Hi,

I am hoping I can get some help. I want to buy a SIM card for travel in Germany this summer but I'm not sure which one I should get.

Is O2 worth it? Is it expensive?

Is it a good idea to buy it on EBAY? Or should I wait until I get to Berlin and buy it there, I will be arriving during the world cup, so I don't want to be fleeced.

If it is better to buy it in Germany, what is the price range?

Please help!

Thank you soooooo much.

Helena

Helena:

Why are you fixated on an O2 card? The only advantage I see is that if your German friends all have O2, then you are better off as calls to them are cheaper for you and if they call you, for them.

It is my impression that the O2 and most T-Mobile DE cards offered on Ebay USA are very expensive. I think the starter packs you can buy in Germany usually run about 20 E and they usaully come with a 5 - 10 E balance. You can also check out Ebay.de for comparison if your German is decent. I think you will see prices THERE are lots lower than on Ebay.USA even with shipping. Some, but not many, will ship WELTWEIT. The world cup is over Jul 9; my guess is that you will be leaving soon so you can forget EBAY.

I have 2 D1 (t-mobile) cards and a SIMYO card. I purchased the D1 cards some years ago on Ebay.de. You could not find them on EBAY US at that time. The SIMYO card required a German address and I used the hotel where the family was staying.

Check out the German national operators here on this site for some choices. You will in general have better coverage on 900 MHZ (D1, D2 and O2?). The 1800 providers are supposedly weak in rural areas. If you are staying in cities, there should be little difference.

You might consider the relatively new ALDI-talk (1800) or PennyMobile (900). If I did not already have 3 SIMs, those would be my top choices.

Is it JUST Germany? Or are there other countries involved? What is your purpose for having the SIM? Do you know people THERE? Will you want to call the US? If that is you purpose -- calling US, you might really think again -- VERY EXPENSIVE from the cell phone. You might be able to use a US or local calling card or callback service. My sure you have the right kind of phone. IF you are planning to visit other countries, you might consider (GASP!) Vodafone; they have a travel promise which allows cheap incoming calls. As above, if you main purpose is to call out, then the travel promise is not so good as roaming and international calls from German (EU) cells is quite expensive.

Stan

Thanks for the feeback.


I'm not set on O2, but for some reason they are the only ones I could find on EBAY.

I thought to buy Vodafone, I needed to buy the phone from there too. So I can just buy vodafone SIM? How much would that be? Where can I get them?

How do I look for Vodafone SIM? Will they sell them in the airport, or should I buy them online?

Is Zengo Wireless good? I saw the ad on the site?

How does one find Penny Mobile? I googled it, but it kept coming up as braile.

thanks again

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/germany.html

gives you all the German operators, including PennyMobile. As I noted, most starter packs cost around 20 Es with varying starting balances. An O2 SIM on EbayUS would be $40 + $5 on the buy it now auction instead of ~$26 in Germany. Plus will it reach you in time for your departure if you buy it on Ebay? I think there are O2 and T-MO cards, also expensive ($22 + $12) for sale. I would NOT buy either of those.

You will need an unlocked dual or tri-band (900, 1800, (1900) ) phone. In Germany you should be able to pick up almost any PREPAID SIM card. Aldi and Penny are available only in their stores. Aldi stores are almost everywhere. PennyMarkets are not as frequent. SIMYO and BLAU are only available online. Most of the others are available in call shops or at dealers and large electronic stores. I would guess you could find some @ airports shops depending on size of city & airport. Your selection may be limited at the airport. You should be able to buy just the SIM, even Vodafone -- why do you think you need to buy the phone, too? If you don't have a suitable phone, you should be able to buy a starter pack with phone also - going to be more expensive, of course, than just the SIM with small starting balance. Unless you have German friends with a preponderance of one network, I don't think it will make much difference which brand you by. PERSONALLY, my choice would be Aldi or Penny, but as noted, you won't find those in the airports. Most or all stores will be closed on Sundays.

Our German friends may have other ideas and more details.

I do not know much about Zengo. If you don't need the # in advance to give out to your US friends and family, then I would definitely wait until I reached Germany for my purchase. It SEEMS your lead time is a bit tight.

Another word of caution..... it will be cheaper for your US friends and family to reach you on a land line rather than on the cell phone -- 5 cents for land line from US, probably around 25 or 30 cents on the cell. INBOUND calls to Germany cells while the receiving party is in Germany are FREE and do not deduct from minutes.

You did not say what kind of calling or messaging you would be doing. That may determine what card is best for you.

Don't forget the right charger (220 volts) for your phone and an adapter plug.

