Sarastro

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

DebitNM

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

blh

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.

xyz123

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.

DebitNM

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 #

Mimar

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

blh

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.

DebitNM

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!

Sarastro

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.

DebitNM

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.

blh

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!

DebitNM

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??

Sarastro

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.

DebitNM

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

xyz123

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.....

ParisAmsterdam

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

DebitNM

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

ParisAmsterdam

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

Sarastro

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....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.

blh

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.