I have had good luck with www.callineurope.com

If you have an unlocked phone that will work you only need to buy the SIM card it's $29.00. If you need a phone, too, it's $58.00.

Rates are reasonable. All incoming calls are free. Calls w/in France are $0.39/min. Calls to US are the same. Texts from France to France are $0.19, texts to US are $0.39 ea. Incoming texts are free.

It is not prepaid. Service is billed after the fact to your credit card. Phone number is valid for 3 months and will renew automatically IF you use at least $20.00 worth of service per quarter, otherwise number will expire and you'll need a new SIM next time.

They will deliver to you in the states at the following rates:

US Post (sim card only – Continental US only – no guaranteed delivery date) $6
FedEx Ground - Check transit time: USA - Canada $12
FedEx 2nd Day $18
FedEx Express (Next Business Day) (By 3PM - not available in all locations) $24
FedEx AM Priority (Next Business Day) (By 10:30AM - not available in all locations) $36

We plan to use them again for next trip. We will be using their old phone, replacing the expired SIM card and I have an unlocked unused BlackBerry WorldEdition that we will order an extra SIM card for as well. (Their BB/Smartphone rates are not bad, either. Wish they had an iPhone options.)

Any unlocked quad band phone will work for you, maybe even the phone you are now using. Contact Lebara for the SIM which you can either purchase at CDG upon arrival or have one sent to you free in the USA. To have one sent requires your filling out the form (which is only available in French) and simply include your address, ignoring the part that automatically states France at the end of the form. Many people, including myself, have done this successfully. It takes about 2 weeks to receive your new SIM. You can set it up on line and charge, recharge the prepaid SIM on line as often as you need.

www.lebara.fr

Lebara SIMs come with unlimited free inbound calls/texts and has some of the cheapest call rates available. For example, calls to the ÜSA are 0.09€ per minute with a .15€ connect fee. SMS cost .15€ to the USA, .10€ to a French mobile.

Thanks very helpful

I've also used CiE in the past and it's worked well. I'd go for the Lebara option now though... did you realize that places like
tigerdirect.com or newegg.com will sell you an unlocked quad band
phone for as little as 30 bucks? Or check Kijiji.com or craigslist for local unlocked phones for sale.

I was checking this out for an upcoming trip to Amsterdam as well. Cellhire.com appears to have a similar program where they will let you rent a SIM card for $10 a week, plus a $20 setup charge that includes mailing it to you in advance.

That´s a great deal sferguso. Cellhire sells you for $10 a week what Lebara gives you for free, and charges you $20 for what I am not sure. Cellhire rates are up to 8 times more expensive per minute for calls to the USA ($0.79 per minute vs. 0.09€ per minute) even though they are only double the cost for domestic French calls.

A good friend of mine, who is from Paris, actually works for Cellhire. When asked how his company continues in business when other companies such as Lebara or free.fr dramatically undercut them he points out that the thrust of their business is offering customized mobile phone solutions to large corporate customers. Tourists like us would be much better off to avoid them completely.

Hi, I need some advice. Still undecIded about which phone to buy.
Has anyone heard of or used any of the following companies for purchasing a cell phone for travelling?
NATTONAL GEOGRAPHIC
EUROBUZZ
CALL IN EUROPE
To my completely unknowledgeable eye these seem to be among the best that I have found.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Sarastro,
Maybe you can help. I tried the Lebara site and the SIM order form specifically says for French residents only. I'll give it a couple of weeks and see what happens. It's worth a shot. But for someone who already has an unlocked phone, and needs to make a call immediately (or needs to know their number before they leave the state) I think that CIE is a reasonable alternative.

sbrian - you´re right about the Lebara site but I filled in the request anyway and received my SIM in about two weeks. Even if you do not receive one by mail, you can buy one as soon as you arrive at CDG for 10€ (which includes 7.50€ talk credit) at almost any tabac or magazine store such as Relay.

Before anyone commits himself to an expensive call plan such as Call in Europe or Eurobuzz because he needs to make a call immediately upon his CDG arrival, there are coin/credit card operated pay phones throughout the terminals. As expensive as payphones can be, using one and then purchasing a Lebara SIM is much cheaper than what you will pay for many of these plans which are directly marketed to tourists.

