French Mobile Phones

[Wicce]

Does anyone know of a French mobile with pay as you go facility where the payment doesn't expire after a few months.  We now have a mobile with Orange and are quite frustrated with the expiry times - 20 Euros buys 2 months and it's "use it or lose it".  60 Euros on a mobile phone we only have for emergencies seems a bit daft.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Mary

[Cat]

Hi Mary

I don't know if this will be of any help or not, but I have a french (Orange, non contract) mobile, and I use a UK Orange Pay as You go SIM card.  The card cost £5 when I bought it in the UK, and works out by far the cheapest option for me for an occaisional/emergeny phone.  As long as I make at least one call in a six month period, and keep the credit topped up (by phone, using a credit or debit card) it works just fine here in france, with no expiry.

Probably worth pointing out that I still have my UK mobile phone number, so this would perhaps only be useful if you kept yours, or for anyone else moving to france in the near future and facing a similar problem.

Although any calls I make work out more expensive this way, I use it so rarely that it's well worth the cost of the calls to avoid heavy monthly charges or expiry of credit.

 

[Ecossais]

Mary,

 

If you really do only envisage using your mobile for “emergencies” then using a UK Pay As You Go phone (or SIM) may well work out the cheapest option for you as it does for Cathy.

 

The UK networks (apart from “3”) only require you to make a chargeable call every 3 or 6 months (it varies by network) to keep the SIM and credit active – that call can be made from anywhere.

 

A call made in France (to France) with a UK mobile will be more expensive than with a French mobile and if someone calls you, you will pay to receive the call.  Also remember that the person calling a UK mobile from a French landline will be making an international call.

 

You can use any UK network in France, the only real problem is how to top up / credit the phone as you cant buy UK top up vouchers in France.  According to Orange UK, an Orange France top up voucher cannot be used to top up an Orange UK mobile.

 

With Virgin Mobile you can set up a direct debit (on a UK bank account) to pay for the calls each month (there’s no line rental – you only pay for calls).  Virgin SIM cards cost £10 and include £5 of calling credit.

 

Calls costs within Europe if you pay by direct debit:  Receiving a call 30p per minute, making a call 60ppm.  (Minimum call cost 1 minute thereafter per second billing).  Text messages are 25p

 

You will need an unlocked phone (one that will accept any network SIM).  Some older T-Mobile / One2One mobiles will work with Virgin SIMs.

 

Further info on the Virgin website http://www.virginmobile.com/mobile/services/abroad/paymonthly/pay_monthly.jsp

 

 

[Gyn_Paul]

one other slightly galling advantage of a UK sim over a French one is the indiscriminate way a roaming sim with change networks while I'm stuck with just the one. We live j-u-s-t out of the service range of Orange (works if sitting on the sideboard!) but our Christmas visitors chatted merrily away wandering from room to room, while their hussy of a phone flited from network to network, providing them a seamless service.

paul

[Boghound]

[quote]Hi Mary I don't know if this will be of any help or not, but I have a french (Orange, non contract) mobile, and I use a UK Orange Pay as You go SIM card. The card cost £5 when I bought it in the UK,...[/quote]

Excellent reply Mary. Been using this method for years. As I only use the phone very occassionly this method is the best alternatve.  

[Wicce]

Thanks all of you for your replies.  We shall certainly reconsider our options on British mobiles - we actually already have one (used mainly for UK trips) - and it may well be that we will ditch the French mobile.  It works out at a minimum of 120 Euros per year for the privilege of an emergency call basically - not good economics.

 

Mary