SIM card for France.

scaley

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Hi. I’m not very tech savvy so hopefully I don’t come across as too stupid!! Been motorhoming for the past 18 + years and travelled extensively in Europe however am totally confused as to what SIM card to use when we go off very soon to France. Additionally if I have to replace the SIM card which is in my iPhone, how do I do it. My provider is Three but looking on their website it seems to be expensive to use their roaming charges. It was much simpler before Brexit ! Please can someone help. Thanks in advance.
 
You don't say how you want to use the phone. Is it calls & texts or data as well? Having said that, if you took out a pay monthly contract with 3 after Oct 21 they seem to want £2/ day to unlock roaming, that is if I read their Ts & Cs correctly. Phew, that is expensive. Also all the mainstream providers limit you to around 12Gb or 14Gb per month in the EU. I am about to make a longish trip to the EU and have bought a Popit sim for £25/month which gives you a full 100Gb over there with unlimited calls & texts. They also do a 30Gb deal. Popit have been mentioned a few times within this hallowed forum. At the end of my trip I shall just cancel it.

Regarding changing the sim in your iPhone, just do an internet search on 'changing the sim in an iPhone'. There are youtube videos and Apple support pages showing you how.

Hope this helps; I am sure others will be along with alternative suggestions.
 
Pop into the closest LeClerc and buy a Reglo Mobile data sim, they last 28 days and are very reasonably priced and can be topped up online. No contract, buy the sim and use it.
 
I am on Smarty but there roaming only 60 days in the E U all so Quote You can use up to 12GB of data each month out of your monthly allowance, Have just got a RWG mobile 200gb and no roaming charges I will let you all know end of july PS The RWG is £20
 
number14 said:
You don't say how you want to use the phone. Is it calls & texts or data as well? Having said that, if you took out a pay monthly contract with 3 after Oct 21 they seem to want £2/ day to unlock roaming, that is if I read their Ts & Cs correctly. Phew, that is expensive. Also all the mainstream providers limit you to around 12Gb or 14Gb per month in the EU. I am about to make a longish trip to the EU and have bought a Popit sim for £25/month which gives you a full 100Gb over there with unlimited calls & texts. They also do a 30Gb deal. Popit have been mentioned a few times within this hallowed forum. At the end of my trip I shall just cancel it.

Regarding changing the sim in your iPhone, just do an internet search on 'changing the sim in an iPhone'. There are youtube videos and Apple support pages showing you how.

Hope this helps; I am sure others will be along with alternative suggestions.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much, that’s really helpful. I’m now going to peruse YouTube as you suggested. Have a good trip, hope we will too.
 
In
SimonM said:
Pop into the closest LeClerc and buy a Reglo Mobile data sim, they last 28 days and are very reasonably priced and can be topped up online. No contract, buy the sim and use it.
Click to expand...
thanks Simon, that’s another option.
 
Greengrass said:
I am on Smarty but there roaming only 60 days in the E U all so Quote You can use up to 12GB of data each month out of your monthly allowance, Have just got a RWG mobile 200gb and no roaming charges I will let you all know end of july PS The RWG is £20
Click to expand...
Is Smarty a provider? Forgive my ignorance!! Also is RWG a mobile phone or another provider. Thanks
 
Smarty are part of and owned by Three. 12GB per month fair usage when roaming

Best SIM Only Deals

Discover the best SIM only deals in the UK with SMARTY Mobile. Find the perfect SIM only deal for your needs with SMARTY today.
smarty.co.uk smarty.co.uk
 
number14 said:
You don't say how you want to use the phone. Is it calls & texts or data as well? Having said that, if you took out a pay monthly contract with 3 after Oct 21 they seem to want £2/ day to unlock roaming, that is if I read their Ts & Cs correctly. Phew, that is expensive. Also all the mainstream providers limit you to around 12Gb or 14Gb per month in the EU. I am about to make a longish trip to the EU and have bought a Popit sim for £25/month which gives you a full 100Gb over there with unlimited calls & texts. They also do a 30Gb deal. Popit have been mentioned a few times within this hallowed forum. At the end of my trip I shall just cancel it.

Regarding changing the sim in your iPhone, just do an internet search on 'changing the sim in an iPhone'. There are youtube videos and Apple support pages showing you how.

Hope this helps; I am sure others will be along with alternative suggestions.
Click to expand...
Popit telling me I cannot cancel until I have used more data in the UK .
Took 2 weeks to get the SIM . Not their fault, Royal mail.
So I couldn't use SIM before I left .
 