Anyone needing a mobile phone can purchase one in France for as little as 30€ (which includes the SIM and talk time) from Auchan, Carrefour, Giante, or Phonehouse (with locations all over Paris).

t

Compared to the cost of airfare and lodgings, I don't think that CIE is particularly expensive. (Especially as compared to the usurious charges from Verizon. LOL). I think it's worth the extra expense to know what the phone number is to give to friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic before I leave. So if the Lebara SIM cards arrive in a few weeks, I'll give them a whirl, but most likely we'll go with Call in Europe.

I ordered the cards to, sbrian. I will see if they show up, though I think they will try to send them to Albuquerque NM France!!

I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the risk of taking my iphone to both france and morocco. The main reason I would like to is the built in GPS (for the medinas). Unfortunately I no longer have two weeks before I leave, and I'm not flying into Paris, but rather Nice. Any ideas?

MANY thanks!

TF

PS: You might want to read the thread on chips in credit cards... one's credit card might not work in an French payphone.

Just my two cents worth

TF

Debit NM----I ordered Lebara SIM cards, and, sure enough, within two weeks they were in my mailbox, addressed to me in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, FRANCE. lol.

And sbrian, when you order the Lebara SIM cards, they do tell you what your French phone number is, so you can share with friends and family before you leave for your trip.

TravelinFeet - does your iphone have the maps already loaded upon which the GPS places your position or does the phone rely upon maps positions which are downloaded real time?

All of the airport pay phones I have seen accept both EMV and magentic strip credit cards.

Sarastro: I have absolutely no idea. How would I tell? And thanks!!

I only mention this TravelinFeet because most smart phones download map information real time meaning for you GPS to be effective in France, and show your location on a map, you would need a data plan to download the map information.

Data plans complicate the mobile phone solutions and add cost.

If you have a gps, take it with Europe chip. No fees for data plan then. I like the above suggestion: Make the call you have to make from a pay phone, then, when in town, buy a phone and a sim card in France. Let the salesman set the phone up for you and make sure they change the phone's language to English from French. By the way, I found out the hard way. A French chip will NOT work in Spain. You have to buy a Spanish chip. when in Spain. Been there done that at midnight-1:00 AM and no working phone in Madrid. Landlady was waiting for a call from me. But that is another story.

They will be in roaming and fees are higher but a French Lebara SIM will also work in Spain, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Holland and Switzerland.

www.lebara.com

LOL Parisecret! I hope it gets here and that it works! We will be in Paris in October. Welcome to Fodors and wave next time you are driving by on I 25 - I am just off at exit 242

I ordered my Lebara SIM cards on March 5th after reading this information here and received it today (March 15th). Thanks, Sarastro! I will be going to France the end of September. My question is, should I wait until closer to my trip to activate the SIM and add the minutes? What have you done with yours, Deb? Hopefully Sarastro can tell us.

Yes indeed wait. French mobile company policy across the board is when you top up it is for a limited time according to how much you top up with and then they steal your credit unlike the British sim cards where top ups last six months at least between chargeable events. Although the card could be stale after an amount of time but interesting their web site clearly says they only send cards to addresses in France; you're the second person who says he has received a card although not living in France. Perhaps I should try.

I haven't gotten it, so I am thinking it didn't make it here. When I got the confirmation, it had the state next to the street address. Then on the third line it had the zipcode, then the city and no US.

I tried reordering, switching the city and state and adding USA after the "city" We'll see if this makes it.

So to recap what I did was put New Mexico USA where it asked for city [ville]; I put Albuquerque where it asked for state. put zipcode where it asked for "code postal" and I did not enter a phone #

FWIW, here's another source of cell phones,SIM cards, etc. www.cellularabroad.com. I don't know how this site compares pricewise.

Mine came addressed:

name
street address
state
zip - city
France

I did not put USA anywhere on the form.

Thanks, XYZ123. I'll wait until at least the middle of Sept. to activate and add minutes. I was afraid that the minutes might expire if I added them now since it's six months until I leave.

