eSIM

[HouseLannister]

Anybody got a good recommendation for what carrier lets you swap your eSIM unlimited times without a headache? I am on Mint and they give you 5 free eSIMs a year and then they are $3 each. On top of that, they are telling me I switched devices too many times in 30 days and I can't get a new eSIM for 48 hours now. Just frustrated and looking to switch. Maybe I just need to break down and get a second line for my iPhone, but I'd rather just bounce around devices as I choose.

 

[robvalentine]

not sure about USA, but in UK vodafone send you a new qr code as soon as you delete your sim

 

[mjschabow]

T-Mobile has been seamless for me.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I use Mint, and that's unfortunate to hear. I'll probably need to swap mine, but I dislike artificial limitations.

 

[HouseLannister]

Mint is now saying that I switched devices too many times and can’t have another eSIM for 120 days. (I had 4 new phones in 3 months due to some indecisiveness and taking advantage of returns/exchanges, which led to a lot of SIM swaps.) They said it is a system limitation and no way to fix. They offered me a physical SIM, but then I am locked out of iPhone and my current Pixel 10 Pro. (Gives me an excuse to re-buy the Z Fold 7, I guess.) I escalated to a supervisor and was offered a partial refund (since I am only on month 4 of 12). They will also leave the account open so I can port the number out. What a PITA.

I have been engaging the online chats with some carriers and MVNOs and they all say they do not do this artificial limitation, but neither will Mint if you ask their level 1 support people. So I guess it's a gamble if I continue to be a several-phones-a-year guy. I'll probably just do a month-to-month for now so I can bail easier if this ever happens again.

 

[Apple_Robert]

US Mobile will let you swap back and forth as much as you need to. I have never had a problem with them.

 

[jamezr]

I went through something similar with Verizon. They said i was switching sims, eSims between devices too many times. They flagged and suspended one of my lines as fraudulent activity because of this. After 3 months and hours of support calls, i never got the line unsuspended and left Verizon for AT&T and have not had an issues so far.

 

[aggie99]

T-Mobile has been seamless for me.

Same, it has been no issue at all for me using the T-Life app or whatever they are calling it now.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Anybody got a good recommendation for what carrier lets you swap your eSIM unlimited times without a headache? I am on Mint and they give you 5 free eSIMs a year and then they are $3 each. On top of that, they are telling me I switched devices too many times in 30 days and I can't get a new eSIM for 48 hours now. Just frustrated and looking to switch. Maybe I just need to break down and get a second line for my iPhone, but I'd rather just bounce around devices as I choose.

Your experience is why I left Mint Mobile and skipped the Pixel 10 series. My next phone looks set to be the OnePlus 15r which rumor has it that it will continue to use pSIM. Physical SIM is still way too convenient for me instead of having a middle man getting involved. Open SIM tray, remove SIM card, insert in different phone.

 

[Bkdodger]

I didn't have any issues when I was on T-Mobile and I'm currently on Verizon I was using the swap back and forth between devices with eSIM but then decided to go back to physical. I'm currently using one iPhone on eSIM and my android phones on pSIM for now .

 

[SteveJUAE]

These esims are all fine and dandy, till they are not lol

I run minimum 3 sims from different countries so the odds of something going wrong when not in the respective country and being locked out of banking apps etc just increases given both odd rules for different carriers and language issues make it even worse to resolve issues

I'm staying on physical sims even though I was an early adopter of esim originally with 1 physical and 2 esim 5 years back

 

[HouseLannister]

My end story is I signed up for Metro by T-Mobile, which is basically the same as Mint, but month-to-month instead of annually. Getting the same speeds and signal strength as before, so I am happy. Mint gave me back $290 of my $360 annual payment, but I had to do the online chat 6 times to get that far and it took hours. Not going through that again. When the OnePlus 15 and S26-series come out in a few months, I might switch away from Pixel and go back to physical SIM.

 

[QuarterSwede]

These esims are all fine and dandy, till they are not lol

I run minimum 3 sims from different countries so the odds of something going wrong when not in the respective country and being locked out of banking apps etc just increases given both odd rules for different carriers and language issues make it even worse to resolve issues

I'm staying on physical sims even though I was an early adopter of esim originally with 1 physical and 2 esim 5 years back

Physical SIM rot happens as well. I’ve had 2 over the years go bad and cause all kinds of weird issues with the device. Change out the SIM and all of the problems disappeared. That was on a major carrier too.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Physical SIM rot happens as well. I’ve had 2 over the years go bad and cause all kinds of weird issues with the device. Change out the SIM and all of the problems disappeared. That was on a major carrier too.

If i am not mistaken in the US it's so not bad but many countries your passport or visa or national ID is linked to your phone sim so when things go wrong or you want to swap etc this ID proof requires a physical presence

This is why many tourists sims have short life spans so ID tracking simply terminates say after 3 months to combat abuse etc

 

[QuarterSwede]

If i am not mistaken in the US it's so not bad but many countries your passport or visa or national ID is linked to your phone sim so when things go wrong or you want to swap etc this ID proof requires a physical presence

This is why many tourists sims have short life spans so ID tracking simply terminates say after 3 months to combat abuse etc

Oh interesting. Never knew that.

