France & Spain

[Devilish]

Hello Everyone,
I love this forum and its a great place to get help and prople are so friendly here. Thank you.

Here is what I need your input on:
I will be leaving going to France and Spain next week and I got a Razor phone that my sister used on Cigular. Cigular/Motorola emailed her the the unlocked code and I used a SIM card from a nextel phone to unlock the razor phone and it seem it worked fine.

I am thinking about United Mobile SIM or Yackie Mobile SIM Cards but this is where I will need your input. I am kind of short on time and I will be leaving in 10 Days and I am not sure if I will have enought time to order and get the cards from those providers. Can these SIM cards be purchased in France?

I was going to rent a phone from Verzon and go with their servie til I found out about this forum and found out I can make calls a lot cheaper with these SIM Cards.

Please let me know as soon as possible what do you think and what I should do.

Thank you in advance.

[DRNewcomb]

With just 10 days to go I'd either:
1. Contact Telestial.com and get one of their international SIMs rushed to you, or
2. A. Set up an account with VoiceStick.com and
2. B. Wait until I get there and buy a local SIM. When you get to the next
country buy another local SIM. Forward your VoiceStick number to the
local SIM you are using at the time.

Remember that international prepaids are not the only solution.

[snaimon]

You might check out Ebay. There is a UM card for sale there on a buy it now for $60 -- that seller is in MA. I believe there are also French and Spanish locals as DR suggested available on Ebay. Again, just an option and do your due diligence on the sellers.

Local SIMs are available at airports and almost everywhere in Fr and Sp -- just know the names of the provider or providers and look for their stores in bigger cities. Make sure you have the proper power (240 volts) and European power adapters.

As a backup I always recommend US or local calling cards that can be used from hotels, regular land line phones, pay phones (at an increased price) and sometimes even mobiles, probably also at an increased price.

Bon voyage.

Stan

[Devilish]

Thank you for your help and information.
Now Can you tell me which provider do you like in each one (France and Spain).
I think I will go and buy the sim card in each of those country.

I also notice Yackie is located in USA, what do you think about their service. I know some people were saying they are having problem with delivery service.

Thanks again.

[Bossman]

Yackie is new, so I do not think anyone will be able to give you any info regarding their service. Since you do not have much time, you probably will not be able to get anything online and get it to you before you leave. Telestial, as suggested above, probably could have got a sim to you. Their passport or UM would have been okay. Even though it would have been at a "very high" premium. You may want to contact Telestial and see if they can FEDEX a sim to you.

As you suggested, buying the sim card in each country might be your best option. The experts here will probably let you know which one is best for you. I used Amena when I was in Spain last year, and I know calling back to the US was very pricey.

[andy]

Originally Posted by Bossman

I used Amena when I was in Spain last year, and I know calling back to the US was very pricey.

Don't direct call international with any of these SIMs. Get a calling card with local area access number, such as Bizon with it's 2c tariff.

Vodafone ES seems to have a 60 for 1 minutes option, which would be interesting if easy to set up. In France, Orange has various unlimited options, like a few Euros for an evening, etc. Use these with the local calling card number