A little help for a first time ESIM user please

Spudgun · 2025-01-29T23:06:59+0000

Good evening all,

I'm currently with EE and for previous trips to Canada/USA i've just used their 'roam further' offering, but that has now become rather expensive, so I'm now looking at ESIMs.

I'm off to Canada for 25 days soon, so my plan would be to:

1) Divert all calls to voicemail before leaving the UK - so the phone won't ring whilst I am away, but I will still get SMS notifications if anyone leaves a message and I can use the ESIM/Skype to access my voicemail with my account details/pin if anyone leaves a message - should prevent any charges
2) Continue to receive SMS on my current number (free in Canada according to the EE website)
3) Turn off data roaming before leaving the UK (although I have a question about this later) to prevent any roaming charges
4) Ensure my £0 spend cap is in place before leaving the UK therefore, nothing should get billed to me anyway
5) Purchase an ESIM to cover data usage on my trip

My questions are
1) Have I missed anything obvious that I should do to avoid any roaming costs?
2a) If I turn off data roaming on my phone will that impact the ESIM as they seem to be offered across numerous Canadian network providers?
2b) If I need to leave data roaming on, how can I prevent my current EE sim ever attempting to go online whilst I am in Canada?
3) Can I respond to RCS messages using Google messenger to recipients that have RCS capability as don't these messages go over data and avoid the SMS send charges? (or should i just use whatsapp?)
4) I have a voip account/credit - can ESIMs be used to make calls via VOIP or do they restrict particular types of data usage?

Apologies if this is all a bit basic, but as a first time user I thought I would gather as much information as possible before I travel

Broken Hope · 2025-01-30T16:05:32+0000

Depending on what you’re currently paying it might just be easier to sign up to the full works or full works for iPhone sim only which is £29 a month currently and includes roaming and roam further plus an inclusive add on.

I believe this price is still available until the 31st.

Spudgun · 2025-01-30T17:03:02+0000

Thanks for the suggestion, but the length of the contract (24 months) and the difference in price per month over what I am paying now (£22 a month extra + future increases) means that this option would cost me about £500 more than I am paying now over the next 2 years. So I am definitely going down the ESIM route and keeping my nice and very cheap EE contract.

div0 · 2025-01-30T19:12:32+0000

Spudgun said:
2a) If I turn off data roaming on my phone will that impact the ESIM as they seem to be offered across numerous Canadian network providers?
2b) If I need to leave data roaming on, how can I prevent my current EE sim ever attempting to go online whilst I am in Canada?

You set roaming status per SIM. So disable roaming on your primary SIM and enable it for the eSIM.

Spudgun · 2025-01-30T20:37:40+0000

div0 said:
You set roaming status per SIM. So disable roaming on your primary SIM and enable it for the eSIM.

Thank you, that is really helpful. I had no idea that this is something that could be set for each SIM.

Will it be completely obvious as to how to do this when I have the ESIM activated?

tamzzy · 2025-01-30T20:40:39+0000

What phone do you use?

Spudgun · 2025-01-30T21:00:39+0000

tamzzy said:
What phone do you use?

Samsung S22

tamzzy · 2025-01-30T21:01:31+0000

Spudgun said:
Samsung S22

https://help.breezesim.com/hc/en-gb/articles/16398779637649-How-to-install-an-eSIM-Manually-on-a-Samsung-Device

tamzzy · 2025-01-30T21:07:03+0000

Once esim installed it'll look like this:
Calls and messages default to SIM1
Data selected to esim

div0 · 2025-01-30T21:22:52+0000

Spudgun said:
Will it be completely obvious as to how to do this when I have the ESIM activated?

Yes, where you can already set data roaming on/off in Mobile Networks, you should just have a second row listed (SIM1 then eSIM).

div0 · 2025-01-30T21:26:47+0000

tamzzy said:
Once esim installed it'll look like this:
Calls and messages default to SIM1
Data selected to esim

Is this not just setting the default (or preferred) SIM to use for call/texts/data?

Not saying it's not worth doing, but you do still need toconsider disabling roaming on the primary SIM, otherwise you could still end up with it being used if the eSIM isn't having coverage/credit or whatever.

tamzzy · 2025-01-30T21:28:46+0000

div0 said:
Not saying it's not worth doing, but you do still need toconsider disabling roaming on the primary SIM, otherwise you could still end up with it being used if the eSIM isn't having coverage/credit or whatever.

Possibly, I know I've set my 3 SIM to have £0 extra charges so no inadvertent roaming/roaming fees to worry about

tamzzy · 2025-01-30T22:04:36+0000

div0 said:
Not saying it's not worth doing, but you do still need toconsider disabling roaming on the primary SIM, otherwise you could still end up with it being used if the eSIM isn't having coverage/credit or whatever.

Ah just had a look at my SIM manager and auto switching is off so 100% no issues with roaming charges