Need a German bank account to get a FONIC prepaid SIM?
 

Hello,

In a few weeks, I'm going on a trip to Berlin for about a week. Looking at the various options, I feel FONIC would be my best choice for a prepaid SIM, but in the faq on their site, they mention that only people with a German bank account and address can register a SIM. (See quotes below.)

While I have a feeling this shouldn't be a problem when buying a SIM in a store, I would like to be sure before I buy one. Can someone in this forum enlighten me?

Thanks,

Frodo

You don't need a German bank account and you can register with any existing German address - they do prove if the given address exists, but not if you actually live there. So foreign visitors can flawlessly register a Fonic SIM.
Don't forget to provide some other Fonic customer's number in the "Mobilfunknummer/Aktionscode" field upon registration, which will give € 5 of extra credit to you and the other customer.
For further details on Fonic check these two links:
Germany - Fonic - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access
FONIC ? Prepaid-Wiki

Thanks, Inquisitor, somehow I guessed you would be the one to answer my query. :)

Okay - now if only I had someone's customer number to enter... *hint* ;)

There's actually somebody's Fonic number under the first link given above, but I'll send you mine by PM now.

Just a little update...

I did get Fonic, and it worked perfectly for me!

Thanks once again, inquisitor!

Hey frodonl-

did you use your SIM for basic cell, smartphone or exclusively data use? I am on a trip to Germany next month too, and have been thinking fonic offers the best balance of coverage & speed vs. cost on prepaid, no-contract services- their cost is higher than other offers but being an o2 subsidiary they should have far better coverage and network speeds.

I have an Android smartphone, laptop and DSLR with wifi (Eye-Fi SD card for automatic uploads). I'm torn between just buying a SIM for the phone and wifi tethering all the other devices, or going all-out for the smartphone AND a 'Surf stick' USB key, especially given it seems most hotels charge for Internet access in Europe still and €25/mo. seems cheaper than paying an extra €5-10 to use a hotel's service.

I will be primarily in Cologne and Hamburg- would an electronics store like Media Markt be the best place to purchase these?

Have you considered buying a Lidl mobile SIM? Lidl mobile is a tariff offered in Lidl supermarkets (which btw are coming to Canada in 2012) but realized by Fonic and identical to Fonic in service and tariffs except for the cheaper data rates. They have a monthly flatrate (with bandwidth throttling after 5GB) for just € 14.99/month. In contrast Fonic throttle bandwidth if you exceed 500MB per day (for the rest of the day) or 5GB per month (for the rest of the month), whichever applies earlier.

Do you have any links for Lidl service & product availability? If it is a re-brand of fonic services then it runs on the o2 network so it would be worth a look as long as the SIM and top-up cards are widely available. Really, coverage and network speeds are more important to me than absolute price. So this is why I am shying away from eplus-based services- I would prefer to stick with one of the big Euro/German carriers - T-Mobile, o2 or Vodaphone. Ortel seems to offer very good pricing but they are eplus, correct? (both subsidiaries of KPN)

My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S2, so it definitely would be compatible with any Euro frequencies for coverage.

You need Lidl or Fonic topups. Original o2 topups do not work.


Chris

@all
Please note that our recent discussion about Lidl has been moved to http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/germany/6844-lidl.html