Fonic for a Month in Munich

inquisitor · 15-04-2014, 22:31

Hi Lizzie,

Do you still have an active Fonic SIM card or would you need to buy a new SIM card anyway? In the latter case, I would recommend buying an Aldi Talk SIM card sold at Aldi supermarkets instead which offers a number of advantages over Fonic/Lidl:

Aldi does not verify your - mandatory German - registration address by sending out letters, so there are no hurdles for visitors to register.
Further to that Aldi offers a wider range of mostly cheaper data and voice packages and all can be purchased from the prepaid credit on your SIM card. Fonic/Lidl in contrast requires direct debit payments from a German bank account for some of their bundles of minutes and data allowance.
Lastly Aldi has scraped roaming fees in the whole EU + EEU + Switzerland where you can now call at very reasonable rates and there's also a fairly priced data pack for use outside Germany (120MB valid for 7 days for € 4.99). So Aldi is also quite interesting should you travel to any other European country in the future.
As of network quality Aldi uses the eplus network which had issues in the past but as they have massively invested in the modernization of their 3G network while all the other operators have been allocating all their resources to the expensive 4G (LTE) roll-out, eplus now often outperforms its competitors when it comes to 3G.

Given that your Galaxy Note does not support 4G (LTE) and since all the other German operators don't allow prepaid subscribers onto their 4G networks, 3G performance is all what counts for you and that's where eplus is definitely competitive.

Best,

lizzie1955 · 16-04-2014, 01:17

As always, thank you so much for the suggestion. As it turns out, I do have to get a new SIM. My Fonic disappeared....I'll check out the Aldi SIM. The roaming will be helpful for me as I will be going back and forth to Salzburg.

Is this a SIM that I'll be able to purchase before leaving or will I have to wait until I get to Germany?

lizzie1955 · 16-04-2014, 02:01

Chris, Will I have trouble finding an Aldi SIM and topping it up if I don't have an Aldi near by?

	(#1)
inquisitor (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Professionist Posts: 1,399 Join Date: 15 Nov 2006 Country:	15-04-2014, 22:31 Hi Lizzie, Do you still have an active Fonic SIM card or would you need to buy a new SIM card anyway? In the latter case, I would recommend buying an Aldi Talk SIM card sold at Aldi supermarkets instead which offers a number of advantages over Fonic/Lidl: Aldi does not verify your - mandatory German - registration address by sending out letters, so there are no hurdles for visitors to register. Further to that Aldi offers a wider range of mostly cheaper data and voice packages and all can be purchased from the prepaid credit on your SIM card. Fonic/Lidl in contrast requires direct debit payments from a German bank account for some of their bundles of minutes and data allowance. Lastly Aldi has scraped roaming fees in the whole EU + EEU + Switzerland where you can now call at very reasonable rates and there's also a fairly priced data pack for use outside Germany (120MB valid for 7 days for € 4.99). So Aldi is also quite interesting should you travel to any other European country in the future. As of network quality Aldi uses the eplus network which had issues in the past but as they have massively invested in the modernization of their 3G network while all the other operators have been allocating all their resources to the expensive 4G (LTE) roll-out, eplus now often outperforms its competitors when it comes to 3G. Given that your Galaxy Note does not support 4G (LTE) and since all the other German operators don't allow prepaid subscribers onto their 4G networks, 3G performance is all what counts for you and that's where eplus is definitely competitive. Best, terminals: Samsung: Galaxy S5 DuoS (G900FD); BLU: Win HD LTE; Nokia: 1200; Asus: Fonepad 7 ME372CG; Huawei data: E3372, Vodafone R201, K3765, E1762; postpaid: O2 on Business XL; prepaid: DE: Aldi Talk, Lidl; UK: 3; BG: MTel, vivacom; RU: MTS; RS: MTS; UAE: du Tourist SIM; INT'L: toggle mobile VoIP: sipgate.de (German DID); sipgate.co.uk (British DID); ukddi.com (British DID); sipcall.ch (Swiss DID); megafon.bg (Bulgarian DID); InterVoip.com

	(#2)
lizzie1955 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Fan Posts: 100 Join Date: 20 Aug 2007 Country:	16-04-2014, 01:17 As always, thank you so much for the suggestion. As it turns out, I do have to get a new SIM. My Fonic disappeared....I'll check out the Aldi SIM. The roaming will be helpful for me as I will be going back and forth to Salzburg. Is this a SIM that I'll be able to purchase before leaving or will I have to wait until I get to Germany?

	(#3)
lizzie1955 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Fan Posts: 100 Join Date: 20 Aug 2007 Country:	16-04-2014, 02:01 Chris, Will I have trouble finding an Aldi SIM and topping it up if I don't have an Aldi near by?