked ZTE smartphone (originally TracFone) it was 'roaming' relative to the UK number I received but I could easily send and receive calls. . It found an AT&T connection and seemed to work fine. Arriving in the UK I turned it on; could not connect; It was finding 'Vodaphone' and a few other networks but would not connect. In my hotel in Cambridge, I connected to the support chat; they had me try all sorts of things to no avail. Support person could not understand why. So, was suggested I take it to the local "Three" store in a nearby mall. He told me that I could get a replacement there. Associate at the store immediately determined that the chip was defective as when put in one of their phones it didn't work. However, because I bought the chip through Amazon and not Three, they would not replace it. FINE. I bought a similar chip there for about the same cost. Put it in my phone; nada. They put it in their phone. Connected ok. Since the chip wasn't defective they would not refund my money. Fortunately a friend in Cambridge lent me an unlocked iPhone where the chip seemed to work fine. Almost; I could text and call everyone I needed to EXCEPT I could not send text messages to one person; they could call me, but we could not exchange texts, It was suggested that the carrier for this person did not work well with Three. At least the data functions worked well in London so could use it as a GPS to get around via maps Upon arriving back in US, put chip back in the ZTE phone and it worked fine. So did the so called 'defective' chip. . So for some reason it would not work specially with 3 in the UK in the ZTE phone. ????? Amazon refunded my money AND gave me $20 credit in addition to cover my trouble with this item (so that almost zeroed out what I paid for the chip in UK. I am definitely NOT impressed

I am going to cover [below the update*] how to set up this Three.co.uk 12 GB Data SIM Card. Noto Bene: This Card is limited to 3G data speeds OUTSIDE THE UK. I will update* this review if there was anything amiss after I use the card in Europe. =============================== UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE After an extensive support call with Three, UK, I can report a few points: 1) ALL OF THESE CARDS ARE SOLD BY INDIVIDUALS - THREE UK does NOT sanction the sale of these cards, BUT they will offer support if you need it. 2) When I first activated my card in the US, I was encouraged by seeing 4G next to the network. The same was true when I landed in France. 4G speed disappeared after a few hours. According to Three Support, Data Roaming will usually be at 3G (or slower) speeds when outside the UK, because there are no agreements with telephone providers outside the UK for Three Data SIM cards. 3) IF you verify your SIM card telephone number with Apple, you can use Apple’s iMessage to message anyone in the world who is also on iMessage. 4) You WILL NOT BE ABLE to TEXT OR TELEPHONE ANYONE ANYWHERE UNLESS THEY HAVE A UK NUMBER to call or text. So, I can call and text my spouse who has the same type SIM card (very useful when we wander in different directions during free time or on tours), BUT cannot call back to the United States to talk with anyone there, NOR can I text any SMS messages. 5) I CAN CALL non-UK numbers using SKYPE, Google Voice, Talkatone, etc. 6) SAVE the data card holder that you punched the SIM card out of. (See last marked up picture). I slipped my ATT card into it for safekeeping. IF you need to call Three Support, the holder has important information (Sim card number and telephone number that you will need to give the support folks). In summary after using my Three SIM card for 5 days on the Cote d’azur: PROS: • 12GB of roaming internet data available. • If traveling with a companion who also has a Three SIM card, the ability to call and text your companion(s). • NOT having to pay ATT or Verizon $10/day to access your own data while roaming internationally. ($58 TOTAL SIM vs $300 TOTAL from a US Cellular company.) • 24GB of data versus the 15GB (includes my rollover ATT data) from ATT. • EXTREMELY PROFICIENT Tech Support from Three! • International Data Roaming in Three’s 71 “Feel At Home” Countries. • Ability to call or text any UK telephone number (UPDATE) AND CAN CALL ANY EU number**. I was able to call numbers in France and Germany in addition to UK numbers. CONS: • NO INTERNATIONAL CALLING OR TEXTING (**except in EU countries since sometime in 2017). • 3G (or possibly lower) data speeds while roaming. • 12GB may not be enough data for you. (I am a heavy data user and it is enough for me for 15 days.) NO STREAMING VIDEO on 3G networks. 3G is too slow to effectively use Google Waze. Summary - I got what I needed and it is a GREAT VALUE. IF I were only going to be in one country next time I would probably land and go to the largest carrier to buy PAY AS YOU GO DATA ONLY SIM card. In France that would be Orange. Maybe not, though, because it was certainly nice to have our phones ready to go by activating them in the US BEFORE we flew to Europe. END UPDATE END UPDATE END UPDATE ACTIVATION: Activate TrioSim from Three.co.uk (with International Data Roaming in 71 Countries). 1. Turn off telephone. 2. Eject current SIM card (or tray if it is a new phone). 3. See what size card your phone needs. 4. Punch out appropriate size from Trio SIM card carrier. Purple, Green, or White outline. The iPhone 5S and up take the smallest “nano” card. 5. Insert the SIM card in the tray (it can go only one way) and carefully slide all the way back into phone. 6. Turn your telephone back on. 7. Three will send you a message asking you to leave your telephone on until you are connected to Three. (Turning off your WiFi seems to make this connection happen much faster!) 8. After told by Three, turn your phone off and back on. 9. Use the THREE APP (available through the UK Apple App Store), to check your balance. (Google: “changing from US to another country apple store” to see how to get the free THREE APP which offers the functionality you NEED to see your balances. The THREE WEB APP [as of my experience mid-June 2018] DOES NOT SHOW SIM CARD BALANCES.)

