Great Cheap Local Sim Card Hunt

Dustsucks

For anyone interested in mobiles used in France, until recently all credit bought had a time-out which makes it daylight robbery for those only visiting once or twice a year. However, it is now possible to get a SIM from nrj (https://www.nrjmobile.fr) for 15 Euro's which does not time-out providing you make one call every 9months. They also have an option to choose your number within certain limits. Calls are not the cheapest at 0.55Euro / min but texts are OK at 0.12Euro (cheaper to other nrj users). Perhaps the other networks will begin to follow suit eventually.

JPR

My French isn't great but are these available at supermarkets etc. rather than just online? If they put up a page in English & posted them here, they'd clean up I'm sure.... I end up using up my credit on my current French PAYG in the UK "roaming" if I don't go back for 2 months - stupid!

Alltheloginsaretakenappar

Country Visited: Republic of Ireland
Make of Sim: Meteor
Cost of Sim: 10 Euros
Ease to obtain: (if this is city specific let us know) easy - Meteor and Carphonewarehouse branches all over Ireland
Cost of calls:
Meteor Anytime Plus: Meteor to Meteor = 20c/minute, Text Message (ROI) = 9c, Voicemail = FREE, Meteor to Landline (ROI) = 20c, Meteor to other networks (ROI) = 20c, Meteor to UK landlines/mobiles = 50c, Text message anywhere in the world = 15c
Do you know of a weblink to the tariff: http://www.meteor.ie/makethemove/anytime.html
Anything else that may be helpful:
Another tariff also available - Leisure Time Plus
Free call credit when you register the sim card (online or by post)

Dustsucks

JPR wrote:

My French isn't great but are these available at supermarkets etc. rather than just online? If they put up a page in English & posted them here, they'd clean up I'm sure.... I end up using up my credit on my current French PAYG in the UK "roaming" if I don't go back for 2 months - stupid!

I understand the nrj SIMS are available in some supermarkets - exactly which ones I'm not sure but I'll try to find out if anyone is interested.

theadviser_2

Just one big difference about using a local sim card in Russia and Kazakhstan is that the person in Russia gets charged for receiving an international call on his mobile whereas in Kazakhstan its FREE, FREE, FREE!!!!!!

knuckledragger

Dustsucks,
I tried to purchase a sim from nrjmobile on their website but it wouldn't let me change the delivery country from France. GRRRRRR. Any other thoughts on where I could get one of these from? I'm visiting France next month and would like to know my phone number before I go, etc...

jamiex

Country Visited: Italy
Make of Sim: WIND
Cost of Sim: €10 includes €5 credit
Ease to obtain: I think they're quite easy to obtain - if there's a WIND shop you can get one from there.
Cost of calls: 50c/minute to call the UK from Italy. I think it's 10c/minute to call Italian landlines or to send an SMS.
Link to tariff: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/italia/wind.html
It's probably best to get the SIM card when you're there - it'll be cheaper than ordering one on the internet.

Dustsucks

knuckledragger wrote:

Dustsucks,
I tried to purchase a sim from nrjmobile on their website but it wouldn't let me change the delivery country from France. GRRRRRR. Any other thoughts on where I could get one of these from? I'm visiting France next month and would like to know my phone number before I go, etc...

Details of NRJmobile's partners are listed at https://www.nrjmobile.fr/visiteur/engagements/ounoustrouver.html - the two main ones are Carrefour and Darty. HOWEVER... my friend who informed me about this tells me (and he lives in France) that he had to give some form of identity when he bought his - no problem with a passport - BUT he also had to give evidence of where he lives and that could be a problem with a UK address - crazy or what?! Anyway, until the other networks start taking notice, that's the best we can do at the moment. NRJmobile is relatively new (last 6months) and I don't know which network they use.

Dustsucks

Further checking, the nrjmobile network in France uses the SFR network so coverage should be quite good - IF you can get the SIMS!

JPR

Dustsucks wrote:

Further checking, the nrjmobile network in France uses the SFR network so coverage should be quite good - IF you can get the SIMS!

I managed to get hold of a friend's address in France but they appear (if I understood in correctly) to require a French issued Credit Card so no luck there.

Carrefour sell them and it seems possible to choose a mobile number from their website and have it reserved in some way at a shop for 48 hours. They give you a reference number. No shipping is involved so a fake Fr. address would work and you could do this 2 days before arriving in France and have the number in advance to give to people?