rarrainbow

Hello

Sorry if I am repeating questions but only old threads are coming up when I search and for this, up to date info is required!

So we are about to move and have had loads of help on here so far so thank you very much!

We want to get pay as you go SIM cards for our phones... I know there is Vodafone, TMN and Optimus networks to choose from.

My question obviously is which is better?

The things that are important are:

good coverage as we will be living in the valley's
free minutes - can you get free minutes to landlines and other networks or just same network
Free texts - to same network or any

Ideally we would like to pay monthly for the SIM and get a bunch of free minutes and texts, like we do here in the UK

I know you can top up at ATMs or online if you have a Portuguese bank account or if not you have to go to the mobile shop.

So in Portugal do they not have shops like "car phone warehouse" etc that deal with all three networks? Or do they just have individual shops for each network where you can buy credit from?

Can you not buy credit from supermarkets? Scratch card top up type things?

Any help on this would be awesome, it's practically the last thing we have to do now :-)

masterbaits

Most important thing is service available , you may have all or none , and in differing strenghs.

there is phonehouse in pt all networks , pt (portugal telecom) shops , vodaphone and tmn , you can also get phones at the bigger supermarkets , this isnt really the problem......but service availabilty is.Dont rely on a sales assistant to say yes or no , unless you try yourself you will not know for sure.

If you already have a uk mob phone , try and see the strenght you are getting.Go into settings and choose network , it should give you a list of what is available.If not get a cheap pt sim and try it again , assuming your phone isnt provider locked , even if it is provider locked to say vodaphone uk a vodaphone sim should work , i have had plenty of luck with this in the past for others.

Yes you can get top ups in shops , but not like scratch cards that I know of in pt.You go in , give them your cash and phone number multibanco ref from the sim pack and they will over air the top up.You can go to the multibanco atm and top up there , with a pt account card and the same reference for multibanco from the sim pack.

I doubt you will get the competitive upgrade packs like in the uk , it seems its a flat rate top up thing.I may be wrong though , I rarely use my phone for talk never mind txts and free mins.