Normally, I don't like reviewing well-reviewed products, but I made an exception in this case because I noticed reviews lack mention of specifics on speed instead only specifying '3G' and '4G/LTE' then mentioning vague terms. Furthermore, I thought extra reviews could help here because there's so many countries in Europe and the SIM could work differently elsewhere. Alright, so here's my review of using this SIM for a week in Paris, France. First off, activating the SIM is extremely easy.. I activated the SIM two days prior to my flight. After popping the SIM in, it took roughly five minutes for the network to connect, but, once done so, I received a confirmation text. Once I landed in France, I did the same thing as well (making sure I turn data roaming on in the settings) and it worked just as well. Basically plug and play. Checking balance is also fairly simple. I couldn't download the app (it states not available in my country), but I could check it through calling by dialing '333' the listening to the message. Alright, so it gets an A for ease of use, but how well does it actually work? I can't comment on the calling or texting as I did not use those at all, but data worked 90% of the time. However, it cuts off in certain places (in open space too) and connections can sometimes be slow. You get an HSDPA (3.5G) connection in Paris, but the speed is not consistent. I tested the speed throughout the week I was there and the best I managed to get was 16Mbps. This is a very respectable speed and will work well for almost anything, including Youtube. However, note that this was the *best* I got. The worst I got fell under 1Mbps. On average, however, my speeds hovered about 2-3Mbps. In short, browsing websites, using GPS, Facebook, and playing games will work very well. I was also able to make data calls without too much issues (though the connection can get weak and delay responses). However, streaming videos is going to be very difficult. The SIM advertises against streaming anyway, however, so one can't be upset about that. Overall, I highly recommend this SIM. It is very easy to use, it comes with plenty of data, and it has minutes/text in case you can use it. For the price you're paying ($30), it's a damn near unbeatable deal.

TL;DR: you may not get your full balance, you won't be able to see your usage, customer service may not follow through on its promises, and if you're going anywhere other than the UK and you feel like the path of least resistance would be to give in and top up? You'll have to find a third-party online seller because Three won't even sell to you if you don't have a UK credit card. But hey: even when you're in the UK, the service sucks! I bought this ahead of a one week trip to Europe having a layover at Heathrow on the way to Paris, then staying in London on the way home. A UK card made the most sense because my English is much better than my French and I'd have time to get it set up and worked out during my brief layover. And... it worked as it should! A woman at one of the travel shops popped my SIM card out, I put the Three card in, and in a moment I was up and running with a few text messages about my account credit. Land in Paris, and everything looks good. Get a few advisory texts about roaming costs, and service is spotty on the RER into the city, but that's not really where I need service. I arrive at my flat and my host is late, so I walk around to run a few basic settling-in errands (cash, a micro-USB cable). Service isn't great but I'm able to get walking directions and find my way around. 10 minutes later, I see a bakery and think it'd be cute to get a baguette, so I pull out my phone to look for reviews and... nothing. I can register on a couple of different French networks, get what appears to be full signal, but have no data access (on a 12GB plan activated 4-ish hours earlier). I have to walk all the way back to the RER station to find free Wifi to reconnect with my host and arrange to check in. I make a My3 account and am told I have no remaining balance but can't get usage details. By this time, their phone support is closed for the day (Sunday) so I get on with my evening plans via online maps and some overpriced wifi hotspots. When I get home, I contact their chat support. They won't acknowledge that they failed to give me the 12GB that I'd paid for, but after about 40 minutes, they offer as a "one-time courtesy" to credit me that same balance and that I should receive a text message confirming in 15 more minutes. It's 11pm on my inbound day so I fall asleep without waiting, the text never arrives, and my phone status is unchanged in the morning. I end up walking around for more than an hour to find a mobile shop and end up buying a Lycamobile SIM that gives me data access in France. When I arrive in the UK a few days later, there's a Three shop right by my flat, so I go there as soon as I've dropped my bags off. The woman behind the counter tells me that they've had a batch of faulty SIM cards and that I'm the third such person to come in that day (~3pm on a Wednesday). She gives me a new SIM card, and... no. She can't see my customer record--either what happened to the initial balance or that I was promised a credit, so we call customer service. 20 minutes after I walk into the store, I have what I paid for. The joke? Three's service in London sucks. It was 1 bar of H+ at the shop (the clerk confirmed that it was a bad location) and absolutely nothing at Wembley--Three will roam in Europe but not in the UK, it seems. I would have done better to keep my Lycamobile card, but after I got back from Wembley, it would have been more annoying to find a pin to swap the SIM than to stick with what I had. Lastly! I'd lost my US SIM at some point during my trip, but worry not--I had a SIM card with a high data balance and roaming! And sure enough, when I land, I can get decent H+(2/3g) data back in the US to stay entertained while I get home. But, HILARIOUSLY, when I get off the light rail and try to make a phone call on my walk to the T-Mobile shop on my way home? I can't, and get a text message about topping up. I log back into My3 and take the screenshot above--3000 minutes and I can't use a single one. The lesson? Not Three, not ever. The next time I go to the UK, I'll wait until I get into town, go to an EE and have them activate the card onsite. The next time I go anywhere else, I'm not sure what I'll do (French provider shops, for instance, don't sell or support their prepaid cards), but this card was trash and that's where it's going.

