loisco

We have a phone for use in Europe. We used it in France on our last trip and got sim card (s). Now our next trip in March we will be in Barcelona for 8 days and then back to France....

My question is. Do we need a separate sim card for Spain?..or will the one we buy in Spain work in France?..

I am really unsure of what we did in France to get it to work. I only know we spent a lot of time in phone stores. LOL My husband is waiting for this info too.

Oh yes, another question, can we buy these cards at CDG????

Thanks

Travelnut

I don't know much but I'll say a couple of things, and that will also serve to send your post up to the top of the list

If the France SIM works in Spain, the per-minute rates will be much higher.

SIM cards have an expiration period - is yours still valid?

Basically, you insert the SIM into your phone, turn the phone on, and it should automatically search for a network. If it doesn't automatically search, there will be an option buried somewhere in the menu for you to tell it to search.

drempel

If your french sim card works in Spain you will no doubt be paying huge roaming charges. You can buy sim cards before you leave the US at www.telestial.com but it's more expensive than buying them in the country you're traveling to. I doubt you'd be able to find sim cards for another country in France. I tried that in Holland to no avail. Your cheapest option is to buy a sim card after you get to Spain.

polly229

Pevious posters are correct that your card may be expired. They can be good for anything from 30 (or maybe 45) days to a year. My husband got a Vodafone card in Amsterdam that was good for 13 mo. but he had to top up after a year, so the 13 mo. really only means you have that long to top up and still keep the number.

But if you're like us and rarely use the phone, just have it for emergency contact and an occasional text message, you may have a lot of time left (assuming the card is still good). It would be cheaper to use that card than buying one in Spain you may not use much or any time on either (and cheaper than US service). So if you're probably not going to use all the "French time" before your card expires, go ahead and use it. We sometimes do that. Plus you have an emergency number you can give to people in the US before you leave home. (Not sure about when you're in a different country, but incoming calls in Europe are free. We think they're probably cheaper even if you're in a different country than US cards, which don't have free incoming anywhere.)

BTW, you can buy time on an existing card in another country - at least in some cases. My husband got a top up for his Dutch Vodafone card in Germany. However, the service for registering the top up wasn't working properly, so he wasn't able to get through. Next thing you know, we were in Austria (on a Danube cruise) and he couldn't top up his Dutch card with a German top up in Austria. At the airport in Germany on the way home, he was able to make the top up work just fine. But too late then.

(And the reason he needed to top up the Dutch card, which we were using because there were about 30 Euros left on it that were probably going to expire before we got back to NL, is because he inexplicably ran out of time without using the phone. On checking, he discovered that he had forgotten to lock his keypad - was using an older phone and his current one automatically locks after 60 sec., so he didn't think to lock it. We surmise that he accidentally made a long call while the phone was still in his pocket - likely to a Dutch friend of mine, who was the last person we called on that card.)

I have spent a lot of time in phone stores myself, so maybe we'll meet someday. And I am not LOL because I get pretty annoyed by it. On the other hand, my husband doesn't complain about anything we do on our trips (which I plan), so I should just bite my tongue - and I manage to do that most of the time.

Suspaul

While this doesn't exactly pertain to sim cards, we found it much easier to use our phone from the US when out of the country. A few months ago I bought a new cell phone from Cingular (who I use here at home) that has the capability of using the different frequencies when overseas. About a week before we leave the States I call Cingular, tell them the date we will leave and for a fee of about $6 USD per month I am able to use my own cell phone and retain my cell number. It depends which country you are in as to the per minute cost but we were in Greece and Turkey and paid only 99 cents per minute on calls made to the US and received on my cell, calls within the country were less expensive. The great thing about this was you keep your regular cell phone number, making it easy for anyone to get in touch with you by calling your regular number and you only add a digit or two to the number you are calling back to the US. When you get back home you simply call Cingular and tell them to discontinue this service. Sorry to go on and on, this may or may not be something you're interested in but it works well for us and I wanted to pass along the info. I'm sure many different cell companies offer the same type of service.
Susan

AAFrequentFlyer

I always just buy a new sim card when arriving in a new country. I do some research, find the cheapest provider and it works great for me. The only sim card (same number) I reuse is UK, but that's only because I'm there few times a year. It's just a lot cheaper and less hassle to get a new sim card every time I travel. As soon as I get a new number I call my answering machine and record a new message with the number, so if anybody wants to reach me, it's not a problem. In most cases, I get it done at the airport upon arrival. That's true for almost any major European airport. Not so in many other parts of the world, but still possible few hours later in the city. I can usually find deals of ~.10-25 cents a minute for outgoing calls and in most cases, free incoming calls.

