TIM - refills/expiry and account name
 

I see at http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/italia/tim.php that a refill can be any amount and that the SIM card expires 12 months after the last refill. Does this mean that one can refill by only €0.01 in order to prolong expiry by another 12 months? Does each refill method have a different minimum amount?

Does the ID card or passport used to buy the SIM card dictate the name on the account forever? Or is it a bit like South African RICA where these details are just logged in a database and never referred to again? For example, if someone else buys a SIM card for me, can I subsequently put my own name on the account?

Is it easy to get a nano-SIM?

The minimum top-up is 5€...

Thanks. So are you saying that Carlo/Effendi has published incorrect information on the largest network in his home country? ;)

Do you know the answers to my other two questions?

Well, I think Effendi is a human, he can make mistakes :D (Effendi, non me ne volere :p)

I don't know what he means with "any amount is available", but the available amounts are listed on TIM website (http://www.tim.it/home) in the block "Ricarica Online" ;)

To change the SIM owner (given that someone bought a sim for you and provided his documents, and not yours), you'll have to fax TIM with your documents and the buyer's documents, along with a signed (by both of you) document where you state that you'll be the new owner. This process will take about a week. And yes, it is relatively easy to get a nano sim ;)

Thanks for that.

I am wondering why he specifically wrote "any amount is available" rather than listing the top-up amounts as on the other Italy pages. Perhaps he knows something that most people don't know. For example, with Orange UK the minimum top-up is £5, but it's not well advertised that you can also buy vouchers as small as 10p in Orange/EE shops.

Some time ago you could top-up any amount starting from 5€. So you could top-up 5,01€ or 6,76€, etc. Then TIM removed that possibility...

Forgive me for bringing up this thread again - it looks like TIM still isn't allowing US credit card and US paypal accounts to recharge my SIM. I was hoping for an improvement this year. :)

Is rechargesim.net still the cheapest way to do it? (even at Euro 3.90/transaction)? I have 2 SIMs that I need to recharge - seems kindof silly having to pay 2 x Euro 3.90. Or is another way for me to ask one of you dear members who lives in Italy to get me some Ricarica cards from your local supermarket and I will reimburse you? (they both need to be recharged by end of this month).

Please let me know. And somewhat off-topic, I heard I could get a PosteItalia's Carta PostePay (the next time I'm back in Italy), load up some money on it and then use it on TIM's website (as an Italian debit card). True? (I'm not an Italian resident but have a Codice Fiscale that I "generated" from a website).

Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure if you can get a Postepay prepaid card from Poste Italiane. But if you do you surely can use it to recharge TIM prepaid cards. Anyway, for this year you're ok! ;)

I think I might have spotted another discrepancy at http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/italia/tim.php. It says "€ 1.00/day for the first 50MB, after that € 0.50/MB" but at http://www.tim.it/tariffe/ricaricabi...o-scatti?tab=1 and http://www.tim.it/tariffe/ricaricabile/tim-12-new?tab=1 it says "La tariffa base per la navigazione Internet da telefonino, valida in Italia attraverso apn wap.tim.it e applicata in assenza di specifiche offerte Internet attive, è di 4€ al giorno". Am I missing something? Is the €1/50MB deal no longer available?

That was the old "Flat Day" offer on WAP... 1€/day for 50MB. Today it's 4€/day for 500MB.