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French PAYG Sim Cards
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18days
22-03-2010
Does anyone have any knowledge on how to get one of these. Im off to France soon and would like to be prepared before i go.

Does anyone also know what the best deal is on a data package for an iphone also.

Thanks in advance.
prking
22-03-2010
You can get the SIM at the port/airport when you arrive in France. Expect to pay €10 to €20 for the SIM. Prepay tends to work slightly differently in Europe. When you top-up, the credit expires after a certain time unless you top-up again. For example a €10 top-up might expire after two weeks.

For data, pricing varies and you often find that different usage is charged in different ways. For example, streaming media may be charged per minute and email per megabyte. This is usually much more expensive than in the UK (eg. Orange charge €0.30 per 10kilobytes). So most people buy a daily or weekly bundle.
Adam792
22-03-2010
Your best bet is eBay France! They go for around 15 € on there, and a lot will post to the UK. Make sure you search through Enchères & Achat Immédiat (Auctions and Buy it Now) though and not Petites Annonces as that is small ads.

Orange France do a Pay As You Go SIM where you get free unlimited internet for 3 € per day.

On SFR it costs 0.50 € (for up to 2 MB) for every internet session you use, so if for example you go online, then come offline and go back on five minutes later, you'll be charged twice. This is what I used when I went over in October - but in hindsight I'd say that the Orange offer is the best, however, you have to add the 3 € bundle onto the account online at www.orange.fr when you have the SIM which will require a knowledge of French.

Otherwise, you can go into a Orange/SFR/Bouygues shop when you're over there and buy one, but they're usually 30 €! Also, be sure to take ID (passport/driving licence) otherwise they won't sell you one - it's the law there.

And it is correct that credit on French SIMs definitely expires. The more you top up though, the longer it is valid.
prking
22-03-2010
Originally Posted by Adam792:
“....
Orange France do a Pay As You Go SIM where you get free unlimited internet for 3 € per day.

....”

Agree with most of your post, but its not free its €3 !
18days
08-04-2010
Gents,

Thanks very much for your very informative posts.

Much appreciated.
JOEVILLE
08-04-2010
I always check on internet, many mobile companies do free Sim cards, some even have some credit on them, it helps if you have an address to get them sent to in the country you are planning to visit, but I have managed to get quite a few in this way.
prking
08-04-2010
I've never seen a French operator, offering free SIMs. They tend to go with extra free minutes or a half price offer. Interesting though, any pointers to the free SIMs?
JOEVILLE
08-04-2010
€7 is the cheapest I can find for a prepaid sim card, that's nit too bad.

http://www.laboutique.bouyguesteleco...-E1000103.html
prking
09-04-2010
I've seen that. But you said that many mobile companies do free SIM s?
JOEVILLE
09-04-2010
Originally Posted by prking:
“I've seen that. But you said that many mobile companies do free SIM s?”

Well not all the time, I just grab them when I see them online, I must have about 3 from different UK providers a couple of Dutch ones and a Spanish one somewhere.

See it for free, grab it while you can I say, even if you don't use them yourself you can always give them to others that may be travelling.
prking
09-04-2010
How frustrating. In a thread about French Pay as You go SIM cards you mention you often get them free, but are unable to say where you got them. As I say, I've never seen them for free so when you said you'd got some I was interested. Can you not remember where the French ones came from?
JOEVILLE
09-04-2010
Originally Posted by prking:
“How frustrating. In a thread about French Pay as You go SIM cards you mention you often get them free, but are unable to say where you got them. As I say, I've never seen them for free so when you said you'd got some I was interested. Can you not remember where the French ones came from?”

Never needed a french one, I just put the suggestion there as I have found, in the past, free Sim cards online, my best one was a free Dutch one with €7.50 credit on it, these offers are not 365 days a year of course, you gotta be lucky, still the €7 one I put a link up for is reasonable, it's up to you to do the searching, I'm not gonna wait around for ever till one or another French provider puts a free Sim card offer up online, use google, it translates and everything.
prking
09-04-2010
I see, well in post #6 above you make no mention of country. And as this thread is about France, it seemed safe to assume you were talking about French PAYG SIMs. Neither did you mention it the first time I queried it, so I do feel you have pointlessly posted.
JOEVILLE
09-04-2010
Originally Posted by prking:
“I see, well in post #6 above you make no mention of country. And as this thread is about France, it seemed safe to assume you were talking about French PAYG SIMs. Neither did you mention it the first time I queried it, so I do feel you have pointlessly posted.”