Travelnut

I use my own US-based phone as well, only with T-Mobile. They do not charge a monthly fee and there is no need to de-activate upon returning home. They require a 3-month billing period before they will activate the international roaming, however. $0.99/minute for both incoming/outgoing calls, same phone number as used at home.

tuscanlifeedit

I know some have written about using their US based phones overseas, but since the OP asked about SIM cards, I will add a question/thought to all that.

We have a phone that we bought about 3 years ago to use in Italy. I believe we have 15 months (maybe 13) from our last use to top up the minutes on the card and reuse it without the card expiring. At least, that is the way it has worked so far.

I'm really wondering how long that will go on... I am not planning to buy a new phone for use in the US in the forseeable future, so a discussion of using a US based phone won't help me here. I guess my basic question is: if we use the phone and top up minutes (buying a Tim card) within 13 months every year, can we go using the Italian phone indefinetly?

I am also interested in knowing about having to buy sim cards for different countries in Europe, because we are going to France in 2007, and it would be great to take this phone and just buy a new sim card for it.

Hope this fits the thread and I didn't hijack it.

loisco

Polly...I probably will meet you in one of those phone stores. And I wasn't that good-natured about it at the time.

My husband would as soon not even have a phone..so it made me feel really guilty spending all this time.

rkkwan

tuscanlifeedit - You already have a GSM phone, that's unimportant. The phone will last forever. Now, it's your SIM, which stores your number and account, that's important. If you want to keep the same Italian phone number, and keep the unused minutes, then yes, top up your SIM (i.e. your account) every 13 months. If you don't need the same number, or if you're not even spending your minutes fast enough during your stay, then there's no point spending money to top up your account that often.

---

When it comes to whether to use a T-Mobile USA or Cingular SIM overseas, or use a local one, it really depends on how often you'll use your phone overseas, and to call who.

If it's just for emergency and you won't make even 10 one-minute call during your trip, then just go ahead and use your US SIM card. There's a minimum startup cost for getting a local SIM, and it depends on the country. Also, the per minute cost for calling back to the US (or to another country/continent) is higher than locally when using a local SIM. So, you're not saving as much if all you're calling are the US. T-Mobile/Cingular still charges you only $.99/minute whether you're calling someone across town in Europe, or if you're calling someone in Tibet.

But if you're going to use the phone quite a bit, especially for local calls or receiving calls, then get a local SIM. Like AAFF says, they're much cheaper than a Cingular/T-Mobile SIM's $.99/min rate.

simpsonc510

I just bought a SIM card in Germany in late November. If I'm not mistaken, it only lasts three months. The same holds true for when I take my GSM phone to Bangkok. Each time, I need to get a new SIM card, which means a new phone number. But doing this is cheaper than using a T-mobile US phone at 99 cents per minute! I just have to make sure I fax or email my new phone number each time I get a new SIM card. Along with the SIM card, you need to buy "calling time" for your phone. My German SIM card worked in Amsterdam, Germany, and Switerland. Not sure about Spain (from OP's question).

polly229

Cheapest place to buy a SIM card and/or time is a tobacco store or kiosk in many countries. And I would think any western European SIM would work in any other western European country. They're a lot more advanced about this stuff than we are - and a lot cheaper. It costs a good bit more for Europeans to buy a US SIM card ffor short-term use. But while Italy was a bit on the high side, the UK and NL are pretty cheap. In Greece we got an 8 euro Vodafone card with 5 min. of time for 6 euros at a tobacco shop. Then we sent a text message to my daughter's US phone with the number and she e-mailed the # to the cat sitter,etc. - text message costs about 30 cents. We just wanted a number for (free) incoming emergency calls and didn't figure to use it otherwise. (Vodafone was doing promotions to increase business. What we discovered was that we only had Vodafone coverage in cities and larger towns but my husband's US Cingular roamed on Cosmote nearly everywhere including Agean sea on the 2 hr. high speed cat trip from Santorini to Crete.)

You can get cards that expire in various times. Our UK, NL, and Greek cards are all Vodafone and good for a year before having to be topped up, 13 mo. before you lose the number. But my daughter got a 45 day card in the UK a few weeks ago. Like in the US, they have a variety of carriers and all offer different deals. If a longer time is important to you, shop around. If the widest coverage is important and you'll be in remote areas, look for a carrier who has that.