Aldi Talk questions for trip to Germany

[DMagnets]

I was very happy to find out today that I will be able to pay 24c/mb on Aldi talk rather than the £7.50/mb T-mobile UK charge.

I understand I will be able to buy the sim in an Aldi store, register it online with the help of some german to english translation software. Then if I make a call to a UK number (I don't know any german tel numbers or speak german) to finish activating, I should be all set to go and use Internet on my phone, is that correct?

My only problem is how I am going to top it up. I know I can buy the 15E credits in Aldi, but do they require me to speak German on the phone to apply? Or is it automated, in which case, would anyone be able to provide the key combinations and order I'd need to do?

Thanks in advance and glad I've found this great forum!

[snaimon]

Sometimes there is a way to SEND the top up # from the phone itself without calling customer care.

Some also have a website to add credit.

Also, usually the top up is "AUTOMATED". In other words, once you learn the dialing sequence with the help of someone who knows German, just enter the right numbers until it asks for the top up #.

For instance T-MO USA - enter your phone number, then I think it is press 1 for refill, and so on.

You will need our German friends to weigh in here, but there should be several ways and hope that this can be easy for you.

Stan

[DMagnets]

Thank you for your reply Stan. I think I've discovered a solution myself, which is just to ask the staff at the hotel I'm staying at to help me apply the credit, hopefully they won't mind doing this.

[dg7feq]

Hello,
you need to do one voicecall to activate the card. Otherwise you can not use GPRS.
You can call to UK - they charge international calls by the second so if you hangup after a few words you dont spend too much money.

Topup is like a scratch card. the code should be provided on the topup card.

Chris

[Effendi]

Originally Posted by dg7feq

you need to do one voicecall to activate the card. Otherwise you can not use GPRS.

talking about GPRS, I had some problems with Aldi and then with Simyo, since I could never use it, always getting an error. The last time I tried it was at Muchen airport last august.

I used my Nokia e65, creating a new connection using these settings:
APN: internet.eplus.de
User: eplus
Pwd: gprs (if I remember well, now I see ****, of course)

With these settings I always got a connection error (I was on 3G). Of course I already used that simcard for voicecalls.
Any idea?

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by Effendi

talking about GPRS, I had some problems with Aldi and then with Simyo, since I could never use it, always getting an error. The last time I tried it was at Muchen airport last august.

I used my Nokia e65, creating a new connection using these settings:
APN: internet.eplus.de
User: eplus
Pwd: gprs (if I remember well, now I see ****, of course)

With these settings I always got a connection error (I was on 3G). Of course I already used that simcard for voicecalls.
Any idea?

Hm, these are exactly the correct settings. Note that Simyo can not run on 3G - only on GSM. Aldi can also run on 3G.

Chris

[Motel75]

Originally Posted by dg7feq

Hm, these are exactly the correct settings. Note that Simyo can not run on 3G - only on GSM. Aldi can also run on 3G.

Chris

Not quite -- Simyo can run on 3G, but you need to order a different SIM to do it (for whatever reason), and it costs €10.

[Effendi]

I've the 3G sim, on the paper there's written "ihre sim-karte ist jetzt UMTS-faehig". And I had the same problems with Aldi in the past, on 2 different phones...

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by Effendi

I've the 3G sim, on the paper there's written "ihre sim-karte ist jetzt UMTS-faehig". And I had the same problems with Aldi in the past, on 2 different phones...

Ah yeah, you got a new SIM already. Then it "should" work.
Unfortunately i am far away from the next eplus 3G-coverage so i cant check...

Chris

[Effendi]

Anyway I think it's not a 3G problem, since I had the same error also when using it on an old Siemens which has GPRS only... anyway in few days I'll be in Leipzig (surely covered in 3G) and I'll try it again, but I guess I'll have the same problem... I can take a look at my profile on Simyo website to see if I have to activate something, but I didn't see any option in the past...