Rarely do I write reviews but I just had to here. These SIMs are everything they lived up to be. I bought 4 of these for our trip to Europe and I can tell you that they worked flawlessly in the US before we left, Vienna, Rome, Sorrento, Sicily & Munich. The 12 GB for my just about 3 week stay was perfect. I was constantly using it for Google Maps, social media, even a little streaming. I would still however recommend using WiFi wherever available as well as downloading the 3UK app to keep tabs on your usage. FINE PRINT: - you can only use the 3000 mins & SMS to call UK or Ireland based numbers. Now being that we all had these SIMs we were able to call each other so it worked for us. But if you're looking to call back to the states or locally within whatever country you're in, you'll have to use a combo of WhatsApp and Google Voice to get the job done. - if you run out of data and need to "top up" you'll have to do so using a third party website. The 3UK website only accepts UK credit cards but there are other websites you can use to add time/data using a US based card. I used one called mobiletopup (google it) to add 4GB to my father's SIM for about $12 - for you iPhone users while in Italy: I'd suggest doing a "manual search" for which mobile network to use. The phone automatically selects "3 ITA" as the carrier but "I WIND" has MUCH better coverage and speed. Android devices automatically select "I WIND". All in all these chips were fantastic. I couldn't believe the value for $20. If these are still available next time I travel abroad I will DEFINITELY pick more up! UPDATE JAN 2020: I ordered another one of these for a trip I just completed to Peru and once again it was amazing. In Lima, Cusco, Ollytamtambo, Aguascalientes and even Machu Picchu my phone worked flawlessly. Even in remote areas of the country I had LTE 90% of the time on either Movistar or Claro. Over my 10 day stay I used about 9GB and being that my prepaid service I use in the US was expired when I returned from my trip I've decided to use this SIM in the US until the data runs out. For me, the best part of these cards is that 3UK seems to have roaming agreements with multiple carriers within a certain country, not just one. For example, my GF has free unlimited international roaming as part of her T-Mobile plan but while we were in Peru she was limited to using Claro's 3G service where I was able to select from multiple carriers with my 3UK sim (see tip below). That's worth the $20 in itself! TIP: You'll automatically be registered on BITEL upon landing in Peru and their speeds are 3G at best. Do a manual network search within your phone's settings and select Movistar 4G first if available and if not then Claro 4G. Those networks are far superior to BITEL.

The 5 stars are solely for the purchase/activation experience for this card. I don’t actually recommend this card at all, at least for use in the UK. The card I got was from a German reseller called TravSIM. To activate it you have to fill out a short form on their website and indicate the date you want the card activated. The printout that came with the card recommended choosing a date 2-3 days before the date of travel, which I found strange. I emailed them asking if it was really necessary to activate it this early and they responded, not really answering the question but saying I should choose the first date I will actually need to use the card as the activation date. I chose to activate it the day before I traveled. I got the activation confirmation about mid-day on the activation day, so I would recommend activating at least 24 hours in advance to ensure the card is useable when you arrive. Data and text messages worked immediately upon landing in London, but people were not able to call me using the SIM’s number. It turns out that in order to activate calling, you have to make at least one outgoing call first. The first call failed but gave me a recording stating calling would be activated within 5 minutes. A second call placed 2 minutes later went through and I was able to make/receive future calls without issue. Now the bad part: 3 has absolutely abysmal coverage in the UK. The second you walk into any building, the signal generally drops completely. Outdoor coverage is somewhat better, but there are still tons of dead spots. I’ve ended up mostly just using my US Mobile provider’s roaming coverage, which primarily uses the O2 or Vodafone networks, both of which have vastly better coverage. This card is cheap, but what good is 12gb of data if you never have service? I will definitely not buy a 3 SIM Card again and would recommend any other mobile provider in the UK, as they all appear to have much better coverage.

