Joe Mobile
 

Seems not be mentioned yet in this section? Is this offer not a big deal? Afaik Joe Mobile is using SFR to provide service. All you can eat with 3 GB for 20€ a month. Sounds pretty good. Somebody sells the card on amazon. Are there other ways to purchase a sim card? Except online...

Maybe because it's not a prepaid offer :D

I don't think so.

It is explicitly written that it's a postpaid offer ("forfait" in French means that)

Well, yes, but it also says sans engagement, so it's not like a long contract. Like many prepaid offers nowadays, with monthly bundles, it's like a hybrid somewhere in between.

The monthly arrangement will auto-renew by default, but it can also be switched off, then the SIM cannot make any active/outgoing use but will still receive text messages (incoming calls, I'm not sure yet.)

So for someone visiting once, or who foresees repeat visits in under 6 months, it might be an interesting option.

I have had a SIM for just over a week, and I regret I didn't discover it a few weeks earlier, or it could have been useful then as well.

The monthly selection can be added to mid-month, which might be a little unusual for things like this, so for instance I have 1 GB selected, but can add more if people get carried away with data use on a joint family visit from next week.

There is a referral scheme, which gives bonus credit to both new customer and referrer, so anyone interested might contact me. N.b. Joe itself will post only to a French address, but some members of its community are willing to post to abroad (so go there and ask).

Forgot to say: Joe accepts foreign credit/debit cards, initially only from countries bordering France, but maybe(?) with addition(s?) since e.g. Netherlands

The bold part is the most interesting thing about Joe, and without that it couldn't be an interesting option for foreigners (especially in this forum) :p

For frequent travellers to France it is surely an interesting option (but I'll keep my B&You anyway :D). You can activate their bundle for just a month (30 days) and suspend it for a maximum of 6 months, with a French, Italian, Spanish, Belgian or Swiss (?) card. Will keep an eye on Joe.

Thanks for this thread it seems an excellent offer now that BoT have pulled thier B&you prepaid service. Heading over to Joe to register on thier forum to request a godfather card.

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I've just discovered that Joe is a subsidiary of SFR. :)

More info on how to obtain a JoeMobile SIM as a foreigner:
- Communaute Joemobile
- French SIM - MoneySavingExpert.com

More info on JoeMobile:
- JoeMobile website
- Wikipedia about JoeMobile

It appears that Virgin has a plan that matches the Joe 20 EUR plan - Forfaits Sans engagement Idol - Virgin Mobile - and I believe that Virgin Moible SIM cards can be bought at retail.

The only difference is... 1€cent :D

Responding to my own post - I went online to Virgin and started placing an order to see how far it would let me go. It appears that it requires a French bank account for the monthly debit of the 19.99 Euro.

Like most of French operators ;) That's why Joe is seen as revolutionary.

In the meantime, I've decided to move to them from B&You... I'm afraid of Simyo.

Why are you afraid of Simyo?:eek:

Don't know if you know the story about the recent changes for B&You prepaid... anyway, I've read that moving to another operator from Simyo is quite difficult, they've one of the worst customer service, unreliable service, and things like that. Given that I often use my French number, I prefer to move to a more reliable operator before B&You move me to Simyo.

Just a normal process. Nothing to be afraid of.

OK then, 2 questions:

Are the monthly payments with Joe made by credit card?

I went part of the way through the Joe process, and it seemed that it wanted a French ID card or French passport - neither of which I have. Any way to get around that?

Yes, but they can be either credit or prepaid cards issued in France and bordering countries: Italy, UK, Spain, Swiss, Belgium. If you have no cards issued in these countries, Joe community members suggest to apply for a virtual prepaid card by Neteller, resulting issued in UK. You can then choose the bundle you need, and if you don't need to use your French card, you can suspend temporarily your forfait and then reactivate it without losing your number, extras, etc., provided that you re-enable your sim within 6 months max. since the suspension of the service.
For this question I can't reply since I've not received my Joe sim yet.

The neteller option interests me. I have a Vodafone UK PAYG sim and mostly get top-up certificates while going through Heathrow (WH Smith counter) but it would simplify my life a bit if I had an accepted UK online payment method. Anyone know if the UK phone operators also accept Neteller?

Update: Neteller isn't available to USA residents. Hmm. So Joe Mobile recharges for US residents would require an SFR paycard?

If you can get one, it would be a viable option.

P.S.: regarding Neteller, I too would be interested to top-up UK sims, but some of them (like O2) require also a British address associated to the virtual card, so I don't know if it could be useful...

