Lidl Smart-Tarif and German bank account
 

Hello,

I will be doing an internship in Berlin for three months and I am looking for some information about prepaid SIM cards.
After searching a bit this very useful forum and Google I think I now have a general overview of the different offers and carriers, however there is something which is not clear to me yet and I hope somebody here can help me in this.
I was considering Lidl Mobile since it's cheap and it uses O2 network (and there are stores near where I'll be staying).
I understood that I won't need a German bank account in order to activate a SIM with the "Classic-Tarif", however I was really interested in the "Smart-Tarif" instead, since I would like to use internet on my smartphone pretty often and have a certain number of minutes/messages included.
What isn't clear to me is whether I need a German bank account to activate the Smart-Tarif. If yes, is there any other way to activate, maybe using a credit card? Or are there plans from different operators at more or less the same prices as Lidl but that don't require a bank account?

Also, when you buy the Starterpaket at a Lidl store, is it possible to choose between a SIM and a MicroSIM or they only sell standard SIM cards?

Thank you very much in advance!

You definitely need a German bank account because this tariff is beeing charged only by direct withdrawel.

And you are right the Lidl Smart-Tarif is the best of this kind. If you understand German keep in touch with teltarif.de site.

Edit: Aldi (competing with Lidl food chain) has a similar tariff: 300 mins or SMS instead of 400, 300 MB internet (as Lidl too), 7.99 EUR instead of 9.95 EUR. See this posting.

Thank you very much for your help!
If I may just ask you something else, do they also sell MicroSIM cards (for example for iPhone 4) at Aldi stores or do they just sell normal SIM cards?
I was wondering whether it is possible to buy a Starterpaket with a MicroSIM.......

Obviously one does not get a MicroSIM in the starting package. Instead one has to order a MicroSIM by phone:

From FAQs:

Edeka Mobile, which has similar prices to Lidl, but on a better network (Vodafone), does not require a German bank account, and comes with a micro-SIM in the package.

But with lower likelihood to get a SIM in an Edeka market. See user complaint in German telecom site Teltarif.de (Google Translate).