Hi guys I have an orange sim that I bought from Belgium last year which is supposed to work in other countries too. Just wanted to ask if anyone has personal experience of using it in Portugal? Would it work there? Also I’m not sure it has deactivated now or something so any idea if there are orange mobile stores there? If not what’s a good sim to get?
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1826 posts
No Orange stores here that I have seen. MEO and NOS are the stores I see most often. You can get a Sim for about €10. At least that was the cost three years ago and I shouldn’t have gone up too much since then.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
The SIM will work if and only if:
1) It is still active. SIM cards get deactivated when they are not used or topped up for a certain period; exactly what's required to keep a SIM active differs from company to company.
2) It is set up for international roaming. It is true that there are no longer extra charges for roaming within the EU, but that does not mean that all SIM's are set up for this; sometimes this feature has to be specifically activated.
3) You still have credit on the SIM, and when the credit runs low, you have a way to add more credit. Since you're not in Belgium, the only way to add credit to a Belgian SIM is if you can do it on the website. These websites are often wonky, and often only work with certain credit cards (you can try PayPal too).
Note that the telecom companies in different countries are different, even if they have the same name. So, you probably wouldn't be able to recharge a Belgian Orange SIM at an Orange store in France, any more than you can access a T-Mobile US account in a German T-Mobile store.
Posted by
OP
108 posts
I see! Thanks guys for such detailed helpful responses!