Seek, and thee shall find.

I just gave an idea, don't expect all the leg work as well.
prking
09-04-2010
Gosh, this is frustrating.
You said that you had seen many sites offering free French SIMs.
I said that I had never come across any. And asked you to point me towards them.
You responded with a link to a site selling them for €7.
Because you had said there were many sites offering them, I asked you to point me towards them.
You then said you couldn't find any. (Even though it was you who said there were many of them)
You now tell me that I should look for them!
I do wonder why someone would post information they know to be un-true.
Ah well, I shall know next time when reading your posts!
ihatemarmite
09-04-2010
don't know about their data charges and their SIM is def not free but leClerc mobile (bought at any big leClerc supermarket) credit does not expire for 1 year after a top up. Downside is they charge 1.50€ per month for just being with them, but if you are a frequent traveller to France, it's the best bet by far. They will require ID and a french address though, like all of them. Their tariffs go down (a bit: more than UK) the more you use. It's also the same price to call UK as another french no.

Orange may be the best for data but their calls are very expensive and their credit expires in a week or two.
Adam792
09-04-2010
Originally Posted by ihatemarmite:
“don't know about their data charges and their SIM is def not free but leClerc mobile (bought at any big leClerc supermarket) credit does not expire for 1 year after a top up. Downside is they charge 1.50€ per month for just being with them, but if you are a frequent traveller to France, it's the best bet by far. They will require ID and a french address though, like all of them. Their tariffs go down (a bit: more than UK) the more you use. It's also the same price to call UK as another french no.

Orange may be the best for data but their calls are very expensive and their credit expires in a week or two.”

It's 0.01€ per 10kb/1€ per megabyte of data according to the website.
prking
09-04-2010
Originally Posted by ihatemarmite:
“don't know about their data charges and their SIM is def not free but leClerc mobile (bought at any big leClerc supermarket) credit does not expire for 1 year after a top up. Downside is they charge 1.50€ per month for just being with them, but if you are a frequent traveller to France, it's the best bet by far. They will require ID and a french address though, like all of them. Their tariffs go down (a bit: more than UK) the more you use. It's also the same price to call UK as another french no.

Orange may be the best for data but their calls are very expensive and their credit expires in a week or two.”

Thank you for that, its certainly a good option and not one I'd come across before.
18days
28-04-2010
Gents,

Is anyone able to do me a favour a try to locate the orange 3euro a day data deal for me on their website. I have a french speaker at work who was going to sort this out for me today, but we were unable to find the deal.

Thanks again.
Adam792
28-04-2010
Originally Posted by 18days:
“Gents,

Is anyone able to do me a favour a try to locate the orange 3euro a day data deal for me on their website. I have a french speaker at work who was going to sort this out for me today, but we were unable to find the deal.

Thanks again.”

Click Here

Then click "Bons plans" on the left hand side after scrolling down to the "Découvrir Mobicarte" section. (Mobicarte is Orange France PAYG)

It's the option listed as "Option journée internet max" under "Le Multimedia."
KatduGers
28-04-2010
your best bet is orange france or SFR - bouygtel have very bad coverage
18days
30-04-2010
Originally Posted by Adam792:
“Click Here

Then click "Bons plans" on the left hand side after scrolling down to the "Découvrir Mobicarte" section. (Mobicarte is Orange France PAYG)

It's the option listed as "Option journée internet max" under "Le Multimedia."”

Top Man Adam,

Really appreciate your help.
18days
26-05-2010
I have to say that it still isn't easy. I've been in an orange shop most of the day trying to get this sorted. It's a real pita that you are unable to buy a block of days in advance. You can only buy one day at a time. Luckily I have a 3g single with me as I think I could struggle via my iPhone buying daily credit.
Adam792
26-05-2010
Yes unfortunately the French mobile networks seem to like making things awkward. Or maybe just bizarrely different to how we do it...

I thought you could subscribe to that option on your online account with orange.fr but does that only work on a day by day basis?
18days
26-05-2010
According to the guy in the orange shop, that's right. You can't buy more than one day at a time.

I nearly shouted viva la france when he said I had data, then 1 minute later when he said I could not buy more than 1 day I was gutted again.

The previous day I spent €25 but got an extra €5 for free, I used 5MB down and 1MB up of data and that was €30 used up. That's about £28 at the moment.

Still, the suns still shining.
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