Mobile phones contracts

not very exciting rates:( and so little you get for the price. And a contract as well, ouch:(

@TonyFF did you reccy the link he posted? Well cheaper than the UK some of them plans.

Yettel at 6 BGN a month looks pukka. Thanks for sharing mate.

@mickeyhart

I have a better plan for $15

I have free unlimited  calls/texts  to  60 countries in the world, 5GB data; WiFI calling( works well in Bulgaria)

NO CONTRACTS- month to month !

Will keep my US plan- much better:)

Lucky you 👍 we do hav some quite good plans in UK I'm still managing to use Tesco which uses O2 carrier..  but fear it will be the last year with no additional daily surcharges. 3 pounds a day  for all the rest now to use abroad 😪. I'll be switching to a Bulgarian SIM full time later this year

For Bulgaria the best are the prepaid deals only. No commitments, no contracts.

( my own opinion)

Ok thanks for the info Tony 👍

I use my UK +44 phone number in Bulgaria without problems (Just a £6/month contract with Smarty in the UK). But I've been struggling to get a Bulgarian +359 number, I seem to need one to enter delivery information in places such as e-mag. I've tried both A1 and Vettel, and neither will give me a pre-paid SIM card, without a Bulgarian ID. A UK passport isn't accepted. I live near Balchik, and have tried both Balchik and Dobrich offices. Has anyone else had this problem?

I've had the same issue. I bought a prepaid Yettel SIM, the seller registered it for me, but wasn't able to activate it as the Yettel app insisted I was in the UK. Probably because I was using the phone with my UK SIM as my WiFi hotspot. I intend to try again somewhere I can access Bulgarian WiFi and see if that does the trick.

    I use my UK +44 phone number in Bulgaria without problems (Just a £6/month contract with Smarty in the UK). But I've been struggling to get a Bulgarian +359 number, I seem to need one to enter delivery information in places such as e-mag. I've tried both A1 and Vettel, and neither will give me a pre-paid SIM card, without a Bulgarian ID. A UK passport isn't accepted. I live near Balchik, and have tried both Balchik and Dobrich offices. Has anyone else had this problem?
   

    -@DarryllP

My VodafoneUK won't allow me to call or send a message to the UK while I'm in Bulgaria, does Smarty allow this?

@gottik, you need to pay extra to use Vodafone while roaming. They have packages from 3 to 10GBP depending whether you want to use just texts and calls or internet too.

I use ASDA Mobile in my tablet which works fine for roaming at no extra cost, though the settings do need to be tweaked before you travel and they only allow 5GB of internet a month while roaming. My phone is on Vodafone, so if I want to use that I need to buy a bundle (that can be done from Bulgaria - they should send a text telling you how to do it once they realise you're in Bg).

I believe Smarty and Tesco (but probably only for this year with Tesco) have the most generous roaming allowances for UK users.

Personally, I have multiple contracts with Vivacom. I think they're on a par with other large providers, and they give you discounts on additional products/services. My last bill was 113 leva which is for 2 x mobile phone data+calls (one is unlimited, the other is limited but pretty generous), and 4 x fibre home internet. No TV packages or any extras, we use Netflix and Amazon.

@gottik Yes, Smarty allows me to send/receive UK calls and texts as part of my simple £6 per month, no contract service. It's unlimited calls, but just 1GB of data per month, but top-ups are not expensive (£9 for 10GB), and don't expire, which is nice. Receiving calls and texts from Bulgarian numbers is included too.

I do have to pay extra for an add-on to call or send texts to Bulgarian numbers, but that's just a non-expiring add-on, so that seems reasonable as well. The price per min is about 20p per minute from memory, so not cheap long term, but ok for the odd call/SMS.

Still trying to find a simple way to have a Bulgarian number. I'm looking at Virtual Numbers, where the BG number/text is forwarded to my UK mobile. If I find something useful, I'll share it.

@DarryllP. You could try buying an e-sim online.  I don't know a lot about them, never used one myself yet, but been exploring them, in case I visit a non EU country, as they work out cheap.

We visited Serbia last year and our BG phone supplier (Vivacom) had no decent agreement in that country, which meant a huge bill on return!

Another app, o have on my phone is Rebtel. Really low cost calls, just top up with PayPal or card and it adds credit to your account. I phone Israel on Rebtel for 2p per minute. It can be used in many countries, including UK and BG.

From the sounds of things, Bulgarian phone companies have tightened regulations on who they supply phones and sim cards to.  When I arrived in Aug 2020, it was easy to get a sim only PAYG. I'd bought an unlocked, cheap phone, at Gatwick Airport.

Thankfully, I have an EU residency card, which gets me, pretty much, anything Bulgarians have.

That said, if the first shops say no, try others, as nothing is written in stone in Bulgaria and where rules are applied in some areas, they're not in others!

@cyberescue1 Thanks for the Rebtel tip, I'll have a look. Although I think that's only for outgoing calls, not for incoming ones to a BG number.

I did look at e-sims, but all the ones I saw for use in Bulgaria only supported data. Couldn't find one that would give me an incoming voice call number. I believe the technology can support this, it works in other countries, but I haven't found one supported by Bulgarian carrier, for voice.

@cyberescue1 Yes, I tried a few shops, it was just at the last stage when I had to produce my ID, and only had a UK passport. I was told I needed a Bulgarian ID!

Although after being refused at one shop, the young lady at a shop whispered under her breath, that I should try "next door", and pointed to a row of shops. There was a tobacconist, florist and few other places. I assumed there must be some kind of under the counter method. I did try a couple of places, but no luck I'll maybe try Varna next time I'm there.

I also tried some online "vitual services" where you're given a Bulgarian number, and pay for the calls to be forwarded to a non-bulgarian number, eg a UK mobile. TollFreeForwarding and Zadarma provide this, and it does work if you want a Bulgarian number for voice calls, but it doesn't work for texts. It does work for texts in other countries, but not Bulgaria, apparently none of the local carriers allow it. Not sure why it's restricted for texts here, it's a deliberate thing, must be a reason.

@DarryllP

I have not heard this. A pre-paid (or Pay As You Go) SIM card is typically available to non-residents. It is my understanding that it is mobile contracts which are restricted to residents.

That's what I found, too. They sold me the pre-pay card. Except then I couldn't activate the SIM as it seems that required access to Bulgarian internet - I kept getting an error message stating that I was in the UK (I wasn't!). When I go next week I will see if I can buy a SIM at Varna Airport and activate it using the airport wi-fi.

How strange.  I've tried Vivacom and A1 in both Balckik and Dobrich, they all wanted Bulgarian ID. UK passport wouldn't do. This was for a pre-paid (Pay As You Go) SIM card. I also tried Vivacom at Varna mall, They said the same, although they did say they could provide me with a business contract, as I have a company (to buy the house), but that was quite expensive for what I want at the moment.

I have 4G internet at home with Vivacom, in a home router, that wasn't a problem.

I do have to visit an airport in the next couple of weeks, I'll give that a try, maybe they are less stringent with their rules.

I tried Yettel, as that seems to have the best signal at my village house. No problem buying the SIM and the seller did the online registration for me. Where my problem came was when I put the SIM in my phone and tried to activate it. This was a year ago, so maybe they've become stricter since then.