Looking to recharge French Lebara SIM
 

Hi,
My Canadian VISA card is not accepted at Recharge ton mobile en ligne (SFR La carte, Orange Mobicarte, Virgin Mobile, NRJ Mobile, Ortel mobile, ...) -. I would like to recharge my SIM (I am presently out of country).
Anyone interested in helping me out? I would send money (10 euros recharge) through Paypal, and you could purchase the recharge online (Visa or MasterCard) at theTopengo site. Then you could email me the code Topengo would send you.

It is also possible to purchase a recharge on the Lebara.fr site for any Lebara mobile number, but my CC is still not accepted.

Thanks,
François

This seems to be a very common problem for recharging many of the European sim cards in many different countries. Why this is so escapes me; the amounts involved are hardly all that much so is it the fear of fraud? If it is, it's imbecilic at least in my opinion (to protect themselves from fraud they could simply put a small surcharge on for "foreign" credit cards being used on their web sites to re-charge.

What makes a French credit card being used on a French web site inherently less suseptible to fraud than say a British one or an American one? And on a British web site, they won't take a French credit card to re-charge and the same question could be asked. Thjis seems to me something visa and mastercard international should be doing something about since that is the purpose of international credit cards anyway.

Anybody with any ideas the rationale behind not taking foreign credit cards? Perhaps the answer is as simple as they don't want the business or else it is an excuse to steal people's credit after six months or so of non use.

How about the simple fact that GSM operators aren't all too happy to sell prepaid cards to foreigners not living in their country? Roaming probably generates more profit for them and being a commercial institution they do their very best to generate more profit.

I have come across this problem when trying to recharge my Czech O₂ and Serbian mt:s prepaids. It seems there is simply no way of doing it remotely.

Workaround? A network of people from around the globe gathered on this forum willing to help each other out in recharging prepaids?

Then why sell a foreigner a sim card in the first place? Seems to me the eu which buts in on so many things could do somethng to end this practice at least within the eu.

Because performing checks on whether somebody lives in the country or not is too complicated and customer unfriendly (generates less profit than simply omitting these tests), I suppose.

(Remember that not being a foreigner doesn't mean you aren't living in a country, so checking nationality doesn't do the trick, one would have to look at residency)

BTW this is a legit SIM card, purchased in France and registered to my name.
Accepting Paypal would seem to me to be an easy solution to online recharges.

I have had people from this forum help me in the past for Italian SIMs, and I have returned the favour a couple of times. Hopefully I will find someone again...

François

What a pain. :o Even with persistence I had no joy trying to get like 15E on either a Orange Mobicarte France or a Lebara Netherlands SIM so I could be up and running. Also came to learn my old bank with a few euro left behind was stolen, account deactivated, and has become another bank. Of coarse. :chair:

sheesh, seemed like such an easy task on today's todo list. Not.

Lebara NL indeed says it accepts only European credit cards to top up on their web site.

However I'm pretty sure you should succeed via beltegoed.com or beltegoedopwaarderen.nl. If not, let me know. The Netherlands is not such a bad country for prepaids at all, I assure you!

Thanks for your suggestions, kuba. I had tried both of those options yesterday and they also require local bank cards, which might have not been an problem if Postbank or Fortis cards were still valid.

From the French perspective and Orange in particular this should do the trick, but it says the service is unavailable which I took mean "your source IP is outside the EU."
Rechargement mobicarte et forfaits bloqués avec Orange

This site offers a wide array of French prepaid cards including the French Lebara originally requested. I thought I was home free, however, you will need EU credit cards as well utilize the eTopup.
Recharge ton mobile en ligne (SFR La carte, Orange Mobicarte, Virgin Mobile, NRJ Mobile, Ortel mobile, ...) -

Europe (and the Netherlands) has the most progressive prepaid choices, but the ePayment restrictions are bit curious. Is the system being gamed?

Having recently switched back to prepaid myself as it has become a bit more favorable for use with my iPhone and smart phones in general, it would be interesting to know if this provider would not take a Visa or MasterCard not locally sourced.
http://www.h2owirelessnow.com/

Thanks for the suggestions. No joy on the Lebara NL. Help received on Orange France. Thanks.