In France - trying to pick up a SIM - what am I doing wrong!?

[Heebson]

Hey folks,
So I’ve got my little 4G WiFi router which I’ve happily used in Ireland and Germany with a local PAYG SIM.

I’d done my research on here, and just kept reading along the lines of “just pop into a Leclerc”.

I’ve now tried three Leclercs of varying sizes, including an humongous one - and two Intermarches - and they’ve not sold any at all.

It was a Reglo data sim I was after if that helps (but they had none of any stripe, to be clear).

I tried googling wider - and the answers the same : Leclerc, Leclerc, Leclerc!

Help!

Thnx,
Heeb

 

[DBK]

You won't find them in the main part of the shop amongst the fruit and cheese. Look for a separate phone shop. Typically there are other shops in a sort of mall, look there.

 

[Heebson]

You won't find them in the main part of the shop amongst the fruit and cheese. Look for a separate phone shop. Typically there are other shops in a sort of mall, look there.

After the first failure I just went straight to customer services and got a ‘No, sorry’

 

[Heebson]

Ok. Sorted now. Use satellite view on Maps to find a Leclerc village south of Reims. All sorted now!

 

[suavecarve]

After the first failure I just went straight to customer services and got a ‘No, sorry’

As per DBK normally outside the tills there is a walkway with numerous shops and I would pop into the big E leclerc one which I think is entitled "Espace" where they have all their computers and other stuff I dont understand.

Would be interested in your update.

I have also been advised previously of the post office but their sims didnt hit my requirement

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[dalspa]

Remember to take your passport with you as they will need it for the purchase. Get them to install/activate it. We had one inserted in an iPhone in the shop and then I transferred it to a mifi when back at van. It worked perfectly and wouldn’t hesitate to do same again.

 

[Heebson]

more leisurely update!

It really was a surprise & frustration that we struggled so much. Most of what I’d read in advance really gave the impression any Leclerc would be fine. I just searched for Leclerc near where we were - and found what I guess would be a Tesco Express back home. I thought aha, fair enough, there’s some small shops that might be out of the question.

Next problem then was to identify bigger shops. I tried hypermarche, and variations, but didn’t get anywhere. Using maps I picked one that looked big and indeed it was size of a ‘big Tesco’ back home - still nope. Customer Services suggested going to ‘the city’ - but she meant Douai, which was the wrong direction at this point.

I searched again and spotted a clump of results (like 4+). I switched to satellite view and zoomed in and it was enormous.

Turned out to be a bit of a mall too, with two actual mobile shops - which said nope - but eventually found the Leclerc electronics shop. Bit of pointing then found the sim and took to the till. They took my passport and without me asking, activated it. No address needed either.

I got a Reglo PAYG SIM. 300Gb for €14, plus €5 for the SIM itself. So far, so good.

Thanks for the quick responses

 

[MisterB]

more leisurely update!

They took my passport and without me asking, activated it. No address needed either.

I got a Reglo PAYG SIM. 300Gb for €14, plus €5 for the SIM itself. So far, so good.

Thanks for the quick responses

That's a decent result, which leclerc was it?

 

[Widge]

Ok. Sorted now. Use satellite view on Maps to find a Leclerc village south of Reims. All sorted now!

Glad you got sorted. Just one point, you said you were asking for a Reglo Mobile Data SIM, to that they may say no, as they do not do a Data only SIM, although a standard Phone SIM should work fine in a router.

 

[DDJC]

Will the Leclerc SIM work outside France? I understood that the EU required SIMS to work anywhere in the EU, but equally I expect that some member states trat that with a pinch of salt.

My router (Teltonika RUTX50) takes E-Sim. I was looking at the Reglo option, but I have two boys with autism and they are very heavy data users. I went for completely unlimited data with Holafly. 23 days for €56. Very easy purchase. I don't need it until July, but you buy it and then activate it when you want it to start.

Not an advocate for or against Holafly as I haven't used it yet, but others have reported favourably.

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[Widge]

Will the Leclerc SIM work outside France? I understood that the EU required SIMS to work anywhere in the EU, but equally I expect that some member states trat that with a pinch of salt.

My router (Teltonika RUTX50) takes E-Sim. I was looking at the Reglo option, but I have two boys with autism and they are very heavy data users. I went for completely unlimited data with Holafly. 23 days for €56. Very easy purchase. I don't need it until July, but you buy it and then activate it when you want it to start.

Not an advocate for or against Holafly as I haven't used it yet, but others have reported favourably.

I think data is reduced outside france, sorry I have no time to look this morning, but i have done a google translate of the tarrifs, hopefully you can understand them.

 

[fishplug]

My router (Teltonika RUTX50) takes E-Sim.

For any other RUTX50 users, or anyone thinking of buying one, they actually don't support eSIMs - well not fully anyway.

What the RUTX50 does support is eUICC (Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card) which is only a component of the full eSIM package.

Full eSIM requires embedded SIMs to be actually soldered to the circuit board (which the RUTX50 doesn't have) and these can be programmed to work with your network provider (or multiple network providers). The programming part is done via the eUICC....

So, you can get a 'programmable' physical M2M (Machine to Machine) SIM and insert it into the RUTX50 and it will work. However the 'true' eSIM without a removable plastic SIM won't.

For that you would need a RUTM52 or RUTM54 (or the RUT241 ESIM - but that isn't 5G)

....anyway... That's a very long answer to a question no one asked