Pay-as-you-go mobile phone options

Hey,

At the mo I have a pay as you go mobile in the UK with Virgin Mobile. I asked them and theysaid they operate in Germany but it'll cost me a fortune. So I guess I need to get a German network. Anyone have any they can reccommend? I know zero about mobile networks in Germany so any advice would be much appreciated!

Jenni

O2 Loop Prepaid Card Includes 10 Eur Credit and 10 Free SMS per month for 1 year. (Have a look at the post)

T-Mobile and Vodafone in Germany hold similar positions to their counterparts in the UK. O2 and E-Plus in Germany are roughly equivalent to O2 and Orange in the UK. T-Mobile and Vodafone typically have better coverage than O2 and E-Plus but tend to charge more.

It's worht checking what networks your friends here are using as the charges for calling competitor networks tend to be quite high.

Mobile contracts in Germany run for 2 years and are automatically renewed if you fail to give notice of cancellation with suitable notice (usually three months). You can't cancel at any time after the two years are up.

Pay as you go is similar to the UK except you need to have Id and proof of residency to get a SIM here (for PAYG or contracts).

SIM-locked phones are typically unlocked automatically after two years in Germany (unlike the UK).

You can use an unlocked UK phone with a German SIM and vice versa. You can also use a phone SIM-locked to German T-Mobile with a UK T-Mobile SIM.

I don't know about T-Mobile or O2 but Vodafone will let you top up a German Vodafone SIM with credit purchased for other Vodafone network e.g. UK, Spain, etc.

Germans will refer to a mobile phone as a "Handy" and they consider this to be an English word :-)

good advice jg but no proof of address required for PAYG phones. a friend who used to live here visited for a few days a couple of weeks ago and picked up a PAYG phone at our local mobile phone shop for 40yoyos with his driving license and using my address. so no proof of address required.

easymobile.de

google it!!!

Simply continues to be the best deal on the block for prepaid mobile phone service. Sign up on the Internet (they have no shops) for €10 and receive €10 credit (i.e. no cost to setup). Calls to all German land and mobile services for 14cents/minute 24/7. SMS costs 11 cents. No need to prove residence, but they will need ID (passport details) and an address to send the card to (2-3 days delivery from order) when you order. You can even port an existing number to them. With no minimum term, based on the T-Mobile (better coverage), automatic top-up option when your credit goes under €2, and the cheapest per-minute costs around this is better than many/most contract deals.

Any discount provider other than "Tchibo" using O2 network?

Not that I know of - most discounters re-sell E-plus (spit) or T-mobile services

You can compare costs of prepaid cards at
http://www.billiger-telefonieren.de/handy/
(with links to the corresponding websites)

OR

http://www.tariftip.de/mobilfunk/tarifrechner.html

a friend is coming over from the u.s. and bringing his mobile phone with him to use while here. he was wondering if it is cheaper to just buy a prepaid card and switch out the sim card while here or would it just be easier to buy a phone card?

Prepaid is cheaper.. But depending on your friends phone, it might not work here as the US uses different radio freqs. for their phone network.

I got a flyer yesterday from T-Com (T-Punkt), advertising pay as you go (Xtra pac) cards for €14.95 with €16 gutschein!! Don't know if it was a typo, but I am going to go & check it out & get one to use as a spare for when people visit.

Unlikely - they need spme way to attract people to buy these outrageously expensive (to use) services

Looks like O2 is going to offer a package like simyo/simply etc starting Nov 28. Link here.
No idea what will be the hidden clauses.

I have just bought a pre-paid sim, I checked out Vodafone, O2 and T-punk. Was impressed by t-punks €14.95 (inc. €16) but the call costs are crazy. Vodafone staff were rude, so I went with O2. I bought the sim for €19.99 including €10 credit. Recharged with €30 and got reduced call/sms rates for the month, cant remember what they are tho. Hope this helps..

I just switched from O2 to EasyMobile.de (same crowd as easyjet) and I have halved the amount I spend on topping up

Top up by 30€ and calls are the 15c a minute and texts are 12c per message to German networks. Texts to foreign networks are still 19c.

Was about to change to simyo when o2 introduced this new tariff. So now I'm happy to stay with o2:)

O2 has released Geinon Card S. No monthly rentals, minimum contract period is 1 month, one time activation fee of 25 EUR. Also you get a homezone number. 3 cents to call landline number from homezone and 19 cents for any other call within Germany.

Can anyone give me advice on what German mobile phone network to go for?

I'm moving to Berlin in September to work for a tour company. I'm not sure how long I'll be there for so I was going to try & get a cheap pay as you go phone so that I'm not restricted by contracts etc. I'll probably have a skype for phoning home so it would just be for use within Germany.

I've had a look on a few networks' websites but my German isn't brilliant so I can't really get the jist of the tarifs. If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated!

Topics merged by admin

Callmobile. 4 cents to other callmobile, 14c to anything else 24/7.
Check the search function top right before Keydeck finds this thread

I have a T-Mobile pay as you go phone in the UK. Will be in Germany next week and would like to get a pay as you go plan (just don't use my mobile very often). Can I just get a new sim card and it should work? Any recommendations on plans / company?

Thanks!

Unlike in UK, in Germany you need to prove your identity (and normally need a German residential address) to get a PAYG SIM card. This means you may only be able to get one in a "high-street" store where you can argue your case and provide your passport, rather than ordering from a over the internet from discount provider such as Simply or Klarmobile, which are MUCH cheaper...

