Buying a SIM card in France for a months visit?

[Solwaybuggier]

Think you’ll find Tesco do have a fair use policy, limiting how long you can use it (basically 2 months in any 4) but not how many gigs. See here.

Tbh, given that they then give you 2 weeks more before imposing any charges, 2.5 months isn’t that far off the 90 day Schengen limit anyway- unless I’m missing something.

 

[Andycap]

My apologies it’s just what I was told when i asked about it. Got to admit I didn’t look into it to deep I just asked about using it abroad so I could watch a bit of tv on a night.

 

[Solwaybuggier]

Certainly no apologies needed! I guess it’s a matter of terminology - they refer to “Home from home” policy. But if you’re in France for less than 2 months in 4, it effectively is unlimited.

 

[MisterB]

A few questions regarding buying a data only SIM in France for use in France, Spain and Portugal. The objective is to avoid paying roaming charges as we’d want a lot of data so we won’t have to keep worrying about it.

1. Can we buy a data only SIM in France without a French address?
2. If yes to the above would it work throughout Europe?
3. Has anyone had this experience and would they recommend it?
4. If yes to the above which company would you recommend?

Many thanks

if you go into a 'FREE' (company name) shop, you can use their self service machine to get a data sim - if you do a search on the forum you will get more info. i did it last trip, lasts one month 210gb (from memory) - 19.95 euros plus 10 euros for the sim itself. no contract, i put down the camp sites address but used my own email address - it really was simple ! when i go back i will pay another 19.95 for another month!

 

[Billylou]

if you go into a 'FREE' (company name) shop, you can use their self service machine to get a data sim - if you do a search on the forum you will get more info. i did it last trip, lasts one month 210gb (from memory) - 19.95 euros plus 10 euros for the sim itself. no contract, i put down the camp sites address but used my own email address - it really was simple ! when i go back i will pay another 19.95 for another month!

Perfect, just what I was looking for. Don’t suppose you know if it’ll work in Spain and/or Portugal? Many thanks

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[Manic]

if you go into a 'FREE' (company name) shop, you can use their self service machine to get a data sim - if you do a search on the forum you will get more info. i did it last trip, lasts one month 210gb (from memory) - 19.95 euros plus 10 euros for the sim itself. no contract, i put down the camp sites address but used my own email address - it really was simple ! when i go back i will pay another 19.95 for another month!

Sounds good, it will be interesting to see if the sim can be reactivated when you return.

 

[MisterB]

Perfect, just what I was looking for. Don’t suppose you know if it’ll work in Spain and/or Portugal? Many thanks

there was a thread running a few weeks ago, with a sim from spain that was actually a better deal and it can be posted to your home address. i assume the 'free' one would work in spain as its within the EU - i would seriously consider the one from Spain though aswell.

we found the 'free' one really good, we could stream internet tv (including football/movies) - which is what i got it for - we do have a Netgear M2 mifi which is very good, so having a decent mifi always helps!

 

[mossa]

I will be travelling around France for 5 weeks in May. I'm a little confused as to the best way to approach the 'data cap' issue when roaming in France.

I have read on here about buying a PAYG sim in France and on arrival, pop it into my phone and use that until I need to top it up again or return here to the UK and put my current UK one back in the phone. Is it as simple as that or are there downsides that make this idea not such a good idea?

For reference - I won't be streaming TV at all, but will use data on my phone for searching for areas of interest to visit and internet access by hot spotting my phone to a laptop for reading the news, journey planning and reading forums.

I have no idea how much data that kind of 'limited use' would be needed?

Currently with Smarty on a monthly rolling contract that is capped at 12mb per month in the EU.

My thoughts are that a French PAYG sim might be all I need?

Thanks

I am in France now , been to the orange ohone shop and they do a data sim for one month 10gb £10.00

 

[Panda73]

My Smarty sim did not work despite spending a long time setting it up with their rep. Eventually bought a 20Gb Lebara sim from Carrefour for 15euros and it worked fine in France for the month we were there. Should be OK next time we go and can easily top up.

 

[Mags52]

We are in France at the moment. The Smarty card turned out to be a bit flaky in some of the places we visited so we went to LeClerc and bought a Reglo card. It's cheap 20 Euros (including 5 for the sim itself) for a month 120 gb. More than enough for us although you can buy smaller packages. They told me that after a month I could pay the 15 euros again or just stop and that's the end of the contract. We're going back across the channel at the end of June so that works for us. It's in our Hauweii 4g mifi and working brilliantly everywhere. Have fun!

