SIM without an address or French bank account

Hi,

I have some land in the Dordogne which I go to work on for 2-3 months at a time, twice a year. I don’t have an address in France, just the land. There’s a good 4g signal on the land.

I’ve been using 3 on my phone, and it’s been good but I think I might be about to go beyond what they allow in their ‘feel at home’ service. So I reckon I need a French SIM.

But those I’ve looked at are either short term and quite expensive or if they’re long term they require a French address and French bank account in order to get one. Does anyone know of a sim available without these requirements?

Thanks,

John

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I am interested to know how long 3 will allow me to continue to use my phone in France.

I think it has always been a legal requirement in France (as anywhere else) to provide an address in France. It’s a basic anti-fraud measure and they are very strong on that here…
I remember my first French mobile about 15 or more years ago when I used to fly on a regular basis to France and obtained a PAYG from Orange. Didn’t need a bank account but did need an address. I used a friends address (with his permission) for this purpose.
It wasn’t ideal; the PAYG contract required prepayment credit which if not used by a certain date would simply be lost but you can obtain credit facilities from buraliste and supermarkets.
In order to obtain a bank account without the usual expense, consider one of the on-line accounts freely available these days. I believe they allow you to use your UK address and will likely satisfy French mobile vendor requirements.

How do you pay your taxe foncière? surely there is an address for the land which you can use?

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From the Three T&C for pay monthly customers.

It will be interesting to see if this is applied - it doesn’t seem unreasonable.

I will be heading back to UK after approx 4.5 months so service should cease before then - I will report back.

I suspect they only bother looking if usage is excessive.

There’s a separate data “fair use” limit. Depending on circumstances this is 12, 15 or 19GB.

Thanks for the info. I should have dug down to find 3’s T&C’s myself. I’ll probably stick with 3 for the time being.

John