Stan

Hello,
you can buy a SIM-card in lots of shops in germany.
The mobile carriers have shops all around (T-Mobile, Vodafone, eplus, o2). There you can buy a card for about 20 Euro including 5-10 Euro of calling balance.
The calling tariffs are quite high if calling abroad (expect about 2$ a minute to USA).
for cheaper calls dial 0180-5151051 first, and then the international number (will be <1$/min, starting at dialtone...)

If you dont have a phone for the european frequencies it can be a option to buy the card with a cellphone in a starter-kit. In our local store they had T-Mobile SIM-cards with a Motorola cellphone for 15 euro last week! - you should always get a phone+prepaid-sim below 50 euro (remind that the phone would be locked to this sim-card).

When purchasing a sim-card you need your passport to register the card.

If you want a cheaper card you can go to a "ALDI" supermarket as Snaimon already suggested. This card needs to get activated on a hotline - i dont know if they speak english though. There you have a lot cheaper tariffs for inside germany but the same high tariffs to call abroad.

Chris

Aldi is surely the best choice. Anyway, avoid the prepaid starting kits since I think they are all sim-locked phones, and surely not cheaper than sim-free phones you can get on eBay. The problem with eBay is that you don't have much time, but you can also buy a phone on eBay.de and then take it directly in Berlin (there are many sellers from the German capital).

Vodafone has no sense at all, unless you plan to visit other countries where they have their network, but if you plan to visit many countries there are other better solutions, IMHO.

I really think it's not a problem to get an Aldi card, or maybe a Tchibo (more expensive, but Tchibo stores are usually in the center of every German city, so very easy to find).

Well, you can buy the starter kits with locked phones for the same price as the pure SIM-card if you go for the special offers in the shop (as i already wrote before - in our local store "Kaufland" supermarket they always have one simple phone with card for below 20 Euro). So it can be an option too and later on throw the phone on ebay... :clap:

I dont know how easy it is for a non german speaking person to activate the ALDI sim on the hotline (they cant do it in the store). The Tchibo is more easy as they fill in the form together with you in the shop.

I've had a Vodafone SIM for nearly a couple of years. I got this because family in Germany are on it too, and I could get calling card access via free 0800 numbers checked before deciding to go ahead (some are blocked). But if I was starting now, I would probably go for Aldi, and try a Bizon calling card via ordinary area code numbers for 2c per minute more.

On locked vs unlocked phones, Nokias are the easiest to unlock (except recent more expensive ones), by using a calculated code you can get free from some websites such as www.trycktill.com

All German mobiles cost about $2 per minute to call the US. If you want to place lots of international calls, get an international calling card or go to a calling center (a private company offering cheap phone calls from its own store; you'll find these in big cities or near stations).

There are plenty of SIMs available, so that should be no problem. Sometimes they are even cheaper with a phone (though the discounters such as Aldi never offer cheap phones).

Contrary to the above, Vodafone is not a bad choice if you plan to call occasionally and mostly just want to be reachable. The main operators' SIMs have similar (high) prices, but relatively long validity, so if you're coming back each year you might want to consider this (however, if you get Aldi Talk, and then add 15 euros to it, the account will be valid for 2 years). For the US, T-Mobile might be worth considering, because the company is present in both markets (though they offer little in the way of service for non-US customers).

The best offers with a phone can be sometimes found in department stores such as Karstadt or Kaufhof and electronics retailers such as Saturn and MediaMarkt.

Failing that, Vodafone has a special on during the World Cup at its official stores: a Motorola phone plus SIM for 33 euros with 5 EUR credit. You can often get this for less at the retailers mentioned above, but it might be a good fallback option. But you should be able to get a SIM for 10-20 EUR or one with a phone (sometimes even a triband model) for 20-30.

Yep, just had a look at "Photopoint" yesterday where you can get the T-Mobile Xtra SIM-card with 10 Euro starting balance and a Sagem MY5 cellphone for 19,95 Euro ;-)

I got my dad an Aldi Talk prepaid SIM card and activated the SIM card on Medionmobile.de:

https://www.medionmobile.de/registrierung/ (After the registration has been completed, you need to fill out the form and submit it online. Your SIM card is activated shortly afterward.

@Bisbetica, The form is in German but the terms are not too hard to figure out. Ask us if you need a translation.

While living in Germany I bought a Blau.de SIM. I haven't been anything less than happy with it. Considering I was living there for some time dealing with Vodafone rates. :censored: I even lost my PIN and caused my SIM to lock and I needed my PUK. Which was lost too. I called their tech support, and although I speak German, they also spoke English and found my PUK.

Isn't someone selling a German SIM in the buy/sell forum?

we could try to get blau.de SIM-cards.

They are the only ones i found where i can add a international adress as the sim-card owner.
But they all deliver only to germany - so if someone buys it i'd have to get the card first and forward it to the destination afterwards.

Together with that i could offer a Calling Card that works with this SIM-card and gives you USA for 22 ct per minute (charged by second).