 

[noobinator]

T-mobile for me is a couple clicks and done within minutes.

 

[HouseLannister]

Back for another rant. Buckle up!

Last night, I took my wife to the Apple store to upgrade her to an iPhone 17 Pro (she has a 16PM and says it is too big and falls out of her pockets all the time). They had to call Verizon rather than just transfer the eSIM and (just my luck) something went wrong. After an hour on the phone with VZW support, they just could not get the IMEI of the new phone activated. The old phone was in SOS mode at this point and we asked them to just reactivate the IMEI on the 16PM so we could go home. Since we did not have a working Verizon line they could text verification to (I'm on Metro by T-Mobile for my line), they said they needed to do some extra steps to verify my account, asked me for a bunch of info like my last bill payment amount and such and then we waited another whole hour for some verification call to my phone that never happened before we gave up. So we left with two phones in SOS mode and we were told that we needed to go to a Verizon store to activate the new phone (also did not complete our trade-in, so we need to go back to the Apple store later). This was 730pm and the company stores were all closed, so we just got some takeout for dinner and went home. This is my second awful experience with eSIMs in two months. Unfortunately, I can't convince my wife to leave Apple, so it's not going to get any easier. I just don't see the value of getting rid of physical SIM and I hope Samsung, OnePlus, etc. keep offering those options, because the eSIM world SUCKS!

 

[Bkdodger]

Back for another rant. Buckle up!

Last night, I took my wife to the Apple store to upgrade her to an iPhone 17 Pro (she has a 16PM and says it is too big and falls out of her pockets all the time). They had to call Verizon rather than just transfer the eSIM and (just my luck) something went wrong. After an hour on the phone with VZW support, they just could not get the IMEI of the new phone activated. The old phone was in SOS mode at this point and we asked them to just reactivate the IMEI on the 16PM so we could go home. Since we did not have a working Verizon line they could text verification to (I'm on Metro by T-Mobile for my line), they said they needed to do some extra steps to verify my account, asked me for a bunch of info like my last bill payment amount and such and then we waited another whole hour for some verification call to my phone that never happened before we gave up. So we left with two phones in SOS mode and we were told that we needed to go to a Verizon store to activate the new phone (also did not complete our trade-in, so we need to go back to the Apple store later). This was 730pm and the company stores were all closed, so we just got some takeout for dinner and went home. This is my second awful experience with eSIMs in two months. Unfortunately, I can't convince my wife to leave Apple, so it's not going to get any easier. I just don't see the value of getting rid of physical SIM and I hope Samsung, OnePlus, etc. keep offering those options, because the eSIM world SUCKS!

So frustrating I had this happen to me once switching between phones on Verizon as well. The thing is it might work 98% of the time flawlessly but it only takes that one time to really annoy you while in your case two times

 

[jamezr]

Back for another rant. Buckle up!

Last night, I took my wife to the Apple store to upgrade her to an iPhone 17 Pro (she has a 16PM and says it is too big and falls out of her pockets all the time). They had to call Verizon rather than just transfer the eSIM and (just my luck) something went wrong. After an hour on the phone with VZW support, they just could not get the IMEI of the new phone activated. The old phone was in SOS mode at this point and we asked them to just reactivate the IMEI on the 16PM so we could go home. Since we did not have a working Verizon line they could text verification to (I'm on Metro by T-Mobile for my line), they said they needed to do some extra steps to verify my account, asked me for a bunch of info like my last bill payment amount and such and then we waited another whole hour for some verification call to my phone that never happened before we gave up. So we left with two phones in SOS mode and we were told that we needed to go to a Verizon store to activate the new phone (also did not complete our trade-in, so we need to go back to the Apple store later). This was 730pm and the company stores were all closed, so we just got some takeout for dinner and went home. This is my second awful experience with eSIMs in two months. Unfortunately, I can't convince my wife to leave Apple, so it's not going to get any easier. I just don't see the value of getting rid of physical SIM and I hope Samsung, OnePlus, etc. keep offering those options, because the eSIM world SUCKS!

I have had similar experiences with Verizon and eSIM’s. Verizon botched eSIM transfers to other phones and their customer service is horrible.
I had to do identity verification even going so far as to take a picture of my drivers license and do a selfie and send it to them through a secure link they sent to me.
Eventually, I just switched it over to AT&T and I’m not having any issues since that time.
Good luck in getting your phones activated. I hope it all goes well.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I have had similar experiences with Verizon and eSIM’s. Verizon botched eSIM transfers to other phones and their customer service is horrible.
I had to do identity verification even going so far as to take a picture of my drivers license and do a selfie and send it to them through a secure link they sent to me.
Eventually, I just switched it over to AT&T and I’m not having any issues since that time.
Good luck in getting your phones activated. I hope it all goes well.

That's why I refuse to buy an eSIM only phone as long as phones are sold with pSIM. Still way too convenient, reliable and hassle free.