OK thanks Karen. I’ll look into this over the Christmas break. I’d only be porting the number to, say, Orange initially. In the hope that we would be able to terminate the Orange mobile contract completely (ie no porting) a few months after leaving France.
To be honest, I’m less bothered about cost. Am happy to pay more if it gets me good customer service.
I had a Free SIM. €2/month. Cancellation was no trouble at all. It’s about three telcos ago now so I can’t recall the m.o. but I do recall having no problems.
‘Boogie’ [sic] have some attractive deals a.t.mo for mobile and i/n. I’m with them for a SIM/fibre bundle and it’s all good. They have a shop in Vire. Staff very helpful.
When we had fibre installed a few months ago I cancelled the two Free lines we were using for our 4G routers online with no difficulties at all. No letters required.
I will have a stiff drink and log into my Free mobile account over the weekend and see if they explain the procedure in my espace client.
But on the face of it, in cases where you’re leaving the country and not wanting to port the number, I can see no way to terminate a Free mobile contract without sending an LRAR. And since, for practical reasons, most people would want to keep their French mobile for a few months after leaving France, that would mean sending a registered letter from abroad. From my recent experience, these can be hard to track and often no acknowledgement of receipt ever arrives.
I have separate providers for my mobile and landline.
You can send an LRAR online from the La Poste website. Much less hassle.
Best to cancel rather than not pay, in case it puts a black mark against you in some credit rating system somewhere.
I know France doesn’t go in for credit like the UK and US do, but still…
But misbehave and The Bank of France steps in and freezes your bank account. Happened to friends who thought the money from their house sale in the UK had been transferred into their French a/c and it hadn’t. They were blythely buying stuff until they found they couldn’t. Took a lot of hassle to sort out.
Good point. I hadn’t thought of that.
I still think I’d prefer to switch now, though, to a mobile provider who will let me terminate the contract from our espace client. When the time comes.
Maybe try Reglo unlimited calls/texts and 20g data for 5.80. Shipping was 5 for the sim which I the converted to an eSim
Thanks I’ll check them out.
I want enough data allowance so we never have to worry about running out. Including in Switzerland (we currently have to turn off Mobile Data when we’re in Switzerland) and countries like Turkey and North Macedonia (Free was great for this on recent trips).
Am still working so not too bothered about the cost. Will do some research over the Christmas break.
I used 1 month renewable - or not. So no negative consequences for taking just 1 month. Back in the day there was even some type of PAYG that could have been had from the likes of Orange thst could be topped up or not, but extremely expensive.
Didn’t need to do that as fortunately the niche thst the likes of Lebara and Lyca had been forced into was 1 month renewable and renewable or not from the first month.
In general be very wary of any subscription product in France - even accidental. They are very, very often disproportionately hard to get out of. Like that rule that was only chsnged quite recently that said you could only cancel an insurance contract at the end of each insurance year. And that you had to give a full 3 months’ notice. Historically often only by LRAR.
I think some you could only cancel on, or your 3 months’ notice could only take effect on, the exact Quarter day ie 1st April/July/October/January So you could end up stuck for 6 months if you were a day late.(though I might be remembering Switzerland for the Quarter Day restriction).
French businesses love to grab money from yoiur account on an ongoing basis and are very dogged about keeping it. Free just seems to be the extreme expression of this orientation that in markets that are regulated to be competitive but fair, is limited by legislation that is protective of consumers and where access to enforcemrnt of rights is relatively easy for individual consumers if needed.
I’ve just logged into my Free mobile account and eventually I found the information on how to cancel (it’s well tucked away).
It confirms what we’d already found elsewhere on the internet. If you don’t want to keep your number, it’s a right palaver. Starting with a call to some salesperson who will undoubtedly do their utmost to make you change your mind before finally grudgingly giving the address for the LRAR.
I will be changing provider (changing if you keep the number is easy of course because basically the new French provider does everything).
Here’s what it says in my espace client about cancelling:
Where it says ‘if you don’t want to telephone, go onto the site and …’
DO THAT.
Go onto the site, do what they say and 10 sec later it will be confirmed as actioned. Résilier un contrat is at the bottom of the page.
I did not want to keep the number and it all worked with no phone call, no letter.
Hi lebeuil,
Tapping on “Résilier un contrat” at the bottom of the page just takes me back to the sign-in page. Am reluctant to proceed too far with this because I’m not yet ready to cancel.
I also don’t understand why they would say in the Espace Client that the procedure is as above. If in fact it’s different.
Have they confirmed that your contract is terminated? So no more money will be taken from your account (after the final bill)?
If so, great, well done - I will stay with Free until we’ve left France.
I really should read my contract properly. For years I’ve been harassing my husband to switch off mobile data somewhere just before Basel and then switch it back on after the St Bernard tunnel when we enter Italy. I see now Switzerland is actually included in our mobile contract for internet.
Helen, I already explained above that I cancelled two Free lines online a few weeks ago without any problems.It’s a doddle. This is becoming a where do you stick your Crit’Air sticker thread. 
Broadband may be a different thing to a pure mobile contract with Free which is where those of us mentioning have had problems.
That’s what I think too. I’m not talking about routers. Or switching to a different mobile provider.
But Lebeuil SEEMS to have managed what I’m talking about so let’s see!
I’ll shut up now.
Not even close to being a rival for the King of Threads yet. 
(actually I defer that title to the Cheerful News thread, which is rightfully much more extensive and in multiple sections)
Editing on iPad safari remains impossible 
It wasn’t a broadband contract Karen. As I stated in my original post it was two Free lines, normal lines. I just happened to use them in MY routers, there were no 4G/5G (indeed 5G at all) broadband offerings when I set this up. Had it been broadband and therefore not relevant to the original query, I wouldn’t have wasted time posting about.
So, for the avoidance of doubt. I had four Free lines, three were normal €19.99 lines and one was €2.00 line. I went online and cancelled two of the €19.99 lines without ant difficulty at all . No letters, no talking to anybody, no grief. No need to keep the numbers.
QED
Same ethos Chris, round and round in circles 
