The New Designed-for-Roaming SIM Card from Popit

Please note: we have no association with Popit Mobile or any other SIM provider, and earn nothing if you choose to buy any mobile service mentioned in this blog post. It’s not an advert, it’s just sharing information. We welcome feedback; please add your thoughts to the comments at the end folks.

Popit’s Sole Roaming SIM

Popit have just released a pay-monthly SIM specifically designed for long-term use in the EU, called Sole Roam.

This plan offers unlimited calls and texts, and 100GB a month of data while in Zone 1 (the EU plus a few other countries) for £59 a month. While in the UK you can switch to a cheaper package. At any point (if you head to Morocco or Turkey for example), you can put the SIM on hold for £1.60 a month. In our experience the SIM goes on hold as soon as you request it, not on the renewal date.

There is no limit on how long you can be outside the UK for. If you use all 100GB, the service stops, but you can buy bolt-ons to tide you over (they’re rather expensive – 10GB is £10 – but it beats being completely cut off).

The SIM will use the EE network while in the UK, and roam onto foreign networks while abroad, and supports 5G.

Expensive, But Honest?

Nope, it’s not cheap. You could, for example, get a Tesco Mobile PAYG 100GB SIM and roam Europe with it for £30 a month, half the price.

So why bother looking at the Popit SIM? Simplicity and honesty I guess.

This SIM is intended for people wanting to roam Europe (or in and out) for months, with a UK number, using up to 100GB a month, without worrying about being cut-off.

Tesco, like all providers, tend to bury limitations in their ‘fair use policy’. Without reading these policies (which is an incredibly tedious job) it’s hard to know just how long you can be abroad and how much data you can use.

In Tesco’s case if you’re outside the UK for more than 4 months they reserve the right to halt service. Do they actually enforce this limit? Dunno. Even if they don’t currently enforce it, they presumably could do in future, which is a bit of a pain if you’re currently in Sicily when your SIM stops working.

The Local SIM Option

Another option is to buy a PAYG SIM card abroad. You’ll probably get a better deal this way, take a look at this website for the latest local SIM deals.

Over the years we’ve found the downsides of local SIMs are:

• They have a foreign number
• You may have to visit a shop and speak to a local
• You sometimes need a local address (although a campsite address might suffice)
• Topping them up can be awkward
• They’ll have roaming limits when used outside their home country, so not great for multi-country tours

Several UK-based motorhome travellers have told us Spanish provider Tiekom avoids these issues and has good customer service. They have English-speaking staff, will post PAYG SIMs to the UK, activate them when you need them, and offer 200GB a month of roaming data across the EU for €43.90 a month (around £37 – see the deal on their website here).

In Summary

Buying a SIM card for roaming Europe is a minefield, especially if you plan to be away for several months. The new Popit Sole Roam SIM isn’t cheap, but it should give you confidence that you won’t be cut off or charged more than you expect.

Any thoughts? Have you bought this Popit plan? Have you found a better one? Give us your thoughts in the comments below folks.

Cheers, Jason