Please sign in to post.
Holiday Sale! Save 20% Storewide!

SIM card questions

Posted by on

I tried to see if I could find the answers to my questions in old posts, but the more I read, the more confused I became.

We are traveling to Paris and London in June, with a day trip to Bruges, Belgium. My mom and I have Total Wireless as our cell phone provider, it is owned by Verizon, but does not offer international service. So we want to get SIM cards when we get to France so that we can make calls and have some data. I have the following questions:

  1. Which provider has the cheapest plans? Can I do this at the airport (Orly)? We won't be using the phone or data that much, but still want to have it available.

  2. We will be in France June 25 - July 2 (with one day in Bruges), then in London July 2-5. I have read that plans are sold by the month, i.e. June, July, etc., not by 30 days from when you buy the card. Will we need to sign up for 2 months of service?

  3. When we are in Bruges or London, will we be able to use the card we bought in France? I hope to only have to purchase one card. Would roaming charges apply?

I'm sorry if these are stupid questions, but I'm not technologically advanced at all. Luckily, my nephews will be with us, so they can help once we are there.

Posted by
9371 posts

The SIM cards I have bought are prepaid, meaning they have minutes/data on them already. You just use the SIM until the money runs out, then reload it. They expire after six months (at least the ones I have had) but there is no per-month expense. If you don't plan to use it much anyway, prepaid would be the best way to go. On my last trip where I bought a SIM card, the card cost 9 euros and had 9 euros credit on it. I made three calls home to the US, and used some data, but never ran out of money, and my trip was almost three weeks.

Posted by
3279 posts

I've used both Lebara and Lycamobile SIMs - inexpensive, work well, never had a problem with either one. I believe you could pick one of them up at the Relay store in the Orly Airport.

Posted by
12313 posts
  1. They all seem to be competitively priced, and there's a lot of competition.
  2. Monthly plans are just one choice, you can also choose prepaid that gives you a certain number of minutes, texts and data. If you go with prepaid, your can refresh you SIM, if you need to, along the way.
  3. If you use a card you bought in France in Belgium or the UK, you will be roaming. The rate difference isn't as bad as using your US SIM in Europe but it is more expensive. If you can, get the card in the place you will use it most. Nowadays, I generally stay in one country so one SIM is fine. In the past, I've prepaid a relatively small amount, then picked up another local SIM in the next country. If you travel often, you can refresh the card for up to a year (at least that's what they all say) before you have to get a new one. I think Rick talks about making a call with his (roaming in the US or while in Europe?) periodically to keep his SIM cards active.
  4. Do everything you can to get your phone unlocked before your trip. If you get there and it isn't unlocked, it's just extra weight. I've been through trying to get AT&T to unlock a phone and ending up with an expensive paper weight in Europe, buying a phone and SIM there, to finally buying an unlocked phone online then getting my own SIM (for both home and Europe).
Posted by
5687 posts

I just got back from a trip to Slovenia, Italy, and France. I wanted a working phone when I hit the ground that would work in all three countries.

I wound up buying a Dutch Vodafone SIM card on eBay. The EU is eliminating roaming fees in Europe anyway in June, but Vodafone had already done so. And unlike Italy and France, the Netherlands does not require you to show an ID to register/activate the SIM card. I never even visited the Netherlands before using my SIM in those other countries..

The SIM cost me $7.00 USD shipped via eBay. I was able to activate it in the US and create a My Vodafone account on the Dutch Vodafone site (can't use one of the other countries' Vodafone sites - you must use the Dutch site, so the text is all Dutch - but browsers like Chrome can translate it to English pretty well). After creating the My Vodafone account, I was able to add 20 Euros of credit to the SIM on their website with my US credit card. After that, I was able to activate a "YOU" bundle to give me 3GB of data for 30 days (not a calendar month - 30 days from activation) - more data than I needed as it turned out (I used 2GB in 17 days, and that's after I realized I was going to have lots left over, so I didn't even bother connecting the phone to WiFi anymore at the end.). I was able to tether (hotspot) with my laptop and tablet, too. I almost always had 4G or at least 3G connections. It worked out beautifully.

However, I really needed only data, not calling capability. I use Google Hangouts to make free calls home to the US, and I didn't need to make any local calls or any SMS in Europe. The Dutch Vodafone SIM charges 15 Euro cents per SMS to a non-Dutch EU number and 20 Euro centers per minute for calls to non-Dutch EU numbers. If you need to call France with this SIM, it's not your best option. But incoming calls and SMS are free, and you do get a Dutch phone number that you can give to French people (B&B owners etc.) to text or call you if they need to, at no cost to you.

The whole thing cost me about $30 USD total for a month, and it worked out great for me. It may not be the best deal for everyone, and after the EU roaming fees are eliminated this month, other SIMs may be better options - not sure, I haven't researched them. I used tethering/hotspot a lot, and not all prepaid SIMs support that, so that was a big benefit for me.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.