B&YOU: carte prépayée
 

Bouygues Telecom, using its other brand B&YOU has launched a new revolutionary (for France) prepaid offer!

- € 0,10/min for national calls
- € 0,05 for national SMS
- € 0,05/MB for data
- € 4.99 starting kit (including € 1,50 of credit)
...and, most important: unlimited validity, you just need to use it (paying event) at least once every 12 months.

The only drawback is that it's only sold online so it could be complicated to get it for a foreigner...

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/francia/b&you.php

Can't believe my eyes :eek:

Hopefully some good person from France will soon enable foreigners to get hold of this!

...if you have a french address to which you can send the sim...

Can you pay with a foreign CC and just have it shipped to a hotel?

It gets even better. They're already issuing nano-SIMs!

"Je choisis ma carte SIM en fonction de mon téléphone :

• Carte SIM standard et micro SIM
  Compatible avec la majorité des téléphones
• Carte SIM nano
  Uniquement pour iPhone 5"

One minor point - the €1.50 included credit is valid for only one month. It is the subsequent top-ups which have unlimited validity, subject to a chargeable event every year.

They don't make it easy by any means! I got myself a French address where I could send the sim card and right away I run into the next problem: they accept only pure French cards and nothing else.

Once one has got the sim card, it isn't a problem any more, because you can recharge with bouygues vouchers, but this €4,99 for the sim card really has to be paid with a French card...

Thanks for that information. I was considering using someone's French address, but it seems that I'll need to use their credit card as well, which is asking too much of a favour.

Somehow we need to order lots of these for all of us in this forum and then distribute them afterwards. However, I get the impression that the SIM card might be linked to the B&You login used to make the order. This makes ordering large quantities impractical, as a separate login will be required for each SIM card.

The other problem is that B&You doesn't have a phone number or e-mail address for non-customers, which makes it difficult to ask them for help on ordering.

I have the same thoughts, NFH.

I also don't think it is possible to order more than one sim card per account. And per account they require your passport number, etc. It al seems quite restrictive...

Are you sure, kuba.g, that B&You requires a credit card issued in France as opposed to a credit card with a billing address in France? The latter is easier to achieve.

Not sure... how can one with a billing address in France be achieved? Should you have (access to) such a card, do let me know then we can test it.

It's easy enough to change the billing address for many credit cards, particularly a card that is marketed across borders. Unfortunately B&You doesn't accept American Express, otherwise that would be an easy one to try. The problem is that I don't have a French address any more.

My understanding is that the restriction (which applies for quite a few things, not just telephony) is based on the country of the issuing bank, not the billing address.

This card is impossible to get without a French debit or credit card. I have tried everything.

I also tried ordering a B&You monthly contract SIM, which asks for bank details (Relevé d'Identité Bancaire). As I have a French bank account (but no card), I have the necessary RIB. I got to the end of the order process and was asked to pay €1 by credit card, so I abandoned the order. When I went back into my B&You user account, I discovered that I had an open order with a 9-digit order number, despite not having paid the €1. You can't speak to B&You on the phone without entering an order number, so I took the opportunity to phone them on +33 9 81 66 26 66. They cancelled the order for the monthly contract SIM, and then tried to find ways for me to order a prepaid card. They confirmed that it is not possible to order a prepaid card with a non-French bank card or even with a French RIB. The latter is used only for a monthly contract, and they confirmed it is not even possible to buy a monthly contract SIM and then convert it to prepaid.

I can get a Carte Bleue debit card from my French bank at a cost of €40. I really resent paying this rip-off fee to French banks; illogically they charge for debit cards but not for cheques. However, if enough people here want a B&You prepaid card, then I'll get a Carte Bleue and we can split the cost.

You can count me in ;)

I'm in 100% (with the SIM card!)!!

I'd be very thankful if somebody could help me getting one of these SIMs.

I'm in for two please!

@NFH
Are you sure you can order that many prepaid SIMs with the same bank card? I assume that SIMs are being automatically registered when ordering and there may be a limitation of how many SIM cards a single person may buy. Even if it was possible to buy a bunch of SIMs do you want all those SIM cards to run under your name and to have a common account for the customer portal? Also fraud prevention measures or verification procedures may hinder you from ordering SIMs under different identities but with the same bank card.

@inquisitor I think the CC/debit card is only required for payment.

The SIMs will be registered under the B&You user account (e-mail address) used to order each SIM. We will need a separate B&You user account per order. Therefore everyone participating will need to create a user account in their name and set a temporary password that can be divulged to me.

But will they accept orders from different people all paying with the same bank card? Usually this will make the fraud prevention system ring the alarm bells and refuse consequent payments through this bank card.

I don't believe that merchants are allowed to store card details after the transaction has been authorised; at least that's what merchants tell me very often. The more likely fraud prevention hurdle would be at the bank's end, and that can be more easily overcome.

+1 I agree. And since it's a debit card not a credit card it should be even less of a problem.

I'm considering a French-issued prepaid Visa or MasterCard instead, for example La Banque Postale's "Carte Cadeau", which has a purchase fee of €10 compared to my French bank's debit card annual fee of €40. The French seem remarkably accepting of paying fees for any type of plastic bank card, which would completely deter customers in most other countries.

Ça serait super!! Merci!

So far we have 7 of us, including two friends of mine outside this forum. It's going to be awkward for me to ask friends in France to receive and forward so many items addressed to different people. I'm therefore thinking of using a mail forwarding service. For example, I found French Office which would cost €9.40 for one month including two onward forwardings. I'm keen to keep the costs down but hopefully we can find more participants to spread the cost. Any more ideas on this would be welcome.

Thanks for spending time and trying to help!!

The forwarding option would be good. Or your friends could just send all the packages to you and then you distribute. ;)

They're more like friends of friends. It is asking a bit much to expect them to receive mail at their home address for lots of people they've never heard of. That's why some kind of forwarding option has become necessary.

Got it. ;)
I'm also trying my people in France to see if I could get anything done. Even just the address perhaps. :)

There are a few B&YOU SIM cards for sale on eBay for €14.95 with free shipping to Europe and North America. I just ordered one...

Here's the listing: eBay | B&YOU Sim Card with 15 min calling credit - BRAND NEW - AVOID ROAMING FEES

There are several problems with buying B&You SIM cards from eBay:

• They will not be registered in your name, but to the original e-mail address that ordered them.
• They are unlikely to be nano-SIMs. One should always buy nano-SIMs now, given that a nano-SIM can be easily enlarged with a free adapter but a larger SIM cannot be so easily reduced in size when newer phones start taking smaller SIMs. Given the difficulty in receiving the SIM in the first place, it is likely to be just as difficult to receive replacement SIMs.
• The price is three times the normal price.

I'm just going to write to the guy selling them and ask about Nano-SIM, as well as ask about the email for sign up.

Price is OK, they are cheap to begin with. ;)

PS - would save us a lot of trouble!

Perhaps tell him that we want at least 7 of them altogether. I wonder whether he can do a deal and order some more using our own logins. Perhaps suggest €8+postage each.

Just received reply:

What we need him to do is order the SIMs using our own B&You user accounts. For 7 SIM cards, €8+postage would be fair, giving him a €21 profit. Also if it's not done on eBay, he saves paying eBay fees. The postage costs are at http://www.laposte.fr/content/downlo...e-01122011.pdf

Yes... I think it may be good!

I did send him a return message:

There's a huge amount of information about B&You in Forum LesMobiles. There's one thread specifically about the prepaid card that is fast approaching 1000 posts since it was launched only five weeks ago.

Do you think it is too late for me to join as the 8th?