Depending on the age of the iPhone it may be dual sim meaning you can instal a second sim without removing the first. Generally iPhone XR and later. In settings you can choose which sim does what if it is a dual sim model.

If it is dual sim then the Reglo sim from Leclerc can be installed alongside the three sim. I would be inclined to turn off the three sim for data to avoid the roaming fees and use the Reglo sim for data. You then retain your three number for incoming calls.

If you are making an outgoing call you could switch to Reglo for calls.
 
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Dual sim iPhone like my 13 ProMax does not accept 2 physical cards, the second ’slot’ is for a download sim. Reglomobile don’t do a downloadable sim. Read here.


Use Dual SIM on iPhone

You can use Dual SIM on certain iPhone models.
support.apple.com
 
If you only want data and have a single SIM slot in your phone...another option is to invest in a mobile Wi-Fi router and a data only sim. The ones local to France mentioned above are generally good, or a smarty sim, (12gb in EU) or O2 ( 25gb in EU) from UK, if you want someone to help set it up?
Remember you can download programmes and films from iplayer, or Netflix in UK before you go if that is something you like. Useful if there is no signal! I
@Moped 's advice about turning off the Three SIM data if using a dual SIM phone is good, my phone has dual and I do this.
 
Last year, I purchased a Reglo Mobile SIM at the start of each trip to use for mobile data. When the first one was inserted into my mobile router, it worked for 5 or 10 minutes and then ceased. When I read the small print, I discovered that the T&Cs forbid use in "boitiers radio", so inserted it into an old phone that I had with me, went into a Leclerc store to have the SIM re-enabled and used the phoneas a mobile hotspot for the duration of the trip. It was generally satisfactory, though there were one or two places where there was no signal, even outside the motorhome, and the old phone had a very old and very poor battery.
This year, I purchased a Popit SIM which has been working very satisfactorily in my mobile router and changes automatically to a different operator if the default operator has no signal or no data connection; it also gives me the opportunity to manually change to a different French operator if the default operator is delivering a slow connection, things that cannot be done if you have a French SIM.
 
jann said:
Been with plusnet since Three increased the roaming charge. Every thing worked well last year,no extra charges
Click to expand...
Wife did exactly the same after getting stung with the £2 a day extra roaming charges on Three and is now happy with Plusnet ( 12GB in EU ).

I went over to Tesco Mobile ( O2 ) and roaming ( 25GB in EU ) is included, i joined before the cut off date of 16th June 2022 so i`ll continue to get it as long as i do not upgrade or change plans.
 
Just for information. O2 have a limit of 25gig in the EU. I believe it is the largest allowance of any of the major players. No cut off date as far as I can see. Tesco, who run off of O2 now have the 12gig limit as other providers. We have a Three data sim in the Huawei router, but again only 12gig.
 
Rumour said:
Just for information. O2 have a limit of 25gig in the EU. I believe it is the largest allowance of any of the major players. No cut off date as far as I can see. Tesco, who run off of O2 now have the 12gig limit as other providers. We have a Three data sim in the Huawei router, but again only 12gig.
Click to expand...
Think a few have 25gB limit . Vodafone do .
Have tried reglo and popit both worked ok but a few problems.
Next trip will go back to tried and trusted method of buying SIM in France and Spain. Actually works out cheaper for me
 
alcam said:
Think a few have 25gB limit . Vodafone do .
Have tried reglo and popit both worked ok but a few problems.
Next trip will go back to tried and trusted method of buying SIM in France and Spain. Actually works out cheaper for me
Click to expand...
I just took a look at a few. Three is 12gig. Tesco on O2 is 12 gig. Vodafone is definitely 25gig, when we enquired last year they said only 12. Maybe they realised they were losing customers to those with bigger allowance. What I really cannot understand, some of the "side" cards running on the main company infrastructure, have bigger allowances. On the Vodafone site, it says they are not protected from the rises from EU suppliers. But surely, that is also the case for those side suppliers.

I have two O2 cards, so in the EU, I have 50gig. Plus 12gig in the router and my wife has 12 too. I think we might just stick with that. (y)
 
I’ve been looking at changing to that poppit it says you can use your whole package abroad. My daughter is coming with us to France and this would be really handy wonder what network they piggyback onto if it was Vodafone then that would be great as Vodafone has a great reception near us.
 
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