I assume you mean the Bougyes recharge slips that you buy in the stores? The only ones I was able to buy were for 10€, anyway.

OK, FYI, here's my report on using the BandYou card.

I just got back from a trip to France a couple of days ago, and I used my BandYou SIM card quite a bit while I was there. I also had an Orange Mobicarte card I got because I was there a couple of days before I was able to pick up the BandYou card at my hotel.

The coverage on the BandYou card seemed comparable to the Orange SIM, more or less, at least in the Southwestern part of the country where I was. 4G coverage was sporadic and somewhat unpredictable.

I bought one Bougyes 10€ recharge and applied it using the 630 number. I bought another 10€ recharge to bring home with me. The one I brought home is good until October of 2014.

My plan is to recharge the account again within a year using the Bouyges recharge. I'm hoping that will extend the account for another year.

All-in-all, I think the BandYou card is a good option. The website is not too useful. It doesn't show any usage detail that I can find and the only recharge option on the website is by using a credit card. I tried to recharge using 2 different US credit cards, but was unable to to. The message I got said that they had a problem and were working on it. It would be nice to be able to recharge on the website using a US credit card, but that may never work.

The website also does not show what the account expiration date is, as far as I can determine.

Question: Does anybody know for sure if recharging the account will extend the expiration date? The only thing that I've read says that you need something billable to extend the date. I'm not absolutely sure that I will be able to use the card for roaming while in the US, so I don't know if I can create a billable event, other than by recharging. Does anybody have any thoughts about this?

It should roam fine in the US, in which case you can send a text message to extend validity (or load a page in your phone browser if data roaming works). Mine roams in Germany - in fact, I have never been in France with it, so it's unlikely to cause problems in the US (just remember to put it in a phone that works on the US frequencies).

I can't say about roaming in the US, but B&You cards roam just fine in Canada on all three incumbent networks (Rogers, Bell and Telus).

dunno in fact, i know i only ask 10€ recharge because this amount is the minimal asked to top-up. period.

> The coverage on the BandYou card seemed comparable to the Orange SIM, more or less,

officially less. that is a fact. in France BoT network is well-known to give priority to urban areas.

> 4G coverage was sporadic and somewhat unpredictable.

only 600 antennas / 11000 at the date of today.

> My plan is to recharge the account again within a year using the Bouyges recharge. I'm hoping that will extend the account for another year.

yes.

> The website also does not show what the account expiration date is, as far as I can determine.

SMS 30 days and 6 days before the end of validity (phone + money loss)

> Question: Does anybody know for sure if recharging the account will extend the expiration date? The only thing that I've read says that you need something billable to extend the date. I'm not absolutely sure that I will be able to use the card for roaming while in the US

i did it X weeks ago. no money loss.

www.willemijns.com/divers/b-and-you.htm?
Roaming/Accord d'itinérance: La liste officielle des pays accéssible en voix/SMS et DATA/MMS est lisible dans le "tarifs.pdf" de l'opérateur.
Lien bonus: Probablement les mêmes opérateurs que ceux proposé aux abonnés prépayés de Bouygues Télécom mais cela reste entièrement à confirmer !!! http://www.reseau.bouyguestelecom.fr...0fevr.2012.pdf
RAPPEL: La liste des pays du "tarifs.pdf" prime sur la liste du lien bonus.

Tethering supported?
 

This SIM looks ideal for my trips to France - no worries about expiry or using up credit.

Does anyone know if it can support tethering though? - I really need to be able to use my laptop via the personal hotspot on my iphone 4s. If not - can someone suggest an alternative SIM deal that would? Initially this would be for a 3 week trip.

But my question is, if I don't make any calls for a year, but I add money to the account just before expiration date, will the account be extended for another year? When you say 'X weeks ago', what does that mean?

the top-up action (only) is not considered as a method for delaying card expiration. you must call or send 1 SMS every 364 days minimum. period.