Mobile data not working abroad

[Helenp7]

I have just arrived in Spain and cannot access any mobile networks. I had a similar problem in France about a month ago. I wasted half a day of my then holiday in WhatsApp communication with an assistant. The final outcome of this was that the SIM card was faulty. I was sent a new SIM card in September but this was my first opportunity to use it abroad. Same problem!! What is going on? All my data roaming settings are correctly set

[Tom_W1]

Hi @Helenp7 thanks for your post although I'm sorry to hear of your concerns raised.

 can you confirm the exact issue you're having along with the checks you've already carried out? 
As a minimum, we do need to ensure the following have been done: 
You have fully activated roaming on your device (you have mentioned this already)
When putting your SIM card in to another device, are things then working or do you have the same issue?
We also need to check if the SIM toolkit as been switched on:
For an Android phone, please can you do the following: Selects Apps from your home screen > Virgin SIM toolkit > Roaming > Mode > Manual > International. Once this has been done you might need to reboot. Let us know if this works for you. 
For an iPhone, please can you do the following: Settings > Phone > SIM Applications > Roaming > Mode > Manual > International. If you’re using a newer iOS, then you it will be under Mobile Data instead of phone. Once this has been done you might need to reboot. Let us know if this works for you. 
It might be worth trying to do a manual network search to see if you can connect to any others and see if that helps. It could be that the network you're connected too maybe doesn't have the best signal where you are. This is out of our control as we don't use our own networks outside of the UK. 
Pop back and let us know so we can help further. 
Thanks

[Helenp7]

I eventually managed to sort it out via a WhatsApp conversation with a Virgin mobile technician.  The trick was to go to Settings>Mobile Data>SIM Applications>Roaming>Manual>International.  This then meant my phone worked abroad.  Unfortunately I then had to manually change everything back when I returned to the UK.  Very annoying.  I have never had this issue with other providers.  What is the problem with Virgin SIMs?

[Akua_A]

Glad to hear the issue was resolved with our team @Helenp7. To find out more about roaming with our sims, please try the following link https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-roaming-hub 

Thanks,