Two weeks in France from USA
 

Hi All,

My daughter's French class is going to France for two weeks from the USA next week. I'm looking for suggestions on what pre-paid SIM to get.

We have T-Mobile and have unlocked her phone for use. She will be in South France (countryside) for 5 days then Paris for the balance of the two weeks. They will stopover in the Amsterdam airport for a hot minute enroute.

I'm looking for the best prepaid card to get her to put in her phone.

She texts MUCH more than she uses the actual phone. We're primarily interested in her having some sort of communication just in case. She won't be burning the lines up, but I do expect to hear from her text messages every day to check in.

Please let me know what you think. I'd prefer to get it here (if time permits) rather than her search for one when she get's there. Her French teacher is dead set against the students using phones while in France and may have an issue if she purchase one there at the airport while she is watching. Personally, I don't care, but my daughter doesn't want to upset the teacher.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,
Landa220

Phone
 

Make sure the phone has 900/1800 (quad-band). Some T-Mo tribands are 850, 1800, 1900 for US. 900 would be better.

Check out the national operators in France and their international SMS rates. We are going for 2 weeks in July-Aug. I have several international cards and don't plan on buying a French SIM. I will be calling.

You might consider calling HER instead or in additional. Find a good calling card. I think she would do better to buy a SIM over there for retail price. They are not expensive. She can text you the phone #.

I hear Fr in bad; toll free #s for calling cards are NOT TOLL FREE for cell phones.

If she will have access to a landline (staying in a hotel or home), then a US calling card is a good choice. Need to check with hotel on outbound toll free calls, however. Should be standard practices, even here. You'd be surprised how many hotels now CHARGE A FEE for using 800 toll free #s.



Stan

Telestial has several SIM's to choose from. I have the Passport SIM. Call them to see if they work in your phone. Many have free incoming calls while in France. Try this:

Passport Lite SIM Card Highlights
Includes $5 USD of airtime
Excellent Coverage in over 110 countries
FREE Incoming Calls in France, Italy, Spain and the UK. Cost 99 cents to call the U.S.
FREE for family and friends to call you (30 minutes free call time in total. A per minute surcharge applies thereafter)
No connection fees
Voicemail
24/7 Customer Service
FREE Incoming Text Messages

http://www.telestial.com/view_produc...T_ID=MSIM-PPLT

Have a look at United Mobile+. They charge € 0.29 (=$ 0.45) for texts and € 0.29/min (=$ 0.45/min) + a call-setup-fee of € 0.25 (=$ 0.38 ) for calls to the US and incoming calls are completely free in whole Europe and many other countries in the world (e.g. New Zealand, Australia).
Customers get a British mobile number, which should be cheaper to call from the US than a French mobile number. Another advantage against a French prepaid SIM is, that United Mobile+ roams on all three French GSM networks, so if there's any dead zone in a certain network's coverage, you daughter's phone will switch to another network, which a local SIM can't (French operators don't have national roaming agreements, like Americans have).

Have a look at this option:
http://www.roamsimple.com/products/R...-SIM-Card.aspx