Cellphone sim card for internet use

Check this first: http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Germany

Thank you for the website! It's very good!
I have one question: those data-only sim cards are only for tablets and routers or can I use them in my cellphone if I only need it for data?

Hi, I go to Berlin every year, and I just go to one of the main train stations and buy a German sim card. They put swap it out for me. The ones in Berlin cost about $25 and I used one last fall for three weeks and still had data left on it.

There maybe other ways to do it, but this is straightforward and easy and inexpensive. Have a great trip.

Jude

I had done some research on this for a recent trip to Germany, and initially I was discouraged. To get a German Phone number, you technically need a German address and I read a lot about needing to activate it online, rather than at the store.

In the end, we opted to go with Vodaphone, went into a store, the clerk was able to register the card and get it installed with not much trouble.

Some basic things to remember though, as well as some tips:

1. Verify that your phone is unlocked.
2. Even if your phone is unlocked, ask your carrier about swapping out a SIM card. My Son has Verizon, his is unlocked, but Verizon has a couple steps that are needed to use a non Verizon SIM card, and on his phone, there were some additional settings that needed to be changed.
3. You will need your passport to get the SIM card, and may need an address (your hotel works)
4. We went to a Vodaphone store (They are everywhere in the Munich area) as opposed to a non-affiliated store in the train station just in case we had issues, we could head into a store (My son did for the settings)
5. Most prepaid deals have some amount of data, texts, and minutes, but if you want to text or call to the US, you will need some additional credit on the account. Some deals do have expiration dates for the Data, but I have not seen one under 30 days, others will hold the balance for an extended amount of time. We had a deal for 25 euro (Vodaphone CallYa) that had 750 Meg, 200 texts, 200 minutes, then a 15 euro credit on account for calling the US or for which you could by another block of data if needed. If you only need Data you could get by for about 10 euro.
6. Maybe goes without saying, but some people do miss that by changing the SIM, you have a different phone number (a German one in this case), so people can not call you unless they have your new number, it is an international call for them to call you from a US number, and it may mess up or cause issues with apps that use your phone number as your ID (Wechat for example) I wind up taking two phones, my regular phone and a second unlocked phone for a foreign SIM.

Fairly easy if you have an unlocked phone. Go to Vodafone and they install it for you.