I managed to get through to B&You on the phone, by entering a failed order number (despite failed orders not usually giving an order number). They assured me that any physical French Visa card or MasterCard (not an e-Carte Bleue for example) should work. Thanks to VladS, I am therefore planning to buy a Trans Cash prepaid Visa card for €9.90, which has the crucial French BIN. Fortunately I now have a French address at which I can receive post (but addressed only in my name), so I can make sure the Visa card works before paying for the mail forwarding service for everyone else's SIM cards. The disadvantage of the Trans Cash card is that they charge 3% for loading money on to it, but the advantage is that it's reloadable unlike La Poste's Carte Cadeau.

If you would like a B&You SIM card and haven't yet PM'd me with your e-mail address, please do so now.

Unfortunately I've hit two problems:

• According to a thread in a French forum, you can't order more than 5 SIM cards in the same name or with the same payment card in a 90-day period.
• A friend tried yesterday to use his French relatives' Carte Bleue to order a sim card for me, and even that failed with the same reason "Votre commande a été annulée".

It's incredible how restrictive they are...

Anyhow, I still think we should give it a go. Worst case scenario is that we loose the money that the card costs.
BTW, should there be a need to cash out a card in euro's without loosing value - I'm willing to help (I can do so here without any problems)

My first experience with my b&you card wasn't stellar. I was in transit through Paris late last year and tried to use it to make a few local calls and check email. Even though my devices connected to the Bouygues network, both inbound and outbound calls failed and data sessions would not connect. I used my french Lycamobile card (also an Bouygues MVNO) and had no issues placing calls.

I just made it back to Paris tonight and the b&you card is back to life and works as expected.

lycamobile does the same since july 2011 ;)

i think no

u right. i'm on it.

Lycamobile charges €0.09/MB (rounded to the next megabyte), whereas B&You charges €0.05/MB (rounded to the next kilobyte). Also, you only need to use B&You once per year, whereas you have to use Lycamobile every 80 days to stop it from expiring.

you right i forgot this due to my use in France. soory.

Is it too late for me to join you all?
I also like one, and if possible, 2 cards.