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SIM card still confused

Posted by on

I posted this under "France" but am trying it here too.

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?

Posted by
5687 posts

This is really a specific question about an Orange SIM card. I wonder if you might have better luck asking on a cell phone forum like Howard Forums? Or a forum frequented by French nationals? (E.g. Trip Advisor Paris forum.) I think most people here are Americans.

There is no generic "SIM card running out" problem with putting a local SIM in your American phone that I'm aware of. I've bought SIM cards in Europe numerous times and never had the issue you describe. I suspect it's something to do with what kind of Orange plan you got, perhaps not the one you expected.

Posted by
494 posts

Is it possible that your credit got eaten up by automatic updates on your phone? Another acquaintance/tourist in Venice last year had that problem - put 50 euro credit that disappeared on him after some time without him using the phone.

Posted by
3123 posts

Thanks, I had not heard of the Howard forums. Maybe I will try there and see if anyone has an answer.

As for the credit getting eaten up by automatic updates, well, I guess anything is possible. It was only 4 days after I bought the "unlimited" upgrade that the phone quit working for France.

One thing occurred to me. Is it possible that the outside-France calls were "data" while the in-France calls were "cellular"? Or something like that? I don't have a good understanding of which function the phone uses for which tasks. My service with my regular USA provider wasn't canceled during my trip, so could the phone have been working with some elements of the USA service even though it was loaded & coded with the French SIM card?

Posted by
5687 posts

epltd: "One thing occurred to me. Is it possible that the outside-France calls were "data" while the in-France calls were "cellular"? Or something like that? I don't have a good understanding of which function the phone uses for which tasks"

No - regular calls use voice minutes, not data. VOIP services like Skype and Google Hangouts do use data. But if you haven't set one up and simply type in a phone number to call, you are using voice not data.

"My service with my regular USA provider wasn't canceled during my trip, so could the phone have been working with some elements of the USA service even though it was loaded & coded with the French SIM card?"

No. Ocne you remove the SIM card from the phone, it loses all connection to your US provider, though the provider could have locked the phone. But if you managed to use the Orange SIM, obviously it wasn't locked or you locked it - you wouldn't even be able to boot up the phone otherwise and use it.

Posted by
3123 posts

@Andrew H, thanks for answering my tangential questions. I definitely did not set up Skype or any other special phone service. And my French SIM card was definitely working until I needed it for the ferry emergency, as I made quite a number of calls within France on preceding days.

The mystery continues!

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