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[acropolis22]

We are in France at the moment. The Smarty card turned out to be a bit flaky in some of the places we visited so we went to LeClerc and bought a Reglo card. It's cheap 20 Euros (including 5 for the sim itself) for a month 120 gb. More than enough for us although you can buy smaller packages. They told me that after a month I could pay the 15 euros again or just stop and that's the end of the contract. We're going back across the channel at the end of June so that works for us. It's in our Hauweii 4g mifi and working brilliantly everywhere. Have fun!

Exactly what we did. Absolute doddle. We didn't even give an address. Just told them we were touring. They weren't bothered.

 

[IRHP]

you can if you have a dual SIM phone

Yes many phones have that facility and if it doesn't you can also get a virtual sim.

 

[Manic]

We are in France at the moment. The Smarty card turned out to be a bit flaky in some of the places we visited so we went to LeClerc and bought a Reglo card. It's cheap 20 Euros (including 5 for the sim itself) for a month 120 gb. More than enough for us although you can buy smaller packages. They told me that after a month I could pay the 15 euros again or just stop and that's the end of the contract. We're going back across the channel at the end of June so that works for us. It's in our Hauweii 4g mifi and working brilliantly everywhere. Have fun!

That’s good to know because you can suspend the Smarty sim for upto 6 months.
Do you know what provider the reglo card is and was it a special part of E leclerce
cheers

 

[acropolis22]

That’s good to know because you can suspend the Smarty sim for upto 6 months.
Do you know what provider the reglo card is and was it a special part of E leclerce
cheers

We just found the SIM card package in the section that sells phones. I think it was accessed outside of the normal tills. You may have to ask staff to find the Reglo deal.

 

[Mags52]

That’s good to know because you can suspend the Smarty sim for upto 6 months.
Do you know what provider the reglo card is and was it a special part of E leclerce
cheers

It's Leclerc's own brand of SIM. My only issue with it was that the plastic was a bit thick on the sim to slide it easily into the Mifi but that might have been clumsiness on my part.

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[Mags52]

P.S. In the "Culturel" section where all the electronics are.

 

[Manic]

I will look next time I’m over there. Cheers

 

[Karenjane]

Hi can anyone help. We bought a Reglo sim. It was registered at the store we’ve put it in the mifi but it’s not working. Any advice greatly received. Thanks

 

[weefish]

In France now with a Tesco 100gb monthly sim, no roaming charges. Great in Brittany but a little more flaky coming east.
However, I also noticed a subtle change in the quality of roads and services moving east.

 

[Kups]

We are going to France soon. We have a Huawei mifi with a smarty SIM card. Will it work straight away or do we have to change any settings ie roaming. If so how do we do this with no keypad or screen?

You may have to change the APN setting in the mifi. If you bought from Motorhome WIFI company, the details are in your handbook.

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[Lenny HB]

I am in France now , been to the orange ohone shop and they do a data sim for one month 10gb £10.00

That's expensive it would only last a few days if streaming.

 

[Manic]

Hi can anyone help. We bought a Reglo sim. It was registered at the store we’ve put it in the mifi but it’s not working. Any advice greatly received. Thanks

Im following this because I may get one later in the year, please post if you get it working ok.
cheers

 

[Karenjane]

We got the SIM card working for internet only for phones and iPads but originally bought it to stream uk tv on a roku stick but because out of uk we now can’t. Unless anyone knows how this can be done without buying a VPN. thanks

 

[Manic]

We got the SIM card working for internet only for phones and iPads but originally bought it to stream uk tv on a roku stick but because out of uk we now can’t. Unless anyone knows how this can be done without buying a VPN. thanks

No ,you would have to use a vpn.
I would be looking at using it in a router.

 

[Karenjane]

Hi sorry the sim is in our huawei mifi But now not able to use to stream uk tv which is why we bought it Unless someone can tell us how to do that

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[Bolti]

Hi sorry the sim is in our huawei mifi But now not able to use to stream uk tv which is why we bought it Unless someone can tell us how to do that

Its a French sim card. So you will need a vpn, Iplayer etc see you as being in France. If you came to the UK with that sim card you still would not be able to access Iplayer.

 

[Karenjane]

We can get Netflix on the Roku but can’t watch itv hub bbc iPlayer etc.

 

[pete4x4]

Smarty allow you to buy extra data £1 a Gb which I suspect in your case will be cheaper than a French Sim. You can use the bought data abroad once you reach the 12Gb limit.

 

[pete4x4]

We are going to France soon. We have a Huawei mifi with a smarty SIM card. Will it work straight away or do we have to change any settings ie roaming. If so how do we do this with no keypad or screen?

Yes you would need to change the apn settings, details are on the Smarty website or the app under Help

 

[Karenjane]

Hi we have the smarty sim but it only lasted about a week. We have bought a bolt on 15 gb for £14 but read about the Reglo sim so tried that but unfortunately no streaming uk tv

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