StuDudley

We just received a notice that their "service" to US customers will be provided by their EU platform, and not by people in the US. They provided a web site which described the "service", and although my wife speaks & reads French , she could not figure out all the French Cellphone "lingo" (we're not big into cellphones).

The web site is
http://www.zeroforfait.fr/pdf/zeroforfait_tarifs.pdf

This site says that the service is "only offered to customers residing in metropolitan France". Does that include tourists in France like us?

Has anyone figured this out yet?

Stu Dudley

hetismij2

That seems to be a price list for a contract service (abonnement), not a PAYG service. Which is why it is only available to residence of France.

Sarastro

Call in Europe became irrelevant some time ago. Their pricing scheme has been dramatically undercut by competitors such as Lebara, Ortel, Lycamobile, NRJ and others.

I am not so sure they will be missed.

AlessandraZoe

Stu--I am glad you posted.

I have sent CallinEurope an email to clarify, and I'm hoping hteismij2's theory is correct.

Many of us have steered a lot of business their way to people whose French is limited to "Bonjour" and "Merci" and that PDF "help" sheet would frighten them to death. I'll post if I hear anything.

kerouac

Oh, jeez, these rip off providers to clueless foreign customers are beyond belief.

danon

I find their new rates confusing, but since we use
the phone in Europe only in emergency, I am not worried.
I had no problem with CIE in the past.

grandmere

Ok, I was planning to use Call in Europe for my trip to France in May b/c I have used it before, only use phone for emergencies, it's easy,etc. So now, if I decide to go with Lebara, will that be easily enough done once I get to Paris? I've seen a couple of posts on TA saying that they had trouble finding a place to buy the Lebara SIM in Paris despite the fact that one is supposedly able to buy them at any tabac, etc.

Would Orange be easier once I get there, if more expensive than Lebara?

Thanks!

StCirq

Grandmere, I haven't looked at it in a couple of weeks or so (and can't right now), but google Lebara. My recollection is that you can order a free SIM card online, so you don't have to go hunting for one once you get to Paris. You can choose from several pay-as-you-go plans. I'm sure others can explain it in more detail.

Sarastro

I have been using Lebara for over a year now. There prices cannot be beat (free SIMs if you ask) and on line access to your account for top up. It´s a pre pay system and you can add as much money to your account as you like.

Recently some have reported problems using a US credit card topping off their credit on line but up to now I have not had issues. It´s difficult to pinpoint the problem; it could be a bank, it could be Lebara. Still you can always purchase minutes at almost any magazine store or tabac.

StuDudley

Thanks, all.

We leave for France on June 11, so I don't have a lot of time to find an alternative to Call in Europe.

Call in Europe gave/sold (I don't remember which) us a Motorola cellphone several years ago. Can I just purchase a Lebara SIM card & pop it into the Motorola phone? (I don't use a cell so I have minimal expertise - as does my wife - even though she uses a cell).

We don't travel with a PC, so I can't "top it off" using the PC.

About 5 years ago, we purchased a SFR SIM in France & popped it into our US Cell. However, it was a very impractical system, and we decided to not use it for subsequent trips - so we subscribed to Call in Europe.

In a nutshell, how does the Lebara service work?

Is there an English web site I can go to to find info & order a SIM?

We will be in France for 6 weeks this June/July & in Spain for 2 1/2 weeks in Sept.

Cost is not a big issue with us - practicality & ease of use is more important. However, using our AT&T US cell with "international roaming" (w/o SFR SIM) is expensive, and very often we got signals on the Call in Europe phone and not on our US phone. Our Call in Europe phone used a SFR SIM.

Thanks
Stu Dudley

lavandula

I have used Lebara in Germany and it's very easy, just like a normal prepaid service, and very cheap rates to back home. I bought mine from one of those internet / calling shops. When you put your SIM in you have to call a number to validate it but you can choose to speak to an English-language operator. I am not sure about the schemes now, but I think when I bought the SIM it cost EUR10, with EUR10 credit already on it, or similar, which effectively renders the SIM free. I would use them again without hesitation, and since you can buy them online and recharge online too with a credit card, you don't have to worry about finding a shop that sells them or their recharge credits. But I understand in Germany gas stations have them, and that would be pretty easy to find.

http://www.lebara.fr/?isoCode=en_GB

(Any of the local Lebara websites has an English option at the top of the right-hand side.)

Lavandula

StCirq

Stu, just google Lebara and you'll get all the info in English. We're going to try it out for our June trip to the Dordogne.

michele_d

StuDudley,
We are leaving in Mid May for a six week trip: Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Prague, Russia, Norway and Denmark.

We too purchased a Samsung from CIE in 2009 for our three month trip and it worked great. Since we will not be in France this time I started researching other sites and found this one: http://www.planetomni.com/Prod_SIM.shtml

It has three different pre-paid sim cards. The thing I didn't like about CIE was their billing...made me nervous. I'm leaning towards getting a new sim from them for the phone.

I will be using my netbook with Skype to talk to those back home, mainly my father and am only taking the cell for emergencies back home, mainly my father.

I took the back off the phone and removed the battery and found the SIM card hiding underneath. It pops out really easy.

Unless anyone has had any negative experience from this company I think I will order the sim from them.
Thanks

djkbooks

Make sure the phone you received from CIE is unlocked.

StuDudley

I think I can order a Lebara SIM card online. The Web site says that's it is only free for France residents - but cost should be low for me.

I assume that I can't validate the SIM until I get to France, and I also won't know if my CIE phone is unlocked until I get to France & try to validate the SIM. What do I do if the CIE phone is locked and I have already paid for a SIM card with pay-as-you-go money on it???

I tried to find a Lebara shop using the Lebara web site, and there are no shops in Bayonne or 50K from there that sells SIMs. No SIM shops near Bordeaux either - very strange!!!! Perhaps their site doesn't work.

Stu Dudley

blh

Stu, the Lebara sim is free even in the US. Just fill out the form with your address - you don't need to say USA. It will come within a couple of weeks - mine came in 10 days. My friends took closer to 3 weeks.
When the sim card comes, you can load the minutes on your phone on their web site.

Can you contact CIE to see if the phone is unlocked? They can give you a code to unlock it.

lavandula

>Can you contact CIE to see if the phone is unlocked? They can give you a code to unlock it.

Yes, most companies that lock phones either have a minimum time period before they will unlock the phone for free (e.g. sometimes the period of a contract, or 2 yrs), or you can pay a fee to get it unlocked up front. With my last phone I opted to get it unlocked up front and paid A$80, which is hideous, but it was useful to me at the time. Plus it's still good to use overseas if we need it. Call In Europe should be able to tell you if the phone is locked or not. Might be handy to have some of those IMEI numbers that you received when you got the phone (usually on the packaging, or instructions on how to find in your documentation), as they are bound to ask.

Lavandula

michele_d

lavandula,
Are you saying that the CIE phone I used last time in Europe, that was obviously unlocked at the time, could possibly be locked now??? Ughhh. Unlocked is not a permanent thing? Oh, I don't know what I don't know obviously. Help please.

danon

our phones in Canada are are locked so I , like Stu, bought a Motorola phone from CIE. It was $20 and came with French SIM card.
I used it in Spain, Germany and France.
We are leaving for Italy next week. Any suggestions?

grandmere

I used Telestial (www.telestial.com) before I got onto Call in Europe; guess it's still a possibility. Not a particularly good deal, money-wise, but it does work. You get a UK phone #.

I'll either do that or wait until I get to France and try a Lebara.