I use my EE uk mobile at home in France for WhatsApp and email, but recently EE have started charging £2 odd / day for texting / calls/ data in the EU.
Have always had a PAYG account, and just topped up with £10 or so a few times a year.
We have almost no mobile coverage at the house, so just use it with wifi.
One of the advantages of using a foreign mobile as one’s main mobile, is that it automatically roams between Orange / Bouygues / SFR/ Free etc . . .very useful when you have a poor mobile signal !
Also have a Reglo (SFR) French mobile, for which I pay about 3€ /month.
Am considering
a) switching to using the Reglo french mobile as the main one (but won’t get the advantages of roaming. that I get with the uk mobile
b) switching uk provider, but to what ? and how, as am out of the country.
Someone recommended O2 but can only find contracts at £7 or £10 / month online, although I believe you can get PAYG if you buy your Sim in a uk shop.
I’ve recently got a Lebara SIM for when I visit France because roaming data is included. Could be worth a look. I have a Giffgaff SIM as my present main number, but they only give 5GO per month roaming in Europe.
Ah, thanks for replying !
I don’t often use data . . . this is for use with wifi, and the odd text / odd phone call in France, and for use in the uk on trips back.
I have looked at Giffgaff . . .will check out Lebara, it has to be PAYG, not a monthly charge.
hmh
A 1p mobile payg sim, which uses EE, can be bought (in UK) and managed on line. . Roaming allowed at 1p minute/text but data without a £5 data top up is expensive. This has been my main sim for two years. I also have Smarty and Lebara on cheap deals for experimenting.
There are very good UK payg sim deals on 30 day rolling contracts as a search will reveal.
I am currently on a Lebara at 99p for first six months then £4.99 which includes roaming and 100 minutes international calling.
I think someone mentioned Leclerc as having good French deals. AFAIK with any French provider, at some point you’d need to provide ID details. Free does a 2 €/m deal which may be okay (50 Mo of data, just how things used to be!) https://mobile.free.fr/
I’m still with Lebara because I get the entire data allowance as international roaming if necessary
I use Lebara (in the UK as my regular mobile provider) and have been happy with them - they use the Vodafone network in the UK but are cheaper than Vodafone.
Money saving expert and other comparison sites often feature better Lebara deals than you get going direct and they are not all the same deal as shown by others above. You need to change the settings on your phone for roaming though.
I don’t recall changing any settings on my iPhone last time I was in France (with Lebara), it just picked up a local network - maybe it depends on the phone?
In order to roam you have to enable your phone to use roaming - that should be the same on any smartphone - and it ensures you’re in control of what your phone does so there should be no unexpected bills.
This is how you can work out which French network is strong or not strong or no signal in your area - bring a UK SIM that roams, either see which French network(s) it connects to at different times/days/weekends/weekdays, and the strength of each signal, or manually scan and select each visible French network in your phone’s Settings then Connections and test using each one.
Manually is best to try as well, as the priority of which UK network SIM chooses which French network, in order, may be determined more by commercial agreements than better network.
We tried all the providers, and none has a reliable signal here . . that is what is so great about using a uk Sim, it flits between Free, Bouygues, SFR, Orange . . we really just use wifi and WhatsApp instead of texting or phoning, and have a landline too.
However, EE have gone all EU un-friendly, I need a different uk provider.
I do have a cheap Reglo ( SFR ) account for a French mobile…