Well, it got here - as done on original request.

Last line was printed FRANCE; it had a line drawn through it and then handwritten was USA.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with it! I have til September, so I have time!

These SIMs have a shelf life of only several months so do not try to activate your SIM on line until you are ready to depart. Asking for a SIM months before your departure is really not necessary.

I wasn't going to activate it until just before I left, as I understood the time frame. I wasn't sure it would get here, so I figured no harm, no foul. Hopefully, it will still be able to be activated in Sept.

I went ahead and activated my sim as I read on the Lebara website that it had a 90 day life, and I could keep it active by sending a text message every 90 days. However, I was unable to top up as it wouldn't take my US credit card. So now I have Lebara sims, but they will expire before I go to France in September. I can, of course, wait until August and order sims again. The only other solution that I can think of would be to have a friend who is going to France buy cards for me which I would then load on my phones. Is there another way to do this?

I know I can wait until I get to France to buy the sim cards with minutes already loaded. I would do this if I could be sure I could buy sim cards at CDG or in Honfleur. I'm sure I could buy the top up cards at CDG, but don't know if I can buy the Lebara PAYG sim cards. Also, I'm not sure about buying them in Honfleur. Does anyone know the answer? thanks!

I am confused. - does the Labara SIM expire only after it is aactivated? That would make the most sense. Blh seems to be saying it has to be activated within 90 days (of what? When you receive it in mail which seems unlikely). Anyone??

Much of the information on this thread of already out of date. The mobile phone market is changing everywhere and changing rapidly.

Lebara may or may not actually send you a free SIM to the USA but asking for one months before you plan on actually using it may be of little to no value. The entire strategy of ordering free SIMs and asking them to be sent to us in the USA was always a gray area, an unofficial policy of accommodation from Lebara. SIMs were ordered by many and then used.

It appears we now have some who are attempting to implement their own strategies with varying degrees of success: ordering SIMs months before they plan on using them and attempting to keep SIMs active from outside of Europe. Additional complexities include those who have had trouble with on line payments, and Lebara allowing phones to be activated by those who do not offer French addresses (which may be a policy not entirely within the strictest interpretation of French law).

If you are sufficiently lucky to have had a free SIM mailed to you in the USA (or other non EU country):

1. Attempt to activate the SIM from home if you like. If it works great, if it doesn´t wait until you are in France to active your SIM.

2. Once activated, the SIM itself is valid for 90 days. However the credit talk time may not be. The talk credit durations were typically a function of their euro value: 30€ top offs lasted longer than 5€ top offs. I have not been able recently to find this specific information on the Lebara website but do not expect a 5€ top off to be available for a 90 day time frame (which might explain why some of the strategies for keeping a SIM valid over 90 days may not work). The difference between SIM validity time and talk credit validity time is common among all companies offering pre-paid phone service within France and possible most all of Europe.

3. If you are unable to top off talk time on line, you can purchase a pre-paid minute card at thousands of locations in France.

If you are able to obtain a Lebara SIM in advance of your arrival in France, there will be no assurances, no guarantees about any aspect of their services. Calling France to complain that your French Lebara SIM will not activate from the USA is pointless. If you contact Lebara asking why your on line account cannot be updated with your US credit card, you know the answer (though many of us have not had this problem as of yet). At the base of many of these problems is possibly French law which requires purchasers of French mobile phones must have a French address. Some give hotel or apartment addresses, some offer the addresses of their friends, some simply create addresses but one is required none the less and Lebara may be caught in the middle of offering great customer world wide service and keeping French regulators happy.

The good news is that the service is available, it´s relatively easy to obtain, and it´s dirt cheap to use.

Since I am the one asking so many questions about the card, I have to say that I am feeling Iike I am being chastised for ordering the card and that I am trying to get something for nothing.

First, I intend to buy additional time when in France, therefore I will being paying Labara money for their services, which is after all why they are in business.

Secondly, and this is more important - I read about the free Labara SIM card here on Fodors or on Tripadvisor. I don't have the inclination to search where I first learned of it. A number of people cross post between the 2 sights. Perhaps people should not post about these kind of things if the results offends them.

