Mobile Phones

if you move to Spain to live then you can use your old phone if it is unlocked and just get a new sim card from a new provider depending what you want Digi or Lobster are both good here.  If you want to retain your English contract you can if you can top it up by the internet or bank payment but u need a uk address I think.

Thanks very much very helpful

You can bring your UK mobile with you and top it up as Cathejoe has said but it is not necessary to have a UK address

I brought my phone from USA and then signed up to a service here. I recently changed to Lobster and can recommend them and they do everything in English!!

thanks very much for the help

We have retained our UK contracts. One on O2 and one on Vodafone. The only issue I have found is when purchasing larger goods, TVs washing machines etc is that they want a Spanish mobile when you try and book engineer visits when the item is faulty. The online warranty forms I have encountered are not set up for entering non-Spanish mobiles. They won’t let you proceed until the mobile phone number is in Spanish format. I entered a false number of 666 666 666 in order to proceed and then in the message box gave my English mobile number with dialling code from Spain. The engineer did not read my note and informed head office that he tried to call on the 666 number but failed to get hold of me. Doh! 

I would also like to add to Kerrnl's post by saying that you will need a Spanish mobile number for your Spanish bank accounts. The Spanish bank can therefore notify you of various things by text or phone call. The account I have lets me control my bank account from my phone. This even includes getting support via Whatsapp messaging. 

On a side note I use Hits , a Spanish based mobile provider because they had the cheapest (non-fixed term) contract. I also use Simyo (Spanish) for my motorhome's MIFI.

Hi Gapyears, Just to say that I'm with Santander Spain and I get all my stuff from them on my UK mobile

When I was with Cajamar they would only communicate with me through a Spanish mobile number, I could not register my UK number with them. On a side note, it took 10 minutes and 12 pages of documents in order to register my Spanish number with them. They do like their paperwork.

I am now with OpenBank (part of Santander) and because it is an app based thing on my phone it probably would work with a UK number. However my UK provider clicked on that I was spending a very, very long time in Spain and pulled the plug on me.

Not a worry because after 31 December 2020 I wont be paying extra on my mobile when I travel around the EU.