# Which Pre Payment and Sim Card for France



## BillyS (Oct 13, 2012)

Hi all, 
Just a couple of questions, regarding pre-loaded payment cards, and which Sim Card to use for my Huawei E586 Mi-Fi Wireless Modem ( That's what it says on the Box !!!) in France.
Having received my "All the Aires France" today, I had a browse through the book, and found that there are 5 different Tokens for use, on Aires, not to mention cash, plus Credit Cards. All very confusing to say the least !!!! Not like Germany, where Cash is King everywhere !!!!
My questions are, would it be possible to get a pre-loaded card either in the Uk, or France, say for a limit for €200 or so ( just to pay for the facilities, i.e. water, electricity, grey& black water disposal? and what Sim Card should I purchase over there for Internet access on my Wi-Fi Modem? In the Uk I get a "3" Sim card for 90 days of 3 GB Data use, which is more than enough for our use. We will only be in France for about 2 weeks this time, our first trip over there. Many thanks. BillyS


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## jedi (Nov 22, 2007)

Hi,

Used aires extensively for 15 years. Most I use are free. Tokens next most common. Often available from a local shop encouraging you to contribute to the community kindly providing parking and facilities for you.

As for Sim the Europasim is very good.

http://www.motorhomewifi.com/product/europa-sim-roaming-data-sim-card/

Have a good trip,

Jed


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## Solwaybuggier (Mar 4, 2008)

Might be worth a look at Joe mobile - max cost 20€ for 30 days, with no commitment. They do send sims to UK.


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## stevegos (Jun 23, 2013)

We used a Toggle sim for voice as there is no cost to receive calls and a europasim for data. The data costs something like €3 per day for 500Mb at high speed but if you go over that limit they slow your speed down. You only pay the €3 on the days you use it.

I also have a usb wifi antenna which plugs into my laptop. Here at home we use BT for our broadband and get a FON account with it. In France the telecoms network SFR also have the FON network and it was rare that I could not find a signal somewhere to hop on to - for free! In some cases I could not even see a property nearby but could find a signal.

visit www.motorhomewifi.com for more details.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

stevegos said:


> We used a Toggle sim for voice as there is no cost to receive calls and a europasim for data. The data costs something like €3 per day for 500Mb at high speed but if you go over that limit they slow your speed down. You only pay the €3 on the days you use it.
> 
> I also have a usb wifi antenna which plugs into my laptop. Here at home we use BT for our broadband and get a FON account with it. In France the telecoms network SFR also have the FON network and it was rare that I could not find a signal somewhere to hop on to - for free! In some cases I could not even see a property nearby but could find a signal.
> 
> visit www.motorhomewifi.com for more details.


I agree. All I use is the directional antenna from www.motorhomewifi.com Addie the owner is a member on here and the best person to contact regarding sims and antennas. To access the FON network via SFR you need to be a BT customer or purchase a FONERA device from FON. Either that or ask nicely for the openzone user name and password from a family member or friend.

As regards Aires. I avoid the ones that take credit cards for water etc as they seldom work with UK cards. Too many free ones anyway.

As said tokens or Jetons as they are known in France are always available nearby. Another excuse to go to the bar!


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## HermanHymer (Dec 5, 2008)

That's your telecoms sorted. 

As for the pre-loaded cash card, I, and many other members use the Caxton FX Euro card. Draw cash at ATM's or use at merchants. Load 'on the hoof' from UK account by phone, text or online, as and when you need to. Good rate, no transaction or load charges, second card back-up facility, plus they send an email when the rate is "looking good". If I remember correctly it's a MasterCard. Google website and apply on line. It's 100% great!


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## BillyS (Oct 13, 2012)

Many thanks all for your useful information. BillyS


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## klyne (May 10, 2005)

The EU are forcing the price of data roaming down all the time and apparently there is due to be another cut this year, although it usually happens half way through the year which is a bit inconvenient!!! Depending on how much data you think you will need it might be worth exploring what you UK network has to offer. I use Virgin and I can just text them to add data to my account and they send me a text when I have nearly run out. The only slight flaw in their system is that you can't buy more until you have used all the previous purchase!

David


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## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

barryd said:


> Either that or ask nicely for the openzone user name and password from a family member or friend.


8O ......... :wink: BTW, are you still using mine Barry? :lol:



barryd said:


> As said tokens or Jetons as they are known in France are always available nearby. Another excuse to go to the bar!


A man after my own heart. :lol:

Cheers,

Jock.


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

If you only need data for a couple of weeks, I got a Vodafone PAYG SIM in Cite d'Europ (take yr passport) for less than 10 euro I think, top up at any tabac with 5 eu for 100MB lasting a week.

I think the £3/day deals are a bit of a rip-off unless you use a lot of data.


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## tonyt (May 25, 2005)

My vote also goes to Caxton - been using it a few years, trouble free. 

The Caxton Global (non-EU) also works well with ever changing exchange rates.

Aires with credit card access/payment are often of the large "sardine" type - not my scene at all when there are so many rustic rural (mostly free) ones where the few Euros spent in the local bar/boulangerie go directly into the village economy.


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## AdieL (Sep 19, 2012)

So will the Caxton card be accepted at petrol stations? Had terrible problems last year paying for fuel.

Cheers, Adrian


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## fantails (Oct 24, 2013)

See below

http://www.caxtonfx.com/currency-cards/currency-cards-for-you/#load-spend-safely

Section top tips which explains that this is not best used for fuel or tolls but would welcome re life experience from those that have used


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

JockandRita said:


> barryd said:
> 
> 
> > Either that or ask nicely for the openzone user name and password from a family member or friend.
> ...


No. I only used it that one time and was very grateful. I changed to BT a while ago and use BT Openzone all the time. I dumped my Vodafone dongle ages ago. It was rubbish anyway.


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## HermanHymer (Dec 5, 2008)

fantails said:


> See below
> 
> http://www.caxtonfx.com/currency-cards/currency-cards-for-you/#load-spend-safely
> 
> Section top tips which explains that this is not best used for fuel or tolls but would welcome re life experience from those that have used


In theory no problem. BUT as with a fuel purchase on a credit card, with every sale (regardless of the quantity) the garage pre-authorises and "reserves" an amount of E100, effectively reducing the available balance on your card. (That is the max you can pump in at a time.) I noticed an Avia garage in France last year reserved an amount of E200. With the ever-increasing price of petrol that may already have become more widespread.

Effectively this means that you can't access that amount of your cash until the charge for the fuel goes through to your account (a day or two or three max). It would only be a problem if you had a low balance in your account, or you were filling up day after day.

For that reason I use my credit card for fuel purchases which has plenty of space for "reservations". I can't see any need to use "readies" for fuel.


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