SIM Card for Germany

In 2012, I bought a SIM card from Penny Markt. It was a repackaged T-Mobile SIM sold by the discount market for about half of what T-Mobile charges. A lot of other discount markets carry the same thing.

I don't recall any problem activating it; I might have called from my hotel and used their address, but it wasn't a problem.

In 2012, I bought a SIM card at a T-Mobile store. I needed my passport, but the salesman handled everything else; our hotel's address was sufficient. I recall it took a few minutes to become active (maybe 10-15 tops), but I simply waited in the store to make sure it worked before leaving. It was quite easy.

At that time, T-Mobile had the best deal for our needs, but of course these things change rapidly.

I bought a T-Mobile SIM in the UK several years ago. Any way to reuse/recharge that?

We just returned from a Rhine Cruise - Amsterdam to Basel. For 15 Euro each, my husband and I purchased Vodafone data-only SIM cards that can be used in multiple countries. We were in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Switzerland, and had seamless coverage.

We have previously purchased Vodafone single-country voice+data SIMs, as we were staying 3-4 weeks, and that made sense. But if you are moving around within Europe, this may be a good option to consider. We used Skype and Whatsapp for messaging, and didn't miss having voice coverage.

One caveat. Our feeling is that it is good use of our time to actually go into a Vodafone store and purchase the SIM cards from them. They do the install, get it up and running, AND will help if you have a problem down the road. We did have an issue in Spain a few years ago, and were very happy to be able to go back into a Vodafone store for help. It took nearly an hour for their personnel to get one of our phones back online, including significant assistance from their own "help desk".

I travel back home often and always install a sim card from vodafon. I always have it activated at a store for me. I always have to show my passport but was never asked for a specific address .

Thought I would document our recent experience for other travelers looking for German SIM cards. My wife and I just got back from a ten-day Germany trip (December 2016). We went to the Vodafone store in Cologne (near the Dom) but they were out of SIM cards. They sent us across the street to a MediaMarkt store. There they hooked us up with what I thought was a pretty good deal - 20 Euro for a SIM card package that included 2.75 GB of data, which was more than enough for our trip (we only used about 1.5 GB).

It was a combination of two items. I'll list each item verbatim from the receipt - first item - "511 PREPAID STARTER CARDS, MOBILCOM-DEBITEL, CALLYA SPECIAL STARTER 15E" for 5 Euro. Second item, "513 PREPAID CASHCARDS ABT.28 TRANSACT, EVOUCHER VODAFONE 15 EURO", for 15 Euro. The clerk at MediaMarkt set the phone up for us and got it connected (it took about 20 minutes). Not sure what address he used, but it wasn't a problem.

The card worked great. We did quite a bit of train travel and the network was much faster than using the wifi on the DB trains. There were several times where we had no network, but all-in-all, we had the connectivity when we needed it most. Definitely a good way to go.

We too just returned from from a trip that started in Germany. Our first stop was Heidelberg where I attempted to buy a sim card for an iPhone 4s and 5s and data for an iPad. First stop was a Vodaphone store but they seemed high. went to a T-mobil store and they said they could not sell us one since we did not have a German address. Same story at a second T-mobil store. We were then directed to a store similar to a best buy. The would only sell us a O2 card but could not tell us if it would work in the Czech Republic or Hungary. So we went to the Vodaphone store and they sold us for 25 euro a 750mb data and 200 minutes of talk with text We never did buy a card for the iPad . Since that was our only choice, that is what we went with. It worked fine in France, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary.

I have chatted with a friend who lives in Germany as we plan a trip and have a similar SIM card need. He suggested
Mobilkom Debitel or Mediamarkt.