PrePaid Europe (UK THREE) sim card 12GB data+3000 minutes+3000 texts for 30 days with FREE ROAMING Seller travSIM GmbH Germany I had this activated May 13, 2023 while I was still in the USA. On this day, I received an SMS from Three saying I have 50 Gb of data (see screenshot) which was a surprise to me since the Amazon product listing said that data is just 12 Gb. On the same day, though, within minutes, Three also sent an SMS that said “You’ve run out of cash credit” (bottom portion of the screenshot). Huh?! There wasn’t supposed to be cash credit. This Amazon-sold product was supposed to just have data. In the USA, my phone connected to T-mobile. I had roaming on. There was no working cellular data which I didn’t have time to look at. I thought it would work better when I get to Europe. Fast forward to May 20, 2023. I’m in Vienna with no data. The top status bar of my iPhone shows 3AT 4G (often switches to 3G). There’s no cellular connectivity (data) - see screenshots. The messages in my phone are - Could not activate cellular data network. Safari cannot open the page because your iPhone is not connected to the internet. The Network Analyzer app shows the carrier is Three, network type is LTE but there’s no connectivity. I tried to send a text (BALANCE) to 50272 but it didn’t send. I got Failed Delivery If your travel date is on a weekend then you’re out of luck getting hold of TravSIM’s customer service. This SIM card is going back to Amazon. Fortunately, my 30-day return period has not run out yet. TravSIM, what are you doing selling a SIM card that doesn’t work outright as the product listing says it should? It’s a good thing I have a backup SIM card - Vegolink PRO. This one worked without a hitch. My iPhone status bar shows Magenta T LTE which I think means T-mobile.

Product as per description. Easy to register and use.

The card only allowed user to use about 20MB instead of 10GB and it started asking for registration and and cash top up. It was totally disappointing and imagined you caught under the situations that you need to use the data plan to check information. This is totally not the good card to be used in Europe but i am not sure about uk.

I bought four of these SIMs for the family to use on two European vacations we have coming up this summer. They provide a decent voice and text allowance with a large data allowance and English web site and customer service. We plan to use the service in Scotland, England, Norway and Greece. I activated one of the SIMs here in the USA to verify it worked, which it did. I also registered on the Three web site which appears to continue the proud tradition of unbelievably horrible web sites established by Vodafone and Orange. At least it allows me to see something about the account status and perhaps contact customer service if I need to. Topping up needs to be done with either a credit card that has a UK address, or a voucher. So if you are not a UK person to top up you need to either have such a credit card, or know someone in the UK who will let you use their card, or get someone to buy you a voucher there. If you can make do with the initial loaded service credit (expires 30 days after first use) then you don't need to top up. I'm using an iPhone 6s and it did not require manual APN setup -- it just worked straight away after inserting the SIM. Currently roaming on AT&T's network in the US it gets HSPA+ service (not LTE) but using speedtest.net I get 8Mbits down 1 Mbit up which I think is pretty reasonable for International roaming. If I remember I will update this review once I've tried the service in Paris next week. Update: In France these SIMs worked nicely roaming initially on Orange, then mysteriously switching to Bouygues after a few days (we didn't change location). No LTE service of course but that was expected. Service via HSPA+ was certainly adequate.

I see there are a lot of bad reviews on this product which made me weary of buying it. But when we arrived in Greece I followed the instructions that came with it. I am in Italy now and it is still working flawlessly. Off to France and Spain next hopefully it continues to work. I think the issue a lot of people are having is that either their phone is not carrier unlocked, or they do not have data roaming option turned on. If your phone is not carrier unlocked this sim will not work at all. If you don’t have the data roaming option turned on, it will only work in the country that you activate the sim, and will not work in any other countries. Hope this helps people looking for a affordable option for roaming throughout Europe. There is a list on the Three Uk website of which countries their “Go Roam” roaming works in. Also the data connection is 4G speed only, not LTE but that wasn’t such a big deal.. it is fast enough to send emails and use navigation and Facebook and Instagram videos. I don’t think you would be able to watch Netflix or anything. Also I was able to setup a wifi hotspot so my wife could tether the connection to her phone. 12 GB data included in the package. I am 2 weeks in and only used 1.5 GB. Plenty of data for the 30 days that the card is valid.

Used for Europe travel. Excellent connectivity & value for money. Highly recommended.