IF my card works, great. If not, I will indeed simply buy one in France. I will not activate it here just to see if I can - I like to live dangerously

sarastro...French sim cards have completely different validity periods and customs than say Italian ones or British ones. As I've noted, unlike the French cards, British cards allow you to keep it alive with a charged event within 180 days or 360 days depending on the company. French ones do not. I believe French law requires registration of sim cards, British law does not. Like noted every country has its own customs and policies on PAYG sim cards; it's just the French ones are messier. It's simply the way it is. However, in most cases it is not possible to top up online with foreign credit cards nor to obtain cross border vouchers (vodafone being an exception; SFR in France is affiliated with vodafone). Thus if you have an Orange FR sim card you can not top up with an Orange UK voucher while in the UK.

But finally as noted the eu, bless their hearts, has resolved some of the problems in terms of roaming within Europe.....

DebitNM,

I think you've taken comments the wrong way. Nobody was chastising you or alluding to you wanting something for nothing.
You simply wanted a decent deal with a minimum of hassles and there is nothing wrong with that. I think it's what we all want. ;^)

The problem, as explained by Sarastro, is that it turns out things are more complex than most of us would have thought when
ordering a SIM. Worst case scenario... you pick up a SIM after you arrive. I have read posts who say Lebara operators were both helpful and fluent in English.

Rob

I most likely did take the comments wrong, Rob. Sometimes that happens on here, not often, but once in awhile.

Glad that's all cleared up then. ;^) Do let us know how you get on with the phone situation when you get back.

To make sure there is no misunderstanding, my posts are an attempt to clarify to a confusing situation, not to chastise anyone. Clearly, if every tourist to France where to ask for a SIM and hold it unused for months, there would be a scarcity of 06 numbers. Maybe this is why French mobile numbers may now begin with 07 as well as 06.

I am making no claims to anything but I had not seen anyone write about sending Lebara SIMs to the USA until, one day last spring, when I decided to attempt it on a lark. Back then it only cost 10 euros but I decided to risk it anyway. Here is the original story:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187070-i12-k4542011-Buy_a_Lebara_SIM_for_your_mobile_phone_from_the_USA-France.html#33780286

There are a number of us who regularly post on both TA and Fodors (and other sites) and asking people, in an effort to achieve some degree of clarity, not to post about similar subjects on both sites is analogous to asking people not to read both sites as a way to avoid any possible confusion. It's just not feasible and ultimately penalizes those who may only be reading one of these sites (each has its own strengths).

The original point was to obtain a SIM from one of the lowest cost operators in France and be able to top off with an established on line account which would be easier than purchasing recharge cards from a tabac or magazine store.

Clearly, the way in which the requests were made were not within Lebara's original intent as I just ignored France as the only county choice and inserted city, state, and USA in the city field. It worked for me and others who had read my original post. However, to interpret this as Lebara making a push into formally sending or selling French mobile SIM on an international scale along with international product support is unwise because I do not believe that was Lebara's intent. It was nothing other than an informal accommodation to a specific request, not a directed policy shift or marketing effort made by top management at Lebara.

Further, I believe that it is in everyone's interest to keep the accommodation informal. It is unlikely that this will be possible if large numbers of potential Lebara subscribers flood Lebara customer service in France with questions about registering SIMs from within other countries, asking how long they can hold a number unused, and maintaining a number indefinitely with the minimum amount of use. As has been stated, Lebara may be in technical breech of French telecommunication laws by shipping French SIMs all over the world without obtaining a customer address within the country as is required by French law.

The 3 steps for using Lebara's SIMs I have outlined above are to assist those who have Lebara SIMs and what solutions, if any, are available if problems arise. The advice is Lebara specific (as the 90 day SIM validity period varies by provider) but may be useful in an overall understanding of how pre-paid SIMs function on the whole.

One final point, pricing and features are constantly changing. Presently, calls to the USA are 0.01€ with a 0.15€ connect fee. Lebara to Lebara calls within France are now totally free. Lebara calls to French numbers are now 0.15€ with a 0.15€ connect fee.

