Even in 2024, making international calls can be an expensive pursuit, and it can often be better to use an app like WhatsApp to call with, thereby using your data allowance or Wi-Fi connection instead. But that’s not always convenient, so if you want to call the old fashioned way, then it’s worth getting a SIM card that specialises in such things.
Fortunately, quite a lot of networks offer either SIM cards that are designed to make international calling affordable, or cheap add-ons that give you reduced price international calls.
Some of these plans and add-ons are much better than others though, so below you’ll find our picks of the very best SIM cards for international calling.
Lebara has international calling at its heart, and it’s one of very few networks that puts this much focus on calling abroad. That focus mean including international minutes on all of its plans, but below we’ve highlighted our top international calling SIM card choices on the network.
This 30GB plan is the ultimate international calling plan on Lebara as it gives you unlimited international minutes, which you can use to call 41 different countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine (Kyivstar), and the US.
This also gives you 1,000 minutes per month to call India.
It’s a 30-day plan and costs £20 per month, but you can optionally buy it on a 12-month contract for just £18 per month, and it also includes 30GB of 5G data, plus unlimited calls and texts in the UK (using Vodafone’s network). Roaming in the EU and India is included too.
There’s also an even more premium plan that includes unlimited data, but if international calls is your priority then 30GB will probably be plenty.
If you’re a lighter international caller then you might want to consider this 5GB plan, which gives you just 100 international minutes per month, but costs just £5 per month. You can use these minutes to call the same 42 destinations as are listed above, and the plan also includes 5GB of 5G data, 1,000 UK minutes and texts, and EU and India roaming.
Lyca Mobile is a very similar prospect to Lebara, in that its plans come loaded with international minutes as standard. Its plans also include EU and India roaming, but when you’re in the UK you’ll be using EE’s network rather than Vodafone’s. Below you’ll find our top Lyca Mobile SIM card choice for international calling.
Note though that while we’ve highlighted a plan that’s ideal for calling a bunch of destinations, Lyca Mobile also sells some plans that specialise in calls to just one or two specific countries. So if you’re always wanting to call the same place, it’s worth checking if the network has a plan designed specifically for that location.
Lyca Mobile’s All In One Plus 20 plan is very similar to one of the Lebara SIMs we’ve highlighted above. This is a no-compromise international calling SIM card, giving you unlimited minutes to call Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the US.
It also includes 250 minutes to Philippines Smart and Tunisia Lyca.
International minutes aside, the All in One Plus 20 plan includes 30GB of 5G data, plus unlimited UK calls and texts, and it costs £20 per month.
Talk Home – powered by EE – is a small network but it excels for international calling. Not all of its plans do, but it has a selection of SIMs designed specifically for international calls.
We’ve highlighted our top pick below, but note that there are also plans for calling specific individual locations, including Angola, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, and Romania. So if you’re interested in just one of those places then hunt out the appropriate plan.
Our all round top pick from the network though is Talk Home’s Global Pro 5G SIM. This costs £20 per month and doesn’t tie you into a contract. For your money you get 1,000 international minutes or texts to use calling or texting Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus Greek, Czech-Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong-Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the US.
However, this plan is specifically for international calls, so it doesn’t come with an data (unless you buy a bolt-on).
Since the above deal is purely designed for international calls, you might want more of an all-rounder, such as the Blue Plus 5G plan from Talk Home.
This gives you 20GB of 5G data along with unlimited minutes and texts, and costs just £10 per month on a monthly rolling plan. It also lets you roam in over 45 European destinations.
It doesn’t actually include any international minutes, but calls abroad are typically cheap on Talk Home, starting at just 1p per minute. You can see Talk Home’s standard international rates here.
Vodafone doesn’t offer any plans that are overly focused on international calling (though some throw in 500 international minutes to the EU), but you can get add-ons that help lower the cost of international calls, and we’ve highlighted our top pick of these below.
Vodafone’s International Saver 500 add-on can be attached to existing Vodafone plans, and will give you 500 minutes to call any of 100 countries, for £12.30 per month.
That’s a huge selection of locations you can call then, and you can add this to your plan by texting ADDINTL500 to 40506 or logging in to your Vodafone account, where you can manage your extras.
Much like Vodafone, O2 isn’t very internationally focused as standard, but it does offer an International Bolt-on that you can attach to an O2 plan. We’ve detailed this below.
The International Bolt On from O2 costs just £3 per month (on top of whatever your standard O2 plan costs) and it reduces international rates to as little as 1p per minute in over 200 countries – the full list of which can be found here.
Note that not every country in the list is that cheap to call – Australia for example will cost you as much as 12p per minute when calling a mobile (though landlines are just 2p). But if you want to call a huge selection of countries, or simply can’t find the destination you’re interested in elsewhere, the selection here should have most places covered.
To get the International Bolt On, text INTBOLTON to 23336 from your O2 SIM card, or add it to your account via My O2.
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Asda Mobile 
EE 
GiffGaff 
iD Mobile 
Lebara Mobile 
O2 
Sky Mobile 
Smarty 
Spusu Mobile 
Talkmobile 
Tesco Mobile 
Three 
Vodafone 
Voxi