Just an update about the ID: it's sufficient that you choose "Pièce d'identité étrangère" anche you can enter your US passport ID ;)

Thanks - discovered that last night, used my British passport (actually my stepdaughter's, she is going to be in France for 2 months so the card was ordered for her.) It accepted the order and charged the debit card, so it should be arriving hopefully next week.

Received my Joe Mobile sim and activated it. Off to France at the morrow will post back my comparison with orange mobicarte. Tamla

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Just back from my holiday in France. Spent 2 weeks in a mobile home on campsite nr St Raphael. I used a Joe sim in and the good wife an Orange Prepaid Mobicarte. In built up areas performance between the two was v similar. With both locking at Hspa speeds. We spent a day hiking in the Esterel Hills and both sims could only lock on GSM and were only good for voice calls. The difference was cost for €20 I had unlimited voice call in France ( mobile and landlines) and to land lines most of mainland EU. With the mobicarte since Orange stopped thier 500 Mb per month unlimited data plan. Kept having to subscribe to short term €2 data plans and friends and family plans. I do not plan to top up the orange sim to keep the line valid in 5 months time but from the UK using my UK issued Visa card can top up my Joe sim for easily to keep line valid. I am grateful to the kind and helpful folk on the Joe forum. :):thumbup:

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This is to confirm that I've just successfully activated a Joe Mobile SIM for a friend ordered via amazon.fr using a German VISA card (issued by Berliner Sparkasse).

During the activation process the following information on acceptance of foreign credit cards was displayed:
For me it took 52 mins for the SIM card to be activated after completing the activation procedure and the € 5 bonus for SIM cards ordered via amazon was also credited immediatley.

So far I'm pretty impressed by the straightforward handling and their convenient customer portal.

Has anyone tested if VoIP/SIP is blocked by Joe or not?

It is officially allowed.

Have a look here: https://communaute.joemobile.fr/t5/B...lus/ba-p/90422

It's a post from their official blog :)

Merci. C'est très bien!

One thing I discovered which may be worth mentioning in passing is that it seems that French networks have moved a lot of their 3g provision to 900 MHz, or certainly this seems the case with SFR.

I took an Android tablet and an E160 dongle and that had no 3g coverage at all where I was staying or when wanted on the drive home. But 3g was fine in one of my phones.

For my second visit I'd read a bit about this and had bought a secondhand E5332 router which had excellent 3g at the same place.

This might be happening in plenty of countries I suppose, but this British user hadn't anticipated it as only O2 here has significant 900 MHz 3g.

US tourist
 

Is it possible to obtain a Joe Mobile sim if I am a US resident planning to visit France in October 10?

Yes, but you won't be able to activate it as long as you haven't got a credit card issued in Andorra, Belgium, Germany, Ireland Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland or the United Kingdom.

By the way, I have four Joe SIMs to give away: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8354

What are the prepaid debit cards that people referred to?

Neteller is one I've seen mentioned, but not used.

I did maybe nearly get one for paying for occasional Ryanair flights without extra payment method fees, but the goalposts moved faster than I did.

Neteller is NOT available for US citizens. Check the list of Countries at their website.

Has anyone tried Visa gift cards?

http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardhol...ift_cards.aspx

I'm curious if it would work for European sites. Americans have had problems paying online for train tickets, as well as recharging their prepaid mobile accounts.

For instance, 119.it won't take my US credit cards to top up my TIM SIMs.

It looks like Visa Europe Gift Cards are offered at post offices in France, specifically the French post office banks:

http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardhol...providers.aspx

https://www.labanquepostale.fr/parti...de_emploi.html

From the Visa Europe providers page, I found this:

http://www.trans-cash.fr

They seem to sell at retail and typically lists tabacs and supermarkets.

http://www.trans-cash.fr/index.php?id=46#google_maps

The other providers require you to send for it as they will put in the recipient's name on the card.

The price doesn't seem too steep. A 50 Euro card at retail has a 5 Euro commission and 2.5 Euro if ordered on the web.

http://www.trans-cash.fr/fr/conditio...ransferts.html

The pictures show a EMV, though I don't know if they would give you a PIN to use?

Joe Mobile is now has a website in english for foreigners check it out at www.jmsim.eu

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That looks like someone using their affiliate referral scheme, such as any of us could do, not an official site by the brand itself.

Yes, that's not a Joe Mobile official website. Moreover, it wouldn't make sense to build up a new website, when they could easily translate the current one.

http://www.universfreebox.com/articl...pe-pour-2-jour

quick translation: for 2€/day use your mobile as you are been en France.
received calls during roaming seems to be free too.