I've read and re-read the Rick Steves advice as well as other articles about using local SIM cards, but I still don't understand what happened to me in France a couple of months ago. I bought a local SIM card from Boutique Orange in Paris. A couple of days later I ran out of data because (well, long story...) which generated a text message and an automated phone call in French saying my Boutique Orange account was used up and I should provide my credit card number to top it up.
Instead, I stopped into another Boutique Orange shop, this one in Chartres. I showed them my Paris receipt and they redid my plan so that I would have unlimited calling and data. Unfortunately the minimum was 30 days, which I didn't need, but I felt it was worth it for the peace of mind that I wouldn't run out again. I still have the Chartres receipt that shows unlimited.
Then, 5 days later, I was in Alencon urgently trying to call the Avis car rental location in Caen because our ferry from France to England had been canceled and this meant we had to drop off our car in Cherbourg instead of Caen. All of a sudden, when I tried to call, I got the identical recorded message from Boutique Orange in French saying my account was used up and they wanted my credit card number to top it up. I tried several times, thinking I had dialed wrong -- like maybe I was accidentally entering the country code for some other country or something. I enlisted the help of an English-speaking bystander, but still that same message came on. Every time I tried.
BUT I was still able to call the toll-free number for Avis to speak with an international operator. She told me I needed to call the Avis location in Paris, and guess what, when I tried that, again I got the Boutique Orange message that my account was used up. After that, I was able to call the ferry booking company, based in the UK, as well as Booking.com, based in the UK. (We finally dropped the car off at the ferry parking lot in Cherbourg, where thank goodness the ferry terminal has a car rental hotline phone and a deposit box where you leave the car keys & contract!)
How could it be that my phone account was used up when (a) I supposedly had paid for an unlimited plan, and (b) I could still call outside France???
Does anyone have any explanation for this?