French or Worldwide Sim Card

cheekymole

hoping to find the best sim in order to receive calls for free when in France but is it best to get a purely france one (buying property there) or go with an international one. Would also like cheapish txts
I have done a lot of searches and found quite a few but your opinions count better than googles

JPR

This is quite good for working out the best rates for French SIMs based on your usage and also which network some of them piggyback onto so you can check coverage in remoter places:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/france.html

It all depends on how long between visits really as the French networks only give you a limited time to use up any credit. Then if you don't top up for a long time - they cut you off entirely.

I have an NRJ SIM which is simple to top up via a text (saves listening to lots of French announcements) & gives good online itemisation.

rainbowtrout

I bought an international SIM card to use on holiday from Ebay, it's called Ekit Global Premium SIM and is sold by Ekitmobile, who has a lot of good feedback on selling these SIMs. At £6 inc postage it's a lot cheaper than other international SIMs out there (which retail at typically £20-£30) and the reason for that as far as I can see is it only allows you to get free incoming calls when you are in France, Italy, Spain or the UK, and hence is not a true 'global' SIM. This would probably be best for you if you are receiving a lot of calls from the UK and not making so many outgoing calls (although at 50p/min to a UK landline it's still not too bad for a PAYG international call). The SIM has a UK number so your friends should be able to call you with their free minutes.

cheekymole

rainbowtrout

have you tried yours and does it work ok?

redux

ekit is an Isle of Man number in fact, and may come from some UK network inclusive minutes, but not all.

French SIMs don't have great tariffs for calls within France, starting at about 40 cents a minute, though there are useful add-on bundles on Orange, and SFR has an option that pays only the first minute, which would be useful with a callthrough access to reach the UK.

When you say you have a property there, are you moving there permanently, or will visit from time to time? That would probably colour your decision - a French SIM would be fine full-time, but the pay-as-you-go ones do all need to be regularly topped up to stay valid

Study the networks and tariffs on http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/france.html

I'm going to France fairly soon, have a couple of IoM SIMs including ekit, and haven't quite made my mind up whether to get a French SIM; I think that will depend what the others in the group decide about French SIMs.

Another option is O2 UK, with its My Europe Extra option - for £10 a month, incoming calls are free, outgoing 25p/min

In any case, I'd suggest using a separate callback service. I've used Voipcheap's sms callback a few times and quite like it. It has good tariffs for both UK and France mobiles. You send an sms containing the desired destination number, receive a call a few moments later, then the other number rings. VC tariffs are pretty good for mobiles; you'd reach UK mobiles for under 20 cents a minute, landlines under 10c. So maybe it's worth just finding the French SIM with the cheapest rate for int'l sms (to UK/IoM), and not making any actual outgoing calls - or you'd get 40 sms from the ekit SIM if used like this ... Also, Voipcheap will have a callthrough access number which you could use from French SIMs. In both cases, your phone numbers need to be pre-registered in the VC account.

Other useful callback firms would be Voipbuster or Vyke, that can both trigger a call using wap/gprs data, plus others that involve sending an sms or calling a trigger number. GSM2world, Enlinea, Callbackworld, Mywebcalls, Voipfone ...

If you go for the O2 option, you could use callback from ReturnCall, from 4 pence a minute to UK landlines

Ask any questions, or I'll probably think of a couple more things to add later,

cheekymole

thanks redux I'm a bit confused with the callback thing, never heard of it.

We're not moving to France but will be spending most of August there doing the place up a bit and then prob won't be back there until October, then Christmas, mainly school holidays

Where are you going in France, do you have a place too?

rainbowtrout

Cheeky mole, I will be using the SIM from next thursday and will give you feedback when I do so.

thamesmatt

I got a story telecom sim last year as I was doing a lot of travelling and was stockpiling differnt nations sim cards!

It was if memory serves £25 with £25 credit so free I suppose. Call rates werent bad and of course it gives people a UK number to call and its free to recieve.

Had a few problmes with texts not arriving but that was fairly minor and its been fine ever since.

t automatically tops up as well which i good and bills you in US dollars for some reason which makes it extremely good at this time.

The company is Storytelecom - google them and they will come up

reggieq

I have tried Unitedmobile Sim card. No charge for receiving calls in Europe but I think the rate is about 29 eurocents a min to make calls(Better check on their website) One snag I discovered is that the number you get is a Liechtenstein mobile number so you need to get anyone who is going to call you to look at the International call checker on this site. When I last looked it was under 10p per min from a UK landline. It is a call back system. You dial the number and within seconds your phone rings and they say connecting your call and take it from there. I don't know whether you get charged if they can't connect you. Of course you need to make sure your phone is unlocked.

nat1nut

I have a united mobile and I had lots of problems receiving calls when using the cheap call through numbers. Frequently they would not connect.

Since last year I have been using Storytelecom and have had no problems with that (I simply redirect my orange mobile and it comes from inclusive minutes). You could also redirect you home phone as BT charge this at standard mobile rates (same as orange).

If you are on a different mobile network from orange, redirect you BT phone or your callers may pay 35p to call you.

rainbowtrout

I tried my ekit sim off ebay the other day, it works fine, makes calls through a callback system and receives texts and calls for free. It's an isle of Man number which counts as an international number to call (13p from BT landline I think) and is unofficially free from O2 (as in if you ask their customer services whether the call will be charged they will say yes, but when you make the calls it comes out of your inclusive minutes. this is obviously the kind of loophole they can close any minute though.) In terms of tariff it's probably not the most competitive of sims but for short term use it is still quite good as it only cost me £6 off Ebay, and comes with £10 free credit. Other sims often cost £25 to £30 (with £25 free credit) and will probably work out cheaper if you are away for any thing more than a month.