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Consumer Cellular in France

Posted by (Arlington TX) on

I was in France Oct 14-31. I spent 4 days in Rouen, and then went to Chartres to join up with the Loire and the South of France tour. I did the Consumer Cellular international plan for my 3 plus weeks in Italy this year and it worked great. I’m happy to report that doing it again this trip to France was also a success.

I’m extremely dependent on my phone to get around during the day as a solo traveler and even on tour I use it to get back to meet up points etc. I text during the day to my husband, I look up history stuff on wiki when I’m in old churches etc. Of course back in the hotel I’m using Wi-Fi but I use cellular a lot when I’m out and about.

So, I figured that I used about 6 to 6.5 GB during my trip and it cost the grand total of $14.79, give or take a few pennies. I never made any actual phone calls. I called CC a couple of days before my trip, they had my info of where I was going (big area of France) when it needed to start and end. The woman told me to go into airplane mode as I got on the plane, when I landed take it out of airplane mode and I should be good. And indeed I was. Pretty simple. And oh yeah, it even worked while I was at Heathrow on my return trip.

I’ve had a couple of issues with Airola during previous solo trips so I’m extremely relieved to have found something that seems to work.

I hope this can be helpful.

Posted by
6839 posts

Thanks, Lynda. Stan keeps saying he's going to get a phone, and I've pretty much decided that if and when, we'd get Consumer Cellular.

This helps.

Posted by
3437 posts

Lyndash, Thanks for letting us know. I’ve been hesitant to change away from Verizon because I know it works everywhere. As a solo traveller too, I use my phone for everything. Good to know that CC works and saves lots of $$$.

Posted by
16232 posts

My thanks as well! I'd only heard anecdotal negative things about CC International so it's good to know it worked really well for you. I KNOW how much you use your phone for navigation, etc and, laughing, I can totally see you sitting in a church looking something up that has caught your interest!!

Posted by
864 posts

Jane and Horsewoofie, where we live in Arlington, Ft Worth area of Texas it is a great area for strong AT&T coverage and that’s who Consumer Cellular uses for their cellular network so it has always been a good reduced cost plan for us. And now to have it work out so well, for so cheap overseas I’m really happy.
When you call to set it up you always talk to a human who’s very clear explaining things which is nice too. Both times they cautioned to pay attention to how much I’m using so I don’t get surprised by a higher bill than expected. Both times I’ve been surprised how cheap it was. As I said I didn’t make any actual phone calls so maybe that could be more costly but I never do use my phone as a phone when I travel so I’m very satisfied.

Posted by
864 posts

Pam , I’m the original ‘let me look this up’ girl! It’s one of the great benefits to being a traveler these days I think. Looking up info in churches and about artists I’m not familiar with in museums. I would be lost without it. Then google maps when I’m navigating on foot for me is imperative. When I think how I used to keep a paper map in my hand and an art reference book in my suitcase; no thanks I’m not going back 😉.

Posted by
16232 posts

"When I think how I used to keep a paper map in my hand and an art reference book in my suitcase; no thanks I’m not going back 😉"

Oh gosh, that is SO funny! I definitely used to be a paper map gal and am surprised at how easily I've adjusted to navigating big cities on foot with CityMapper. When I read your OP what I immediately thought of was you walking from Gare du Nord to Gare de l'Est on foot with a suitcase right after you landed from your international flight to meet me for coffee, hahaha!!

I used data so much this last trip, especially in the Louvre. The objects I am usually interested in are never in an audio guide so it's awesome to be able to look them up in the Louvre collections website and do more research on what I am seeing. Really a powerful learning tool for me.

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