What is Order reference?

An order reference looks unimportant right up to the moment it matters most. It is the short code the system issues when your payment goes through, and it is the single key that opens everything about that purchase: which plan you chose, which countries it covers, when it starts, whether the profile was issued, and every conversation you have had about it since. People who keep that code somewhere they can find it abroad tend to get problems solved far faster than people digging through an inbox on a connection that is not working yet.

This page explains what an order reference is, where to find it when the confirmation email has gone missing, how it differs from the other codes you meet while installing an eSIM, and what to send us when you ask for help. We will not describe a fixed format for the code, because that depends on the shop's system. What is certain is that it appears both in your confirmation email and on the order page inside your account.

What the code actually stands for

An order reference is not the plan and not the SIM. It is a single record in the system that ties together the buyer, the payment, the product chosen, and the profile issued against that purchase. When our team opens that record they see the whole path from payment to current status, which is why it lets them say quickly whether the trouble sits with the payment, with issuing the profile, or with the installation on your handset.

That is why the first question from support is almost always for the order reference. It is not bureaucracy. A message saying I bought a Japan plan yesterday and it does not work can match dozens of orders from the same day. A name or an email address helps a little, but people often buy with one address and write in from another, or buy on behalf of a relative. The order reference is the shortest and least ambiguous route.

The codes you meet while buying and installing

Between buying and installing you meet several codes that look similar enough to be confused. Some identify the purchase to the shop, some identify hardware in your phone, and some are one-time secrets. Telling them apart does two useful things: it means you send support the right thing, and it means you do not hand the wrong thing to whoever happens to message you.

Finding the reference when the email is gone

Missing confirmation emails happen more often than people expect. Sometimes the message lands in a promotions folder, sometimes a filter marks it as spam, and sometimes the buyer mistyped one character of their address at checkout. The sequence below runs from the fastest route to the one that involves waiting, and most people find the code before they reach the end.

1. 1Search your mailbox with something broadDo not search only for the shop name. Try the word eSIM or the word order, and remember to look in the promotions folder and the bin. Confirmation mail is frequently filed there automatically.
2. 2Sign in to your account on the siteIf you were signed in when you bought, the purchase sits in your order history with its reference and current status. This is the fastest route and nobody has to reply to you first.
3. 3Use the order lookup pageIf you checked out without signing in, use the order lookup page with the email address you bought with. If nothing matches, try any other address you might have used.
4. 4Check the payment recordA bank slip, an email from the payment provider, or the line in your banking app usually carries a reference of its own. It is not the order reference itself, but it confirms the date, time and amount so we can search from there.
5. 5Contact us with whatever you haveIf it still will not surface, send us the email address used, the approximate date and time, the amount paid, and which country's plan you bought. That combination is usually enough for us to find the order.

Walk through the installation steps first

Storing it so you can find it abroad

The real difficulty is not getting the code, it is finding it while you have no connection, because your mailbox lives on the internet. What works is making an offline copy before you leave: a screenshot in your photo album, or a line in a notes app that has already synced to the device. Either takes under a minute and earns its keep on the worst day of the trip.

Frequent travellers often keep one note per trip holding everything: the order reference, the plan's country and dates, the accommodation, the flights, pinned to the top of the list. When something goes wrong there is one place to open rather than four apps to search. If you are travelling as a group, sharing that note helps, because the person with the problem is not always the person who paid.

• Screenshot the confirmation email into your photo album before departure
• Write the reference into a note that has synced offline
• If you bought for someone else, send them the reference along with the QR
• Note which email address you bought with, since the lookup page uses it
• Record the plan's country and start date in the same note
• Do not keep the installation QR anywhere publicly shared

Several plans on one trip

Anyone visiting several countries on one trip, or buying for a whole family, ends up with multiple orders that look alike. Without a note of which one belongs to whom or covers where, troubleshooting slows down immediately, because both you and we have to guess. The simplest fix is to write the person's name or the country beside each reference in your note on the day you buy.

This matters most when the profiles go onto different handsets, because an eSIM profile is bound to the phone it was installed on. Moving it elsewhere is not a matter of swapping plastic and always goes through the provider's process. If a profile went onto the wrong phone to begin with, having the reference for the correct order lets us check the situation and suggest a route forward much faster.

What the team can check from the number

With the reference in hand the team can see the recorded status of that purchase, which separates a problem on our side from one at the network or on your handset. The table below sets out which symptoms can be checked from the record and which need more information from you, because some things are invisible to the system, starting with what your screen actually shows.

What to have ready before you write in

A complete first message saves a great deal of time, particularly across time zones. Every round of questions to establish the basics adds another cycle, which can mean hours when you are on the move. Your opening message should carry the order reference, the handset model and operating system version, the country you are in now, what you have already tried, and what the screen is showing.

Screenshots tell us more than descriptions. If you can, capture the mobile network settings screen and the screen listing the SIMs or profiles on the phone. Those two images answer nearly everything we need to know about the state of the installation. The one precaution is to glance over an image for other personal details before you send it and cover them up.

Read the help centre before you write in

When the order is not what you meant to buy

The most common mistakes are buying the wrong country, buying too small an allowance, and paying twice because the page hung during checkout. All three are far easier to sort out if you contact us before installing the profile, since once it has been downloaded onto a handset its status changes and the terms that apply are different from those for an untouched profile.

The right move is to stop before scanning anything, then send us both order references and say which one you actually meant to buy. What is possible depends on the status of each order and on the policy set out on our terms page. We will tell you plainly what can and cannot be done in your case rather than leaving you to guess.

Buying more mid-trip and referring back

When data runs low mid-trip most people buy another plan, which produces a second order reference. That is where confusion starts, because you now hold two orders covering the same country over different periods. Quote the wrong one when something goes wrong and we will check the wrong record and answer the wrong question. The cure is to write down which reference is the newer one and when it starts.

1. Check what is left on the current plan before deciding how much more to buy
2. Buy the new plan while you still have a connection, from the old plan or from wi-fi
3. Add the new order reference to the same note as the old one
4. Install the new profile, then confirm the data line points at the right one
5. Once the new line is confirmed working, deal with the old profile as your handset's guide advises

What the order record holds

People often ask what sits behind that number. The short answer is what is needed to sell a plan and support it afterwards: what you bought, which payment channel was used, an email address to reach you, and the status of the profile issued. How that data is stored and used follows the privacy policy published on this site, which is the document to read rather than a summary on this page.

What speeds up a check

If you want the matter closed in one round, send the reference together with what you can see: the words on the screen and the steps you have already taken. The system can say whether an order is complete, but it cannot see what your handset is displaying. The two halves have to be put together before the picture is whole.

What you do not need to send

You do not need to send an account password, a one-time code, or a photograph of a whole credit card. None of it makes a check faster and all of it adds needless risk. If a payment genuinely has to be confirmed, a record showing the date, time and amount is enough, with the rest of the card number covered.