Report on using Orange Mobicarte in France

[woody1]

Originally Posted by bavablu

I received following error message by paying with my German VISA Card:

"Une erreur technique est survenue pendant le paiement de votre commande, aussi la prise en compte de votre carte bancaire est actuellement impossible. Vous pourrez renouveler votre paiement ultérieurement ou bien sélectionnez dès à présent un autre mode de paiement. Merci de votre compréhension. "

Can anybody tell me what's going on?

It's not too clear, but it sounds like Orange is not able to process your credit card for some reason. They're saying that you can try again or use another mode of payment (whatever that would be). You might want to try it with a different credit card.

[bavablu]

Originally Posted by woody1

It's not too clear, but it sounds like Orange is not able to process your credit card for some reason. They're saying that you can try again or use another mode of payment (whatever that would be). You might want to try it with a different credit card.

I don't have another credit card.

Does foreign credit cards really work with orange? Or do they want a French credit card in order to have a bank with have seen a passport of the person buying the card?


How about paying with
"Bon d'achat ou chèque cadeau"

[bluespruce]

I will be living in France for four months' time later this year. Seeing as the Internet Max option is no longer available, I had a few questions about using my unlocked iPhone and Orange:

1) Les recharges max are only available for those with a French credit card, correct? Is there a way of getting that package without one?

2) If I can't get les recharges max, how much can I expect to pay for data, and how much will I get?

3) I've read that incoming calls are free regardless of where they come from — is this correct? Will I be able to set up a Skype U.S. based number and forward the calls to an Orange number for free (on the Orange end, at least)?

I appreciate any guidance anyone would be able to offer me in advance. I've tried researching as much as I can, but once I think I have everything right, I find minor details that throw me off.

[scirocco]

Originally Posted by bluespruce

2) If I can't get les recharges max, how much can I expect to pay for data, and how much will I get?

The data options you will see on a new prepaid Mobicarte are 10MB for 90 euro cents per day and 50 MB for 2 euros per day.

Originally Posted by bluespruce

3) I've read that incoming calls are free regardless of where they come from — is this correct? Will I be able to set up a Skype U.S. based number and forward the calls to an Orange number for free (on the Orange end, at least)?

Receiving international calls is not free. I'm not sure of the rate, but I have just come back from a week in France using a prepaid Mobicarte, and receiving international calls definitely used up my minutes. You will be able to set up the US Skype number if you wish, but it will cost you to receive the calls, even if it's just deductions of credit minutes rather than deductions of credit euros.

[bluespruce]

Thank you for that information. I've found that it's maddeningly impossible to understand the Orange website. I can read French just fine; it's just that I can't find what I would think to be straightforward information, such as an int'l long distance rates chart.

I'm starting to wonder if maybe Lebara is now the better option for int'l travelers to France. Their rates even for domestic calls and SMS seem more reasonable than Orange, and they tell the int'l long distance rates in plain English on their website (quelle surprise!). So if what is on there is correct, it's only EUR.05 to call the US (plus a .15 connection fee). I wonder if that may be better for me, though there doesn't seem to be much discussion about Lebara on here...

[scirocco]

Orange are often not the best value for money (especially now they are not selling the Internet Max product), but something to bear in mind is that their coverage is the widest. If you are a business traveller and are sticking to the urban areas, then you won't care whether your MVNO uses the Orange, SFR or Bouygues Telecoms physical networks. But for tourists visiting the remote and scenic parts of the country, the Orange network wins hands down for coverage.

And Lebara does not run on the Orange network.

[bluespruce]

Hold on one second— I don't mean to single anyone out, but in looking for more information about free incoming calls in this thread, I came across this post by you about a year ago:

Originally Posted by scirocco

Glad you got it working. The Mobicarte tariff sheet is linked below, but basically it's a caller pays system, so you pay nothing for incoming calls, even international. For calls to mobiles or landlines within France it's 0.54 euros per minute according to the tariff sheet. SMS are 0.135 euros each. International calls are much higher of course.

Orange also do deals such as 0.9 euros for 10 minutes in any one day, 10 euros unlimited calls over the weekend and 3 euros unlimited 9pm to midnight. You can see some of these in my picture in post 50 back on page 5 of this thread. You can access these on the #123 menu or on the Orange Portail.

There's absolutely no need to sign up for an Orange account if you don't want to. But it is a bit easier to sit back in the comfort of your home and get up to speed with their deals online than it is in the clunky old #123 phone menu. Depends on your level of reading French too.

I think with your basic RAZR phone as long as you don't open the browser or use any add-on apps like Google Maps you will not use any data. I used to have a RAZRV6 and that was how it worked.

http://boutique.orange.fr/doc/contrat3552.pdf

(Emphasis mine). So have the plans changed (along with the cancellation of Internet Max), or were you mistaken? Are you sure you were charged for receiving incoming int'l calls last week?

I'm mostly interested in being able to contact business and family in the U.S., and I'll be in major cities most of the time, so Lebara's limitations in rural areas doesn't bother me too much. But if I can get free incoming calls even from international numbers, then I might be able to be swayed away from Lebara at this point, as a free incoming call plan + Skype may turn out to be cheaper.

[andy]

You won't be charged for incoming calls in the SIM card's home country.

If you have forwarded calls to it from another provider, that will charge for the call diversion.

[scirocco]

Originally Posted by bluespruce

So have the plans changed (along with the cancellation of Internet Max), or were you mistaken? Are you sure you were charged for receiving incoming int'l calls last week?

I was partly mistaken. What happened for a few days last week was that I roamed the Orange France SIM into Italy using an add-on roaming pack. Incoming international calls were deducted from the minutes on that pack. It is that deduction that I was thinking of. However as stated elsewhere if I had been on the Orange home network in France, receiving the calls would have been free. Sorry for the confusion.

[jb9]

I am late to this thread, but still have a question about incoming international calls to my Orange SIM Card GSM phone. I am going to Corsica (France) in a week and wanted to verify that if I am on the Orange France network, will I be able to receive free incoming international calls? Thanks!