Hi,

i have an O2 Pay & Go-Mobile. And I NEEEED to top-up in Germany, but I'm having trouble:

O2.uk told me i can buy a voucher at a O2-Germany-Shop and than top-up via calling 4444.
So I went to a german O2-Shop, they gave me a card called "O2-Loop" (this is like the "german pay&go").
The number printed on the card looked like *103*...and then a long number...# (I think the *103* stands for germany, but I don't know which number is for uk)
This number should be put DIRECTLY into the phone (no 4444-calling or anything else). But it didn't work.

Then I tried to call 4444 and put in the number. But this didn't work either... (by the way the voice at the 4444-Hotline said: enter the 16 digit number. This number didn't have 16 digits.)

What can I do? I reallyreally NEED this Uk-Mobile with it's UK-Number!
Please help me

This does not sound right, but it is not the first time UK mobile support have given incorrect info about options when travelling overseas.

You have several options on topping up whilst abroad. See:
O2 Top-U abroad

As it says on the site you could try:


Failing that try the Web top-up with a credit/debit card,: you receive £3 worth of calls for free the first time you use it.

Thank you for the reply.
I already tried *111*# and it brought me to the same top-up hotline and it didn't work, because I only have that *103*...#-number an no 16-digits-number.

And if i call 4444 directly I hear the "Hello, put 1 for credit card, 2 for voucher, blabla" but if i press a number key nothing happens. The display shows "Your calltime has expired please top up." By calling *111*# or the 2202-Infohotline i can press keys and choose options, but it doesn't work because the number on the voucher doesn't seem to fit.

Very annoying. Probably I have to go back to the german 02-Shop and try to get my money back and then try to get a (hopefully international) credit card (i only had a german debit card, but it didn't work).

By the way:
But somewhere on the O2-Website were written all those countrys where you can top-up abroad. I guess Switzerland, Spain, Austria...

Congstar I am using. It is T-com but cheaper. I paid 9.99 for the sim and I think 4 euros of mins or something. 10cent SMS or min last I checked and nothing of course on the way in like all German phones. Their rates smoke anyone else that I have seen and its all T-com network which is the largest.

I think since I have been in Germany 7+ months I have put 15 euros on this thing after my original 9.99.

No english option though.

Have medion mobile myself from the Aldis

I also have Medion Mobile from ALDI and happy with the service.

I had them for the past 2 years and now it is 13 cents/min to call any mobile of land line.
Also 13 cents for sms inside Germany, 20 cents to other countries.
I believe that if you call another ALDI then it is like 5 cents.
You can reload with 15 & 30 EUR cards.

They use E-plus.

why pay 13cts when you can pay less? Simply charge 8.5 cts, Congstar 9cts to all networks (both using T-mobile network). Ja! Mobile charge 3cts inside the ja! network.

Medion is also 3 cents in their network

Thanks I knew that was more like the rates I had been paying.

Really Congstar is a good network.

to be precise, Congstar is not a network, simply a re-seller of network capacity. Congstar uses the T-Mobile network.

o2 are giving away SIM cards, for this week only. Link here

The rates aren't the cheapest (15ct/minute, or 19ct for an SMS), but the cards come with 1€ free credit, and you get free SMSs when you load a voucher.

Hello I have recently moved to Munich.

Currently have the nokia n95 on an 18month contract (had it for 3months)

Vodafone (UK) said there is nothing I can do but pay the contracted bill, and I do not want to pay 75p everytime somebody rings me or I ring them as a connection charge.

So I believe the right thing to do would be to get a pay and go sim card over here in Germany, however, I have no idea where to get one from or which one to get (so any reccomendations would be greatful) I want one that is cheap to call germany to germany and fairly cheap to text.

Also anybody know if I was to do this would the N95 need unlocking?, or if I were to go on with vodafone pay and go would it need unlocking in this instance?

Cheers.

Topics merged by admin

Can you not get out of the contract since you have now left the UK??

..

Normally a phone received with a contract is unlocked and can be used with any network. As for "Pay as you Go" options, maxxim currently offers the cheapest rate at 8ct/min and 8ct/SMS within Germany. But you have to order online.

Do a search on pay as you go and you'll get a couple of topics about it.

I had one from SimYo and was happy with it.

a good idea to check if ur N95 needs to be unlocked is to check it out with another sim.U can just borrow if from ur coworker/friend for a few mins and try it out. Preferably not Vodafone, if it works, then u dont need one.

If for any reason it does need unlocking, all you need to do is phone Vodafone and ask for the unlock code (not PUK code) and there is no charge for this. Depending on how new the phone is, it may take a couple of days (as they have to get the code from the manufacturer) then you will get an email with all the instructions. I did this recently and it was not a problem.

Not that I know of, I phoned vodafone and they said I would have to honnour it?

Finally managed to get my phone unlocked.

Do any of these 'cheap' pay as you go sim companies (prepaid) have english websites to order a sim from?

If anybody knows of any, let me know.

Many thanks.

no english website but dead easy to follow the steps if you can understand basic German:

https://www.congstar.de/-/de_DE/dynamic/ord...&pageID=904

None of these will accept my Visa card, what a joke.

Will just go into an Aldi or something like that and buy one from there.