French Sim Cards

Dummy

I'm off to France next week, and being the mean old so & so that I am, I refuse to pay roaming charges.

Does anyone know which company provides the best value in "ready to go" sim cards in France?

I have done a google on this but can only get sim and phone rentals.

Merci.

lomb

they are all robbers, sfr are 'ok' u will have to pay for the sim card, and they will cut it if u dont top up every month by 10 euros.
i reakon o2 99c a minute isnt far off what sfr charge.
oh and to top up u have to understand french lol.

Bob24

Being French myself, I can confirm that the ready to go offers are crap, allmost everybody has contracts in France. Unless you plan to receive a lot of calls I reckon you should just roam with your Irish simcard (I think calling to Ireland with the French prepaid will be around 80 cents/minute, no so far from the roaming rate).

Anyway, here are the different prepaid offers:
http://www.futur-client.bouyguestelecom.fr/formules/sansengagement/CarteNomadClassic/
http://www.sfr.fr/FR/info_nouveautes/offres_reseau/tarifs_conditions/carte/offre/
http://www.orange.fr/0/visiteur/PV?file=offre/mobicarte/pe_mobicarte.shtml

lomb

daylight robbery.... and people think the networks in this country are dear, its a minimum of 180euros a year and the call rates are VERY expensive.

Bob24

lomb wrote:

daylight robbery.... and people think the networks in this country are dear, its a minimum of 180euros a year and the call rates are VERY expensive.

Yep, I have to say that mobile phone charges and patatoes are among the rare things that I found to be less expensive here than in France (for exemple my parents have 15 Mbits DSL + unlimited nationnal phone calls + Digital TV over DSL for €30/month).

Mobiles are expensive because there is no real competition: event though they obviously won't admit it publically, the different operators have agreements to keep the prices high.

Dummy

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I guess I will not be buying a ready to go card. I have got roaming switched on on my wifes phone and will use that to receive calls. (if I leave my phone on, I will not have a holiday).

Thank you all again.

Take care

Bob24

No problem, enjoy France! (where exactly are you going btw?)

Solair

The prepay rates in Ireland arn't too bad. I was totally ripped off by Orange in the UK particularly on texts!

Meteor really brought the prepay prices down here in a big way.

Fingers crossed that 3 entering the market will do something similar.

tabatha

i bought myself an orange sim card for when i travel to england. it is such good value as using my o2 card is a rip off. i can call home for 15p per minute and text message for the same. if i was roaming it would cost me 3 times that amout!