Lidl

[thermos]

Hi,

Just found this forum, I also come from Hong Kong and will have trip to Germany shortly for 18 days. After browsing the info about LIDL mobile infomation in this forum, I found the 30 days unlimited data plan is good for me. In addition, It's great to know that voip can be used in LIDLnetwork as I have voip account to make calls back to Hong Kong free of charge.

Just want to clarify the steps to go
- buy a SIM card at 9.95 Euro
- buy a 15 Euro top up voucher
- activate the SIM card either via on-line or SMS
- submit the top up code
- book the 30 days unlimited plan (14.99 Euro) by on-line page. or I can make it by SMS or other ways?

One other thing, can I use the remaining money (10 + 15 - 14.99) for local call?

Best regards

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by thermos

- activate the SIM card either via on-line or SMS

You can't activate the SIM by SMS as it won't register on the network before it has been activated. You can only activate the SIM online or through the printed form which you would need to submit by snail mail or fax and would take at least 24h to be processed

- book the 30 days unlimited plan (14.99 Euro) by on-line page. or I can make it by SMS or other ways?

As described in detail here you can also subscribe to the monthly data flat by sending a text with "START MONATSFLAT" to 54356 (L-I-D-L-M). Shortly after that you should receive a text asking for confirmation which you need to answer by sending just "JA". Before starting to browse the internet make sure you've received the final confirmation from Lidl saying that your "Monatsflatrate" has been successfully activated.

One other thing, can I use the remaining money (10 + 15 - 14.99) for local call?

Sure. you can call all German networks (no matter if landlines or mobiles) at € 0.09/min. Calls to the US, Canada and European landlines are charged at the same price while calls to European mobiles cost € 0.29/min.
You should know that as mentioned here under "activation", step 7 you can get a bonus credit of € 5 if you provide some other Lidl customer's phone number as referer during activation. The instructions contain such number (actually mine ) and the refering customer does also receive a bonus of € 5. The problem is just that it may take up to 3 weeks until this bonus from the referral program has been accredited so you would need to make sure your SIM is being activated 3 weeks before arrival so you would have a total credit of € 15 which would suffice for the monthly data flatrate.

[thermos]

Dear inquisitor,
You're so wonderful and always be informative! Thanks.
I will ask my friend in Germany to help me to purchase and activate the sim card before my landing and then pass to me as we will meet the next day.

I would like to have your LIDL number for letting both of us to have the bonous. And then I will ask my firend to activate the sim card with your number as referral.

Cheers

[thermos]

One more question,

We will have a day trip to Salzburg (Austra), how about the data roaming charge?

Thanks

[inquisitor]

Welcome. For the referral please use the following number: 017639737800

Internet access in other EU countries is charged with € 0.15/100KB and so is prohibitively expensive. Lidl also have a "EU Internet-Tages-Pack" (EU Internet daypack) which gives you 10MB for € 3 per day while roaming in the EU. But this tariff is only active if you are subscribed to the "Handy-Internet-Paket", which is the smaller monthly flatrate for € 8.99/month throttled after 500MB. So if you seek cheaper data rates in other EU countries you are forced to subscribe to the smaller monthly flatrate. If you subscribe to the larger 5GB-flatrate you won't get the "EU Internet-Tages-Pack". Btw if you consume those 10MB abroad Internet access while roaming is suspended until the next day and there's no way to renew this pack on the same day. Perhaps you should just relinquish Internet access during your day trip to Austria.

[thermos]

Dear inquisitor,

Thanks for your advice. I will ask my friend to ship the sim card to me and I will follow your mentioned steps to activate it online 4 to 5 weeks before my trip with your number in friend referral to make both of us can have 5 euro bonus. Once I have activated the sim card successfully, I will let you know then.

Cheers
Have a nice weekend

[veeRob]

I am having some problems and I'm hoping inquisitor or someone else can help me.

I followed all of the directions in this thread and bought a 10 euro Lidl SIM when I was in Munich to put in a cheap Nokia phone my friend gave me in Czech Republic. I activated it with the -7800 referral #, and everything worked great. I made and received calls in Munich.

After Munich, I went to Italy, and I could no longer send SMS's. Incoming SMS's arrived fine, but when I sent one I got the error "Check Operator Services." I thought maybe it was an Italian problem, so I didn't worry until I got to Slovenia and had the same issue. I am now in Croatia and the problem continues.

Any idea what my problem might be? I topped off with an extra 15 euro credit, and I received my 5 euro referral credit, so I have something like 25 euro in my account. It would be really annoying if I threw that extra 15 euro away.

Thanks in advance.

[thermos]

Originally Posted by thermos

Dear inquisitor,

Thanks for your advice. I will ask my friend to ship the sim card to me and I will follow your mentioned steps to activate it online 4 to 5 weeks before my trip with your number in friend referral to make both of us can have 5 euro bonus. Once I have activated the sim card successfully, I will let you know then.

Cheers
Have a nice weekend

Dear Inquisitor,
Just want to let you know I've activated the sim card here in Hong Kong via the service portal and add your mobile number in the friend referral section. Thanks for your very detailed steps for activation process.

Now I have 10 Euro in my account (I've checked in the portal) and I will wait for early June to subscribe the unlimted monthly data plan for Euro 15 as I expect I can get the 5 Euro bonous then. After my arrival in Frankfurt, I can use the data immediately.

I've also got the topup voucher (I will use it for voice calls) with the cashcode in 15 euro, can I also top up my account in the portal by using this cashcode? Or I have to use the mobile phone to top up when I am in Germany by using the access code *103*(cashcode)# ?

Cheers

[inquisitor]

I haven't faced such a problem yet. Can you place and receive calls?

[veeRob]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

I haven't faced such a problem yet. Can you place and receive calls?

Yes, calls work just fine.