Non International Sim-cards - Online

[ygeffens]

I'm looking for sites selling sim-cards that are specific for a particular country, and the should ship abroud.

I know about the discussion: travel to the country, and buy there.
I don't want that, I want the card before I leave.

At present, I'm looking for Brazil, The Netherlands, Germany.
But I want to make a list of sites, just in case.

Anyone?

[Effendi]

There's full of those sites, one more expensive than the other... you can look at Orate for example... but it's really a nonsense to buy the cards at those prices, it's even cheaper to use roaming!
I can understand for Brazil, but you live very close to Netherlands and Germany, it's really much better to go there...

[ygeffens]

The price for these cards they offer are indeed way to high.
Now I understand why people 'suggest' to buy a card when you are in the country. The major disadvantage is that you can't communicatie your number to the people left behind, before you leave.

Any other sites known by the gurus here?

[snidely]

For many people, the extra $10 to even $20 is well worth the price to know that's one less thing to deal with when you land. After all, what's $20 when you are spending more than 100 times that on the total trip?

...mike

[Hank C Burnette]

For the Netherlands, you can easily buy online a sim of the MVNO Ortel Mobile.

http://www.ortelmobiel.nl

[DRNewcomb]

www.telestial.com
www.cellularabroad.com
www.simphonee.com

[andy]

For Netherlands (or Belgium), I haven't tried ordering IDT mobile from abroad but it looks very likely to be possible. International rates about the same as Ortel and Lebara

[thl]

As you ask for sites, i would like to recommend my http://www.gsm-prepaid.net ...

Originally Posted by ygeffens

I'm looking for sites selling sim-cards that are specific for a particular country, and the should ship abroud.

I know about the discussion: travel to the country, and buy there.
I don't want that, I want the card before I leave.

At present, I'm looking for Brazil, The Netherlands, Germany.
But I want to make a list of sites, just in case.

Anyone?

[andy]

Originally Posted by thl

As you ask for sites, i would like to recommend my site

I would like to observe that if I want a T-mobile US SIM card, I think I could manage to get one cheaper than your €90

Likewise, a T-mobile Slovakia SIM cost me 399 SKK ~€10 a couple of years ago, so your €55 does not appear to match the instinct of members here to find the best deals

As most of us know, UK SIMs are often given away free, so your €50 to €80 fees look perilously close to extortion

As Effendi said, many such sites resell the SIM cards for such high prices that no saving over roaming charges can easily be foreseen. I am surprised you have the nerve to post this here.


Surely your €24 charge for a £10 UK SIM top-up is only for stupid people that have no concept of exchange rates?

And I can't understand why your O2 UK SIM has no roaming, or your Virgin UK SIM has no data roaming. Did you order these reduced specification SIMs specially? Or do you just not know enough about what you are selling?

[petkow]

Originally Posted by andy

As most of us know, UK SIMs are often given away free, so your €50 to €80 fees look perilously close to extortion

Ah.... but the ones you get in the UK don't come with the useful German manual. Surely that's what the markup is for!



Reading this thread leads me to think that there is an obvious service required here. Note I use the word 'service' and not 'market', as there is obviously plenty of that about! Even though I am relatively new to the whole ppgsm forum, I can see its members are scattered far and wide. Surely with so many nice people exchanging ideas on a forum, there will be a few who may be interested in exchanging a few prepaid SIM cards. Though I see already, it is very difficult to do this without starting a spamming marketplace. I have noted that such exchanges have taken place several times already via PM etc.

However, what I imagine is for someone to start a public thread where users post requests, and if another user can fulfil the demand, they arrange to send the SIM via post, and for the buyer to pay the cost price plus postage. This should be done via paypal (or other online scheme). Obviously a certain amount of honesty will be required, in ascertaining the price of the SIM and postage. However if this is done in public, at least other users may be aware if a scam is taking place. (And it is relatively easy anyhow to find guide prices via the internet). One may ask is all this worth the hassle for the seller (with no potential financial gain)? I anticipate users will only be interested in selling at cost price if they in future anticipate receiving such a card at cost price.

A moderator will need to draft some rules on how it works etc. Maybe some sort of point system may be good. For every card you send you get one point. For every card you receive you lose one point. A positive balance, zero or slight negative is good. A strong negative is bad. However, this may not be strictly required because after all you could live in a country that no one visits or where a global roaming SIM is good enough!

What do users think of this? I am happy to be gunned down on the idea. Someone who has been around longer may convince me ppgsm may not be the place for this. However, I can definately seen its potential, and have an assortment of various SIM cards (from a few countries) I can start the process with.

EdiT: I know there is a "Buy/Sell/Trade subforum" but it would be a nice to have a single thread/site which purely takes requests.