1. Yes, I've always had to use my passport with my Eurail passes; though often it's to prove I'm an American who is eligible for the cheaper pass.

2. No, only in certain countries. I've bought SIMs from vending machines in Iceland and Denmark. In Italy the merchant made me seriously promise, I really mean it to send him a photo of my passport as soon as I returned home with my SIM. He gave me his personal gmail address to do so (probably because he certainly didn't want that info going to his work email where it would be obvious he ignored the rules). In Germany, rumor was you basically had to be a German citizen to get a SIM; that turned out to be untrue but I cannot remember if I gave them my (EU but not German) passport. IIRC I could not buy a SIM in Sweden as a non-resident though. UK was no problem to buy a SIM.

3. Yeah, but that's just an identifier. You could use any number, and a different number for every merchant, and nobody would know. Though there was a case of a fireman convicted of arson, partially on evidence of firestarters bought using his wife's Safeway loyalty card number.

4. I can't really ever remember being asked for my passport in the 5 of those 6 countries, but of course it's not unreasonable to be expected to show ID so I cannot say for sure I never produced ID. Though I remember in Poland and I think the Czech Republic they actually hold your passport, which made me very uncomfortable. When you leave the room for the day you swap key for passport, and vice versa on your return. Whether this is government or business policy, I do not know.

> IIRC I could not buy a SIM in Sweden as a non-resident though.

You can definitely buy a SIM-card in Sweden without any kind of identification. However, if it is a SIM-card with a (non prepaid) subscription, THEN you have to ID yourself and be credit worthy (since you can potentially run up a huge bill that is invoiced afterwards).

Right, I'm an idiot. I have a Swedish SIM somewhere. It was Germany I was thinking of (and then, 3mo later, on a subsequent trip, easily bought a SIM anyway). So much misinformation out there -- and I suppose I'm not helping.

It's amazing how hard it is (as a foreigner) to come by solid information on the legal situation around SIM card purchases. It seems every company is different, and the more restrictive ones have an incentive to make it sound like a legal issue rather than a business decision.

This is the wiki you want: http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com

From June 2017 there will be no extra dataroaming charges in the EU. So you could buy a non-registered SIM card in The Netherlands (you can even buy them at the checkout counter at the supermarket) and use it all over EU member states.

Strange situation...

The world can't wait -- but I'd not call it strange.

I hadn't been to Europe since 2004, and on my subsequent visit in 2011, I just casually told my wife "we'll just buy SIMs at the first country we go to, surely they've sorted out this stupid roaming-when-you-travel-a-few-hundred-miles thing by now." WRONG.

So glad this is coming to an end. I've wasted far too much time and money country-hopping and having to spend 30-90+min in each country trying to get a working mobile phone. Locals probably don't realize how bad it is, but on prepaid plans you often cannot roam in foreign countries at any price. So as absurd it is to pay ATT here in the US $60 for 200mb or whatever insane rate, sometimes I wonder if it's worse to spend $40 per country per SIM card if I'm only there for a few days. Not to mention changing phone numbers constantly, assuming you would like to be reached...

Yeah, it took them long enough all right!

What I meant by "strange" is that European countries differ in their approach to unregistered SIM cards (due to safety/antiterrorism) but now agree on ending insane dataroaming charges. Any safety advantages to mandatory registration when buying a SIM card (IF there are any, which I doubt) are essentially nullified by this deal. A potential terrorist who wants a burner phone can buy a couple of SIM cards here in The Netherlands and take them to Belgium, for instance. European politics at its finest!

There are several providers doing EU-wide roaming already. I use Orange Spain which I've found to be good. If Spain isn't your first port of call you can buy an Orange Spain SIM on ebay. I think Aldi in Germany also does EU-wide roaming, and I've seen ads for others in other countries.

It's not the dataroaming itself, that has been possible for very long. The big deal about the agreement is that phone companies can't charge you extra anymore for dataroaming.

I have an unlimited calls/SMS plan with 11.5GB data a month. It costs me EUR45,-. When I travel 40 miles east from where I live my current data plan is no longer valid, and I have to pay EUR3.49 per 100MB/minutes/SMS. Yes, hundred MB. Not thousand. Those charges are insane!

Depends on where you are.

London just get it at arrivals of Heathrow.

Ireland theres a metro sim shop at arrivals.

Germany: go to your nearest netto

France: just find a shop.. but don't expect to get anything that works.

Carribean.. Never even tried.

  I remember in Poland and I think the Czech Republic they actually hold your passport

Not in the Czech Republic. I've worked in Prague for a year in 2006 and have stayed in lots of hotels through that time. I'm still visiting the city 10 - 12 times a year and usually stay in hotels.

They normally want to see your passport, or id upon check-in, but I never, ever experienced that they kept it after the check-in process.

Countries where I experienced this where mostly in Asia. Like Laos, or Cambodia. Not even in Vietnam they kept my passport after checking in.

> In Germany, rumor was you basically had to be a German citizen to get a SIM; that turned out to be untrue but I cannot remember if I gave them my (EU but not German) passport

From my experience, you do have to have your passport with you when getting a Sim. They usually make a photocopy of it. (This was from O2)

> 1. The DB wants to see id (that they can verify) for Eurorail passes. The DB or the Belgian rail people require seeing the purchasing CC.

Who except students uses Eurorail passes anyway, these days?

2. Buying a sim in europe requires a passport.

No; in Austria and Germany you can (at least at the moment) still buy SIM cards without providing an ID. Germany requires online activation but no one verifies if the address or the name is real.

I did not have to go online to activate my O2 SIM but I did provide a hotel address at purchase time. Of course it did not match any identity documents I had on me.

Some activation step happened when I inserted the SIM but it didn't involve using a computer.