Jon-Bxl

Hi

I am pleasantly surprised at mobile phone rates in France. Say with Auchan for example. Others are good too.

However I don't know how in practice I can switch the bundle on and off. Saving monthly charges when away from my secondary residence.

1: Does anyone have experience of doing this, please? If so would you please explain the on/off process in practice. Ideally they save my details, and I can resume the service easily. And of course switch it off easily. Of course there could be charges for all this, and if you have an idea, please explain

2: I dont have a French landline, and roam with my Belgian mobile. Auchan, for example want this local number. Has anyone managed to get the bundle, sans engagement, with a foreign (EU) address / number please?

3: The phone co's should accept SEPA for paying bills meaning I don't need a French bank account. Which I am in the process of closing down, shifting all to my Belgian bank. Does anyone have a positive experience of this please?

3: Finally, can I get the SIM over the counter at (say Auchan) please?

Thanks in advance for your advice/feedback

Jon

EuroTrash

Can't answer all your questions but on your 1st question, the packages I have used, you don't switch them on and off as such. What has happened with me, they encourage you to set up automatic renewal so that it automatically deducts the monthly forfait for your chosen package when it's due, or tops up when your credit gets low. If you know you're not going to be using it, you simply switch off the automatic renewal so that no money is taken when your current credit expires. Usually you can leave the sim with no usage and no credit for up to 3 months before it's deactivated but check because they may not all be the same.
Then when you want to use it again, you simply put some credit on it.
I have a Lebara sim that I use for mobile internet when I'm away in the motorhome, the above is what I do and it works for me.

Your second question I don't understand. I don't think you can expect a French mobile operator to give you a Belgian mobile phone number. French operators do French numbers. Also you mention landlines but I'm not sure how this is relevant if you're talking mobiles.

I don't know the answer to either of your 3's

Jon-Bxl

Thanks for the prompt response. And for showing me that counting is not as simple as '123'

Re 2 I am not asking to keep / give me a Belgian number. In the application form for Auchan they ask for a 10 digit French phone number, to contact me and I suppose for security. It doesn't accept my Belgian number. Weird as nowadays its not unusual for a first time user to want the bundle and not have a fixed line. I have had no fixed lines at all for some time now.

Ive looked up Lebara thank you, its exactly what I am looking for, and actually like you, its really only for internet. I can roam with my mobile.

I Assume that you have your own space where you switch off and on the auto renewal payment.

Being able to buy over the counter might make it easier to set up an account.

Thanks again, Ive bookmarked Lebara. Curious if there are other competitors.

Jon

EuroTrash

Yes, to switch auto renewal off you just go to your espace client and move the slider from "on" to "off".
That's one of the things I liked about Lebara, the espace client works well, very clear and informative and easy to use. And it was easy to do the ID ohecks online when I got the sim
Before that I tried Orange but it was very frustrating, one problem after another until I threw it in the bin.
Offers change all the time, I don't know how competitive Lebara is at the moment but it suits me. I've had it for over a year now and it's always worked with no hassle which is worth a lot when you're travelling and the last thing you want is to be stuck with no internet. As long as it keeps working I won't be changing.
I believe Prixtel is one of the cheapest currently, you could look at them but I have no personal experience.
Thinking about it I think I may at one stage have set Lebara up to take payments from my Wise account, in which case it's not necessary to use a French bank. But I'm not sure on that. In fact you enter your credit card as method of payment like you do with Amazon et al, so that's not really a SEPA payment I guess.

Jon-Bxl

Thanks again also for the info about Prixtel a great deal.... !!

Both accept credit cards, so that's good news too. And no SEPA hassle. But Lebara want passport/ ID card information which will immediately show me to be an expat. And of course my credit card billing address is different.

I haven't gone through to the end of the application process as I'm not ready just yet to buy, but if my Auchan form-filling exercise is anything to go by - I might have a problem. Hence my questions in the OP. Seeing if anyone has encountered / fixed the problem. There are 5 steps of form filling for Prixtel, so I'm guessing that the questions will be the same.

We are in the EU, roaming is a big EU initiative, and if I do roam (which I wont) my allowed usage (gigabytes) is much lower. So I dont understand any problem. I'm prepared to pay for usage, in France, like anyone else.

