Pay as you go sim card in france

[gfplux]

 I have a Pay as you go phone which I use in Luxembourg (where I live) On my rare visits to the UK I put in a Virgin Sim card and buy a pay as you go ammount of money to make local UK calls.

I have never felt the need to do this in France as our house there has a phone and that is all we have needed. However my daughter is now 15 and to keep a closer eye on her I need her to have a phone. (her mobile is a pay as you go and only works in Luxembourg) I wonder wether I can buy a sim card/pay as you go in France. We are off in 10 days to France for the summer and I do not want to take our phones and chargers if this can not be done.

I know I live only 20 minutes from France but this thought has just occured to me and I will not be going accross the border before we leave for our summer break.

[Pierre ZFP]

Easy - get a TANGO PAYG simcard in Luxembourg.  Works just fine in France, and the calls are not too expensive either.  The startpack costs 25 euro and it has 20 euro credit.  You can get them at the Tango stall on the first floor of Auchan at the Kirchberg or from Tango house in town.

[AnOther]

You might be interested in this thread.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/969556/ShowPost.aspx

[gfplux]

Hello Pierre ZFP,

We have 3 pay as you go phones in Luxembourg.

 Two Vox and one Tip Top. Are you saying buying one or more Tango PAYG simcards and credit and putting those in one or more phones would be a better deal than buying PAYG simcards and credit in France. Remember this is for use ONLY in France during a two month stay there.

I would have thought that two phones equipped with French PAYG sims and credit would be cheaper to use (speaking to each other) than a foreign Luxembourg Tango card. I may be wrong and I want to do the best thing.

[Ecossais]

You need to weigh up the higher call cost of using your Luxembourg SIMs to call each other when roaming in France versus the (probable) cheaper cost of making calls from one French mobile SIM to another (plus the cost of buying the SIMs).

Note with French PAYG the credit has an expiry time and if you only use the SIM for 2 months a year you’ll probably have to buy replacements the next time you visit France as the SIMs will be deactivated by the network due to lack of use (you usually have to make a chargeable call ever 3 / 6 months to keep a number working).

Generally, the more you intend to use the mobile, the better the case for using “local” SIMs.

Have a look at Orange http://animation.orange.fr/fis/mobicarte.pdf and SFR pricing http://www.espacesfr.com/v5/wcsstore/EspaceSFR/filesWebPublish/PageEdito/PDFaTelecharger/FIS_LCA_070530.pdf and compare these with using your own network SIMs in France.

Your own phone must be unlocked as you’ve used a Virgin PAYG SIM in the UK – you’ll need to check that your daughter’s mobile is unlocked if you intend to go down the French SIM route.