Cheap pre-paid mobile phone in Paris
 

When we were in Ireland last year, we purchased a cheap, pre-paid mobile phone from Vodafone. It worked great and included some minutes. We topped it off twice at the cost of about 40 EUR total. It was great to have the phone, so thought we'd try it in Paris -- don't want to go to the trouble of having the one we bought in Ireland unlocked. However, I haven't seen much information on buying a cheap pre-paid phone in Paris. Anyone done this?

Sandy

Sandy

I'm topping this for you, because I'm interested, too.


We had a phone from Mobal, but I seem to have lost it. Totally puzzling, but I can't find it anywhere.

When are you going to Paris? We are going in February.

I traveled to France in July. At the time I read and answered a post about Call In Europe I think it was originally posted by Stu Dudley.

Stu visits France often and even he was looking for advice on calling in France. It seems that mobal usuage there is fairly expensive. He said calling cards in France come with a .89 per minute charge, which he considered costly.

I believe both of us ended up using Call In Europe as their SIM cards cost about .39 per minute. That is if you have your own phone.

Try to bring up the post with his name.

I will tell you that the Call In Europe SIm cost me initially $41. That is for the cost of the SIM and shipping and handling. There is no call time included.

At the New York Times travel show last year, they were selling them for $19 and of course no s&h. I didn't know then I would be going or I would have purchased one.

My final bill from them was $62. So I used the phone a great deal, I figure about 150 minutes.

They also rent phones.

Good luck.

Vodafone goes by the name SFR in France (the only ones in Europe who have managed to keep their name ;) ).

You could look into one of their shops and check what they have to offer :

http://www.sfr.fr/mobile/telephones/?vue=0006mr

( I think that SFR La Carte are their prepaid phones ).

Also, Orange is quite big in France, so they might have some offer. In this case, you must look for the Mobicarte :

http://tinyurl.com/2sfjfr

Bye, Cova

Tuscanlifeedit, don't forget to cancel your credit card record with Mobal, in case someone else has possession of your phone.

There is a new Bic phone on sale in France for around 50 euro. I saw it in a tabac last week and was told it is good to go with 60 minutes pre-loaded.

I have no personal experience with this but seems worth looking into for the needs of so many inquiring on the subject here on the forum.

sandypaws3 - We always head straight to SFR on the Champs Elysees and get a simcard each for our phones (which are unlocked & think is a simple process to do)& buy air time easily at many of the Tabac's. The reason being, we are old fuddyduddy's and used to our phones - our son keeps upgrading our phones and we keep giving them back as they're too complicated!!!
Good luck - I'm keen to see if there will be an answer to your query.

Looking for more info.

tuscanlifeedit
Thanks! We're going in April. I'll look forward to your trip report :-)

Thanks to everyone for all the information on SIM cards!

Cova,
Thanks for information on the SFR and Orange shops! We'll just wait until we get there and see what they have. I think SFR would probably be our best bet, since it's the same company as Vodafone. I'll find out in April and report back about the availability of an inexpensive pre-paid phone.

Sandy