I am traveling to Paris and UK in May/June. Flying into Gatwick then taking Eurostar to Paris for 6 days, then back to London for 5 days. I have unlocked GSM phone - was planning/hoping to purchase SIM card on arrival that I could use in both Paris and UK to occasionally call back to the states and possibly if needed to London/Paris numbers (dinner reservations, etc.)

Would I be better off to buy a SIM card in UK and then roam in Paris or buy one in Paris and roam in UK? Any advice on where to purchase would be appreciated. We will have some time in St. Pancras station between arrival to London and departure on Eurostar.

Lebara sells SIMs with minutes for about 10€. Roaming costs can wipe out a lot of credit quickly. Simply buy one for France and one for the UK.

http://www.lebara-mobile.fr/

I have seen Lebara sold at Victoria, not sure about St. Pancras.

The number 1 outlet for phones and all things related in France in Phonehouse:

http://www.phonehouse.fr/

this card will work http://cgi.ebay.ca/Global-Travel-Int...item1e559c9d3e

kc, we have the ekit sim card and the 49 cents is for making calls to land lines and mobile phones to the US; there is also a 35 cent service fee for each phone call back to the US. With the ekit sim card while you are in France and the UK calls to land lines are 49 cents per minute but to local moblile phone it is 84 cents a minute and a 35 cent service fee per call applies to both land and mobile lines.

Most people we were contacting were on their cell phone so for short phone calls we didn't see great savings over using our T-Mobile sim card.

To receive calls in the UK it will be free if the callers use the UK number, if they use the US number that is provided it is 19 cents a minutes but without any per call service fee.

Receiving text messages are free if your callers use the UK number, 10 cents if they use the US number and it costs 69 cents to send a text message.

I had some problems getting connections using the ekit sim card in Europe and also in England this past year, it was very frustrating for us and the people trying to call us.

There are some things you have to do to keep the card active after 6 months of inactivity but we've not had to deal with that yet

I'm still looking for the best universal sim card for traveling in Europe, just haven't found it yet
Deborah

I use www.callineurope.com. I personally like receiving a phone number and having it all set up before leaving home. Happy Travels!

Guenmai, we had a call in europe card for about two years but they got off on the wrong foot with me right away when I paid their shipping charge of $14.00 for that little sim card. For the delivery to our home in Maryland from Massachussets, I thought the shipping fee was excessive.

The France card was fine while we traveled in France but incoming calls cost 39 cents a minute and outgoing 69 cents a minute when we were in other European countries. Then if we didn't travel every three months there was a 20 dollar charge to keep the sim card active.

From our experience, I think if you buy the Call in Europe France Pass and travel often to France it's a good card. Not so good if you are going to other countries using the France Pass sim card or only make a trip to Europe once or twice a year. Deborah

While we are comparing cost per minute, I should like to mention that the Lebara costs in France are:

1. .09€ per connection
2. .15€ per minute
3. .10€ per SMS

For calls from France to the USA:

1. .09€ per connection
2. .09€ per minute
3. .15€ per SMS

Incoming calls are always free.

http://www.lebara-mobile.fr/prepaye/tarifs

DeborahAnn--Hello from another Marylander in Silver Spring (totally off-topic, but I keep hearing good things about a Mexican restaurant in a gas station in or near Elkridge).

Is there any reason that would stop someone from putting a different SIM card in the ekit phone after it was purchased? Would the phone still work fine to your knowledge? I'm leaving for France/Spain in less than a week and plan to borrow my friend's inexpensive ekit phone that he used last year but (1) I'll need to get my own SIM card and (2) want to try to make sure that it will work the non-ekit SIM card.