I'm purely guessing that it might be some anti crime thing, with burner phones etc etc

I suppose that I should try to go to the end of the buying process and see if I am rejected as I was with Auchan.

I recently bought a prepaid card, over the counter from Portugal... With a similar deal as these. Easy as pie! Hence my question about buying offline / OTC

"The devil is in..... Etc"
Thanks....
Jon

EuroTrash

I would be surprised if you found an offer that didn't require ID, I believe it's a legal requirement in France. Security as you say, all sims have to be registered (although when you read detective fiction the criminals all have burners).. Often what happens when you buy OTC, providers give you a few weeks to complete the checks and after that you keep getting messages and eventually you won't be able to top it up again until you've done it..
That was one of my issues with Orange, they claimed to accept foreign passports but they kept insisting my passport number was invalid! With Lebara it was easy peasey.

Don't you have any address in France that you can use? As I recall I was living on a campsite when I ordered my Lebara sim so I must have used that address as the delivery address and presumably that was the address it was registered to, and there wasn't any hassle. A UK passport wasn't a problem either.

Jon-Bxl

I have a feeling that things have tightened up a bit, with all the newish money laundering rules etc. I remember a time when you could go into a tabac and buy a cheap BIC phone €20 with €10 credit no registering etc. So all that is changed.

A French address is not a problem (I have the habitation and foncieres tax docs as proof), nor is valid ID (though not French), nor a legal long used credit card.... What kicked me out of Auchans offer was the lack of a French phone number. Which I was surprised by.

I'll have go through the full application process with Lebara and Prixtel and see if I can set up an account when ready to buy. Though my gut says it may be tricky now. However as it was easy for you.. I hope it would also be to others these days.

Thanks
Jon

EuroTrash

Methinks you're showing your age
We used to have hassles over this when I worked for a UK summer camp company in France and that's going back 10 years at least.
There was an excellent police series on TV a few years back called Engrenages, based in Paris, and there were a couple of sequences in that where the flics came down hard on dodgy tabacs that sold sim cards and knowingly registering them in false names.

Yep I can see the lack of a French phone no. could be an issue, I hadn't thought of that since obviously I have one.
Do you not have a friend who could help you out?

Jon-Bxl

Time flies!!

I just discovered https://www.red-by-sfr.fr/ also great pricing!

Actually I'm a bit surprised re French phone numbers, as mentioned a 1st time buyer may not have a fixed line.. I don't. I could ask a friend to use his/her number, but if it is part of a security protocol I'd prefer not to involve them. It kind of goes against the point. They won't appreciate the 'Engrenages flics' knocking on their door, and if the number is also used in 2-step authentication, its putting a hassle on them.

But thanks for the ideas

Jon
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Tweedpipe

With ref to Jon-Bxi comment, "I remember a time when you could go into a tabac and buy a cheap BIC phone €20 with €10 credit no registering etc."
Oh indeed, things have certainly changed in France over the years - often for the better.
On my 2nd return to Toulouse around early 1990, walking around the large Saint Martin du Touch supermarket (believe it was 'Mamouth' at the time) in the sports section one could see a dozen or so different makes of shotguns for sale in cal from 9mm to 12bore, and those wishing to purchase could simply pop one in their shopping caddie and pay at the check-out desk. All that was required was a name and address. That never interested me, but what did was the small selection of air guns and especially .22LR single shot pistols on display as I wanted to join a local club in Blagnac. Again, all that was required was the money and a name and address, and as I had a valid carte de sejour at the time that sufficed. And up until approx 8 years ago, one could purchase boxes of live .22LR in some of the garden centres such as Gamme Vert - which is certainly no longer the case. I believe the purchase of fireworks is also banned unless one is a registered operator. A definite sign of the changing times.

@EuroTrash, it's a pity that you never worked in a UK based summer camp. Fwiw, Hi-Di-Hi was one of my all-time favourite sitcoms, and still is. I'm sure you could have been a major star!

EuroTrash

Who said I haven't ?
Not that sort of summer camp though. Think scouts and guides, outdoor activities, tents, campfires, bushcraft.