Any recommendations for SIM only Pay As You Go

Hi,
Am considering getting a PAYG sim card in Spain as it may be useful to have a Spanish mobile number. I am getting a new Dual Sim phone in the New Year so do not need a phone. Does anyone have experience of a PAYG and if so what would you recommend? I am not interested in a monthly payment as we are only out in Quesada for about 6 weeks a year in total at the moment.

Thanks,
J.

JeremyB wrote:Hi,
Am considering getting a PAYG sim card in Spain as it may be useful to have a Spanish mobile number. I am getting a new Dual Sim phone in the New Year so do not need a phone. Does anyone have experience of a PAYG and if so what would you recommend? I am not interested in a monthly payment as we are only out in Quesada for about 6 weeks a year in total at the moment.

Thanks,
J.

Hopefully someone can direct you to a good one but we have used a few different Sim cards over the years (Lebara/ Movistar etc.) and maybe they have changed now but we eventually gave up* and use the free phone call Apps, Viber or skype, on our UK mobiles now when in Spain.

* The Pay as you go Sims in Spain are 'time limited' (or used to be!!). We found that no matter how much money you have on the sim, if you don't use it in Spain for a certain amount of time (possibly a month or two) you lose the credit and have to buy a new sim, with the inconvenience of a new number that no-one then knows.

We tried all sorts of things to keep our Sims active while in the UK, like using the phone in the UK once a month, topping up regularly, sending texts to Spain and other things, but each time we came to back to Spain the sim did not work, losing our credit in the process - Very annoying to say the least.

It was always frustrating because in the UK we can keep credit on our phones for as long as we want - even if the phone isn't used for phone calls.

Jan

Thanks Jan, that is what I was afraid of. I have looked into the Carrefour option for prepaid https://www.carrefour.es/telecom/movil/prepago/ and reading the small print the SIM is valid for 12 months from either the time of the first call made or the last time money was paid onto the SIM. It costs Euro 20 to start with and the minimum is Euro 5 and this can be done online. Apparently to keep the SIM valid after 12 months you need to prepay at once more after the initial purchase. Has anyone tried Carrefour or something similar?
I agree that VOIP is the way to go, we pay for a Movistar internet connection all year round and we use Skype from the villa. Am still interested in getting a Spanish mobile number although I probably would not use it much.

Some companies allow you six months. If you top up within that six months the time starts again. We used movistar originally but, beware, if you top up on line there is something in the agreement that you will accept texts. We wondered where all our credit was going and found we were getting charged €1.13 for receiving advertising rubbish.
We switched to Llamaya about six months ago which allows 12 months before it expires. No problems, excellent coverage (I think it's a part of Orange) and no unexpected bills. There is also Lebara which is part of Vodafone. However, we found that Vodafone had limited coverage here (alright if I was hanging over the upstairs balcony).
(When I say "it's a part of" I mean they use the system for that company ).
The movistar phone was from Carrefour which was 20 euro but that also included the basic phone plus 12 euro credit.

orange has a payg package called ...ardilla....which appears to offer 12 months with no minimum top up, check their website orange.es

JeremyB wrote:Thanks Jan, that is what I was afraid of. I have looked into the Carrefour option for prepaid https://www.carrefour.es/telecom/movil/prepago/ and reading the small print the SIM is valid for 12 months from either the time of the first call made or the last time money was paid onto the SIM. It costs Euro 20 to start with and the minimum is Euro 5 and this can be done online. Apparently to keep the SIM valid after 12 months you need to prepay at once more after the initial purchase. Has anyone tried Carrefour or something similar?
I agree that VOIP is the way to go, we pay for a Movistar internet connection all year round and we use Skype from the villa. Am still interested in getting a Spanish mobile number although I probably would not use it much.

Our first sim was from Carrefour - Vodaphone...never again! When we went back in to say we could not use the sim, they more or less shrugged and said 'hard luck' you've lost your money. At the time we had €28 on the card because we had topped up to try to keep the card going but as we hadn't used it (while being in the UK) we had lost our credit.

I am not one to be fobbed off, so I got my son to go on Twitter to Vodaphone Spain and complain to them (as this doesn't happen in the UK - it's our money !). My son did this for us and we got a voucher to get our 28 euros credited on to a new sim. The 'almost nasty' lady in Carrefours was adamant that we couldn't do it but we had a phone number for her to ring, given to us by the guy on Twitter who had set up a refund for us and she was obviously astounded when she phoned it. Eventually she, very reluctantly, handed over a brand new sim with 30 euros on it. Needless to say we used the credit up a.s.a.p.

I wouldn't chance any sim card in Spain now, unless I lived in Spain full time.

Jan

I use Lebara here in Spain and am never away long enough for this to be a problem.
However, if I were, I'd run my credit down to a minimum before I went to UK and on my return would just top-up with the 5Euro 'emergency credit' voucher I always carry in my wallet. Just an idea

Hi DiGI mob are good you can get the SIM on Zoco market you can also roam with them I was recently in the UK and used it to call Spain as I had lost my English one and it didn't cost to much I was quite surprised also great coverage. To get the best info talk to the guys on the market they can tell you more than me but very happy with them the Digi website is https://www.digimobil.es/index.php?idLang=2

We use digi mobile really easy to set up an account online once you have a sim, then top up online. We got ours from Zocco market, go to the far right on entering Zocco passed a cafe at the entrance the digi stand is inbetween two second hand book stalls opposite an English cafe.

The best covering in ciudad quesada is Orange.
http://en.orange.es/mobile-service-plans/?pst=1


so use Orange es
There is a shop orange in the carrefour.
important passport and a creditcard account for connecting activation !!!

4g covering http://4g.orange.es/cobertura/?utm_sour ... m=buscador