French pay as you go

[CeeJay]

I am in the process of unlocking my mobile in order to change to pay as you go in the Uk, which have an unlimited expiry time,  and additionally to purchase a French SIM for pay as you go. Can anyone enlighten me as to the expiry times of French pre pay cards.

[fulcrum]

Ceejay

I use Orange pay as you go in France. The intial chip costs around €40 (not sure) but the number you are given lasts for minimum of six months even if you dont top it up. Each time you top it up with various values ranging from €10 to €100 you get the number extended again.

I always wait till the last moment (near the six months limit) before I top mine up as I mainly use it to receive calls and anyway the expiry of the purchased units only last for a limited time depending on the value. For example a €10 top up lasts fifteen days even if you dont make any calls!!!

Hope that helps

[Iceni]

[quote user="Ceejay"]I am in the process of unlocking my mobile in order to change to pay as you go in the Uk, which have an unlimited expiry time,  and additionally to purchase a French SIM for pay as you go. Can anyone enlighten me as to the expiry times of French pre pay cards.[/quote]

My Orange mobicarte costs 30€, yields €35 in calls but use it or lose it expires in 3 months though my phone number is valid for a further 6 months.

Suggest that you search here for "NRJ mobile" as this is allegedly a PAYG card which does not time expire. Though AFAIK they only guarantee that it will work with some not all providers. At one time this was being sold at Carrefour but unsure whether this is still true.

HTH

John

not

[Deimos]

Couple of options I would suggest (though also probably loads of other possibilities from others as well).

For true Pay as you go – NRJ (available in Carrefour and a few other places – check internet. Carrefour still sold them a month ago) is a PAYG where credits do not expire. Not sure about cost comparison with other PAYG – but good if you have your phone for emergencies only as you will not be continually losing top-up payments through their expiry. I believe NRJ operate over the SFR network (if you have overage issues).

However, I went for Orange Initial which is a billed system. It costs 7€ per month though being a billed system you don’t top-up or anything. No un-front charge for the card and, when I got mine, no term for the contract (i.e. cancel at any time). The cancel at any time surprised me so (not very French) so I’d expect that to change). Calls are slightly cheaper than PAYG but not a lot. You also get all the international roaming and a monthly bill. SFR do a similar thing but theirs has more bits you have to pay extra for (e.g. Orange 7€ includes caller number presentation whereas SFR you have to pay a bit extra for that, etc.)

I selected Orange as that was the only network that gave me decent coverage in my house.

Ian

[Bobc]

We bought an NRJ pay-as-you-go SIM for our son’s phone online from:

www.nrjmobile.fr

I have since bought one to use in my old phone to give me SFR coverage where my main phone on Orange does not work.

Easy to order and the SIM arrives in a couple of days - no time limit

on usage (unless I have missed something in the small print).

Regards,

Bob Clarke

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/grindoux

[ChezShells]

NRJ has a 6 month limit without using

May be wrong but looking at their site you can get 50 free text and double credit when you top up
I do have one of these but yet to top up my initial free credit.
Anyway it cost us 15 euros with free credit and free text after registering online.

Lee

[CeeJay]

Thanks for all the replies, I have checked NRJ's web site and it looks the best for my particular situation, especially as my local Presse/Tabac sells the top-up cards.

[Alan Zoff]

All I would say, having just got through a 9 month battle with Orange to end a mis-sold contract and ended up well out of pocket, is that I would not touch Orange again with a barge-pole.