Lebara - anyone use them?

Technology
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Dumb question - is Lebara a French SIM?

As people might remember, the last time I was over my internet was on the blink. Possibly no more than a waterlogged junction box and might be fine when I return in late May buut I think I could do with a “Plan B” in case I arrive to find I have no network access.

I don’t want a pre-paid “travel SIM”, they don’t seem especially good value, I’d be happy with a French SIM but would prefer to have it delivered to the UK initially.

Lebara seem to have good deals at the moment - €5,99 a month for 40Go and €8,99 for 100Go - the lebara.fr site has English pages; will they send a French SIM to the UK? (I note Amazon.co.uk lists Lebara SIMs ut only PAYG as far as I caan see).

Edit: Hmm, half answering my own question it seems they want an identity document with which to register the SIM, of course they do - the French government seems to like to keep even more tabs on its populace than the UK - but I imagine it will need a French  ID document.

22

Can you not roam with a UK Lebara SIM, or will you need more data than they allow (30GB) ?

1 Like
23

Does your phone support eSIM?

If so, this might be of interest. As always, caveat emptor with online reviews.

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I briefly had an Orange SIM, but then they wanted a French ID document, as you suspect is the case for Lebara.

If you just want a SIM you can roam with, which lets you use all your data while roaming, Lebara does that.

25

Which is why I went with Reglo from ELeClerc.
Lebara working well, make sure you adjust the roaming settings if you go that route 30gb is advertised but I have exceeded it without issue so far.

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I could but there’s a bit of a “two birds” here which is that a French mobile number might be useful for those occasions where you can’t get past an “enter your (French) mobile number” step on some web form or other.

Yes, if forced to use back up Internet connectivity for a full week I would easily burn through more than 30GB

But if I just want a UK SIM which has free roaming there are a few options.

Yes though for “reasons” a physical SIM in my spare phone used as a hotspot and leaving my main phone for calls on my UK SIM is (slightly) preferred.

I plan to look at eSIM offerings though as well.

This might do, not sure if it can be topped up though which would be preferable.

But £20 for 60Go is still a worse deal than €8.99 for 100 :frowning:

I clicked through the purchase to see if it would reject a UK address - it definitely wanted a French ID document.

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Unfortunately Lebara roaming data is capped at 30GB, even if you have an “unlimited” data plan with them. Which seems daft, but there you go.

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12GB or so is a more common limit than 30GB, here in France, as well.

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Just opening this topic again as it’s only a couple of weeks until I plan to be in France.

The Lebara pre-paid card on Amazon - as I noted above - looks like it would fit my needs well. However, it also looks like it needs to be activated in France within 5 days of purchase which will be a bit challenging as Amazon UK are currently quoting Saturday May 4 for delivery (4 days), add a couple of days “just in case”, plus travel time in France is going to be impossible to meet a 5 day deadline, one reviewer complained the card had already expired by the time it arrived.

Plus there are the already described difficulties setting the APN.

Has anyone bought one of these in the UK and brought it to France - how was the experience?

The alternative is an O2 card for similar money, but half the data - it’s a bit of a pain that allowing time for delivery and activation will eat into the one month validity, but I only need it for a week so that’s liveable-with.

30

Actually this lot look interesting

100Gb is £25/month but you can use all of it roaming in the EU.

I just have to remember to cancel before the 2nd month.

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You can buy a Lebara UK SIM with 30GB roaming in supermarkets and newsagents usually - would that not work, rather than having one delivered from France?

That said I think I got mine direct from Lebara and it came in a day or two.

1 Like
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I use them with a no contract SIM, all good. You can call UK and use the phone when you are in the UK. 11.99 month incl 10G data (5G when in UK)

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O2 say they have no roaming charges but they do! We still have 2 UK phones on O2 and they charge us extra every month because we are in France despite the fact they are hardly used outside of the house wifi! Changing them to Lebara shortly, farewell O2!

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Or on line via a comparison site that may well offer £1.99 for 30gb for 3/6 months with no commitment so you can stop anytime.

Never waited more than 48 hours for the sim

1 Like
35

For “reasons” I might need more than 30G of data.

36

Then a Reglo would still be cheaper pick up from Eleclerc. I still have mine working 6 euros for 100gb.

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Hutchison/Three ‘3’ or their mvno idmobile might be a better bet. SIMs containing huge data were still available on ebay.co.uk when I looked fairly recently. Click&collect might be available from a few vendors so a shop (not 3 Shops they won’t do it nor sell them) at the port if short of time?

All SIMS must first be activated in their home country - best also to make sure by sending 1 sms or makng 1 call that is picked up - before taking abroad. Network parameters - which would include the APN - might not have any mods made abroad actually work till the phone returns to its home network. So best to get APN and any other settings sorted before travelling if at all poss.

If it doesn’t have to have a UK phone number then take a rolling month contract with Free or, I think, Sosh then cancel in first month. Be careful Free are b$td$ and will keep on debiting your account even if you correctly sent them notice of termination registered with AdR and they signed for it.

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Tight download limits on roaming. They always did but journalist always said it was the best network for roamong but it never was, so easy to see who bought their lunch.