I do not know of any service which any of us can use that is cheaper.

DebitNM, I'm afraid those comments were made for me because I posted that I had activated my SIM and then was unable to top it up with my US credit card. I'm sorry if I offended anyone.

I read on the Lebara website that the card was only good for 90 days - and I mistakenly thought that was the SIM card, not the activation. The website says you can keep it active by sending a text every 90 days. So I thought that was the best way for me to keep my SIM card active until September when I go to France. I am unsure about being able to buy a PAYG SIM at the airport or in the places we're going - no big cities until we get to Paris almost three weeks into the trip. I just want to have a phone that works and was following the advice I read on this forum. The service I have used in the past is no longer available; therefore, I was looking for a new service and was excited to read Sarastro's information about the free Lebara SIM that I ordered and received. I should have waited until August to order the SIM, but I didn't think about the SIM card having a short shelf life. Since I have it, I was just trying to keep it active.

NO blh, yours is not the only report of credit card difficulties and it's unfortunate because I really thought we had a great solution for those of us who travel to France often and need inexpensive communication options.

The Lebara is indeed still there, it's just not clear how easy it will be for those of us wanting to use on line accounts to top up talk time with a credit card.

Here's an update. I tried again, and this time, I was able to top up with my US credit card! Don't know what the difference was - but glad I was able to get it done. Now if I can just keep it active until September.....

I don’t think this is still the case but four years ago we went to France with Mobiho SIM cards, which I purchased here with credit on them. I was required to fax in a form with my passport number and address of our first stop within a few days of making a call. It was explained to me as being required for security reasons. Terrorists? My sister and brother-in-law were in France at the same time and bought an Orange SIM from one of their shops and needed to show their passport also. This might be the reason why Lebara is reluctant to send cards to the USA. Or just that the cost of cards and postage may not be worth spending on unlikely clients. Who knows?

Last year I ordered Lebara cards about 3 weeks before our trip and they didn’t arrive until after we left. I am one of those who need to have working phones when we arrive. I bought Mobiho cards from Amazon before flying, they now sell Lebara. They are $30 which isn’t as good as free. This year I plan on ordering my free Lebara cards 5 to 6 weeks before departing.

Up-thread someone asked about Honfleur. We spent our first 2 days there last year. I looked at the front of every Tabac we walked past; I never saw a Lebara decal. But since we had our cards I never went in and asked for one.

As for the SIMs expiring, it makes sense. The number of phone numbers is finite; if one isn’t being used assign it to a different card. As for the top-up credit expiring I didn’t see a chart on Lebara’s site but here is Mobiho’s. https://www.cheap-mobile.fr/public/en/1/tarifs_mob.php I would think most have similar time frames.

Did anyone who had trouble using their US CC notify the issuing bank about a foreign charge? That could be the problem and the charge was declined by your bank. In the past 4 years we have used our cell phone 3 times for month long trips; Mobiho twice in France and Lebara once in Spain. I was always able to use my US CC card to top-up on line.

If anyone has any luck keeping their card alive by sending themselves a text please post back. This year our trip will include about 3 weeks in France and a week in Italy. The Lebara site says to roam you need sufficient credit and to notify them where you are going. I think it also said the customer service rep would tell which networks they are partnered with. Another plus for Lebara is it sounds as if they have more English speakers than the other services.

I hope we can all get our free cards then get them to work in our phones.

Lebara promises on their website to send a SM in 2 to 5 days. If this is a commitment they do not intend to keep, then should at least explain same. After 7 days, I sent an email asking for an explanation, and am still awaiting a response 36 hours later. I would not recommend Lebara to anyone, and I have gone to a competitor.

I just want to mention that even though I will not be going to France till late in the year, I ordered and received the Lebara sim on less than 2 weeks. The ordering page was in English too. They had option to choose english if French.

Hi, everyone has given advice on buying your phone in the US. I thought you might also like some information on using your phone in Paris, particularly connecting onto the free wifi network: http://www.aussieinfrance.com/2011/11/3-iphone-apps-for-paris-and-wifi/