Lidl

[siskiou]

Thanks! I don't have a German bank account, and my parents don't want theirs given out.

Anyway, I received another reply from fonic. They keep changing where the bonus actually came from:
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Eine erneute Prüfung Ihres Anliegens hat ergeben, dass der Bonus, den Sie bisher erhalten haben, von der Freundschaftswerbung Ihrer Tochter stammt. Dies kann man am gleichen Zeitpunkt erkennen.
Die Freundschaftswerbung des anderen Werbers konnte auch Ihnen nicht gewährt werden, weil der Werber, wie bereits beschrieben, im Oktober schon 5 Personen geworben hatte. Aus diesem Grund haben auch Sie den Bonus nicht erhalten.
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But I guess they've had enough of my questions and gave me the bonus anyhow.
Not sure why they would say you were over the limit of 5, when they only gave you 2 for October. Maybe they will trickle in later?

Btw after doing this your SIM will still remain active and you can recharge it if you ever need it again.

You mean, the card doesn't get deactivated after a certain amount of time? That would be fantastic! I'm a little tired of hunting down a new sim for each trip to Germany!

[SporkLover]

I purchased a lidl sim from lidl on my last trip in August. What a deal. I did however make the fatal mistake of not ensuring that my day flat data rate took effect, and I went through my credit value quickly on the volume base billing.....

Strange because I followed directions to do so, and even replied ja.

Inquisitor, is there anyway to ensure I'm on the day flat rate through the tonic website?

[inquisitor]

Unfortunately tariff changes made by SMS still sometimes take ages or even don't take effect at all.
The most reliable way to check and switch data options is through Fonic's website, where you'll find the data options under "Tarif-Optionen" (see screenshot below). Your current data tariff is tagged with "aktiv" and you can switch to alternative data options through the "Aktivieren" button.

[SporkLover]

Thanks inquisitor!

Do you have any idea if I can use the lidl sims for data on an iPad 2?

I can cut the sim to micro sim siz (already done it for my iPhone 4s).

Would be nice to have data for my iPad 2 as well

[inquisitor]

You can use a Lidl SIM on an iPad but you will have to cut the SIM yourself. They do not offer microSIMs yet.

[Prepaidtraveller]

i did chop my lidl sim into a microsim, worked fine in the ipad2, just be sure to change the APN... actually come to think of it you can put whaever you want in APN and it still seems to work for some reason....

be careful when you head home thou, the SIM has roaming active and seems to gobble 80cents or so sending some sort of SMS back home to germany gobbling up some of your credit

even if you do have to buy 20euro voucher, use 15 on data, stick the SIM in a phone and make phone calls with the remaining 5euro

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by Prepaidtraveller

...just be sure to change the APN... actually come to think of it you can put whaever you want in APN and it still seems to work for some reason....

O2 Germany (including Lidl) have tweaked their network so you can always establish an internet connection, no matter what APN you've entered. However you have to set and/or activate an (random) APN on your phone.

be careful when you head home thou, the SIM has roaming active and seems to gobble 80cents or so sending some sort of SMS back home to germany gobbling up some of your credit

According to Lidl's latest tariff list (p. 2) outgoing SMS while roaming cost € 0.13 within Europe and € 0.39 outside of Europe. Incoming SMS are free of charge worldwide.

[sykeung]

Hi, I am a newbie here to this forum.

I will have a trip to Munich and Berlin at Jun for around 9 days. Is it the best option to buy the Lidl SIMs if i need to call home and surf the internet sometimes from my phone ?
I've read the posts that I can get a €5 bonus from the referral program, is it true ?
I found that there is a Lidl supermarket near my hotel, is it easy to get one there ?

This is the 1st time I travel to Germany, thanks.

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by sykeung

Is it the best option to buy the Lidl SIMs if i need to call home and surf the internet sometimes from my phone ?

Since Lidl charges calls to Hong Kong with € 0.99/min you should consider buying a blauworld SIM card which offers calls to Hong Kong for € 0.01/min (landlines) and € 0.05/min (mobiles) plus a call setup fee of € 0.15 per successful call (Cheap international mobile calls and SMS with blauworld). The underlying eplus network isn't the best for data but you should still get 1 MBit/s where HSDPA is available and if you want cheap rates to Hong Kong you don't have an alternative anyway.

Blauworld SIM cards are available at the following retailers:
ReiseBank, PTT-SHOP, SATURN, E-Plus, expert, EURONICS, NORMA, Conrad, klein, mobilcom-debitel-Shop, real,- und KAUFLAND

Blauworld also offers a data flatrate with throttling after 250MB for € 7.90 (Handy-Surf-Flat: Unbegrenztes mobiles Internet mit UMTS & GPRS).

Please be aware that the information above concerns blauworld while there is also another prepaid SIM from the same company called just blau which is more expensive for calls to Hong Kong.

I've read the posts that I can get a €5 bonus from the referral program, is it true ?

Yes, it is.

I found that there is a Lidl supermarket near my hotel, is it easy to get one there ?

Usually it's not a problem. You just need to walk straight through to the checkout counter and ask the cashier for a Lidl SIM. However it happens that Lidl supermarkets run out of stock sometimes, so you might need to find the next one.

[sykeung]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Since Lidl charges calls to Hong Kong with € 0.99/min you should consider buying a blauworld SIM card which offers calls to Hong Kong for € 0.01/min (landlines) and € 0.05/min (mobiles) plus a call setup fee of € 0.15 per successful call (Cheap international mobile calls and SMS with blauworld). The underlying eplus network isn't the best for data but you should still get 1 MBit/s where HSDPA is available and if you want cheap rates to Hong Kong you don't have an alternative anyway.
......................

Thanks for your information.
Good news to me that my wife will get an calling card from her company and we dont need to worry about the Internation call to HK now.

Usually it's not a problem. You just need to walk straight through to the checkout counter and ask the cashier for a Lidl SIM. However it happens that Lidl supermarkets run out of stock sometimes, so you might need to find the next one.

I think we'd better go for a Lidl SIM.
Hope we can get the SIM in supermarket that time.