Registered air mail for example to the USA would cost around 7$

Chris

It really comes down to a variety of factors that might be different for everybody admitedly...

I purchased my vodafone.de for relatively little money before united mobile and since I pop through Germany for a few days every half year, have decided despite united mobile to keep it active (its validity is 9 months with a top up)..although it is somewhat more expensive in my case to receive forwarded calls on a German (or most other European networks) than on united mobile, I still prefer using the local network as being more reliable (although I must say my connections to Liechtenstein recently via my ld carrier on call forwarding have been very clear and very reliable; the question of course remains how long will the ld carrier keep 10?/minute USA to Liechtenstein or cbw keep 14?/minute via pin2dest..)

Having said all that, I now use bizon calling card for calls to the USA...2?/minute Germany to USA and they give you local German numbers in several cities so in reality what I pay is the local German cost on whatever plan the vodafone de is on...that meets my needs...may not meet other needs.

The other advantage to me of vodafone and it was very important was the ability to get the English voice prompts which I have and the fact that if it is impo0rtant enough to keep the number I can top up with vodafone vouchers in other countries.

I also added vodafone passport (which is called something else in German) for free although since I have other alternatives I don't particularly use it all that much except to use up some of the top ups that I have paid for anyway.

So for me, the most important thing was the ability to get English language prompts; something I would assume is not available on most of the other German networks even though it might be somewhat cheaper.

I'm surprised by that, as my Vodafone DE SIM is registered at my UK address. The non-network shop did it online for me, and it even had a UK postcode database on the German site

yes, if you personally buy the SIM in a shop its no problem at all.
but not for delivery somewhere around the world. :)

Chris

Question...

Aren't German sim cards required to be registered even on PAYG?

The other question not a big deal, I can't remove the pin protection from the Vodafone DE sim card namely when I turn the phone on it asks for a pin code...in every other case I can disable this...can't to it with vodafone DE...wonder if this is a vodafone DE thing or a German thing.

As for the PIN, it can be turned off on some of my Vodafone SIMs, but not all of them. Older ones in particular do not allow this.

At present, Quelle stores are offering a Vodafone SIM with 12.50 ? credit for 5 ? or with a Sagem my100X for 10 ? (also with 12.50 ? credit). This is about the cheapest SIM I have seen in Germany.

Yes they are.
Thats why its not so easy just to buy a prepaid-card and hand it over to a 3rd person because it needs to re-register the card which in some cases is expensive to do.

Chris

That is definitely the case. If you have a German Personalausweis and buy it in a store, then the store personnel ask you for that so they can tie the SIM card to a unique form of ID since obviously no one has the same ID card number. The newer MVNOs are more flexible in that regard. Aldi Talk requires registration as well but they don't ask you for your Personalausweis # when registering online for example. T-Mobile, Vodafone, E-Plus and O2 still have that requirement when you buy your prepaid SIM in a provider store or at a place like Mediamarkt, Saturn or ProMarkt.

Maybe I asked this before....

So these people selling SIMs on Ebay (us & de) as anonymous.....
Low or zero balance....

Is that LEGAL? IF one should buy one of these, will the hotlines even SPEAK to you if you are not the person listed in the registration?

I have 2 Viktor Vox prepaid Xtra SIMs that I will probably keep. They were new when I purchased them and are registered to me. I have spoken to the hotline several times, even changed the tarif structure. So what happens if I try to sell these? I don't have a registration form. I hear VV has a deposit on their POST PAID SIMs; I don't think that applies to the prepaid. And, anyway, what are their chances of collecting that from me and my registered address in the USA?

Well, actually you are required to re-register if you buy a sim-card that is already tied to another person. (There are forms to download on most websites - but remind both parties have to sign it!) If not the other person risks to get problems if you abuse the card for any criminal offence.

Chris

Thanks for the answer(s).

I suspect these Ebay sellers are NOT the person who originally registered. The ads often say registered to a company. Do I understand correctly that if only ONE party, the buyer, signs, then the deal is not official?

THEREFORE, unless one really does not care too much for a longer term relationship with the provider or need to change tarifs, the re-registration could be avoided, although it might be illegal or against the rules and regs (AGB).

I suspose the best advice to anyone would be:

1. Buy a new card -- better solution
2. Be wary of used cards and don't expect much support unless the seller agrees to transfer registration.

Stan

Well, a lot of deals work like that:
The sellers buy Prepaid-Kits with locked phones, they sell the locked phones (legal) or
they unlock the phones (illegal) and sell them on ebay or somewhere else.
They activate the cards, dial their 0900-number and suck out the money.
Then they throw them on ebay and even get a few bucks more.

Yes, if only one party signs the "change of ownership form" (however that is officially called in english ;) ) then its not working.

Chris