TLDR: Getting a SIM card and phone service in France is very easy and will likely be much cheaper than sticking with your local service.
If you are traveling from the United States, or really anywhere outside of the EU, it’s likely that your cell phone service will charge extra money to use it in France. Sure, you can rely on wifi and just keep your phone on airplane mode the whole time, but wifi is not guaranteed and you will want a good option in case of emergency. If you’re just planning to visit for a short period of time, you can look into the daily/weekly charges (Verizon charges $10/day for unlimited coverage). If you are planning to travel in the EU for an extended period of time, and do not want to rely on wifi or pay absorbent amounts to your local provider, there are great options for SIM cards in France. We would recommend this to anyone planning to stay longer than 1-2 months.
We explored many options upon moving, and landed on “Free Mobile”, as it had the best prices for what we were looking for and a super simple set up. All you need to do is go to one of the many stores, and ask for a SIM card! They will print a SIM card for your phone on the spot. If you want the highest coverage (5G for 200 MB), it’s only 20€/month for the first year. You also need to pay a 10€ fee for the SIM card. In total, you’re walking out of the store with full coverage for the next month for only 30€. That is WAY cheaper than what you would end up paying your local provider for full coverage. For example, with Verizon you would pay $30 for 3 days of coverage versus about $30 for 31 days of coverage with Free.
Sounds like a great deal, right!? For full disclosure, here are some important things to consider:
- You will now have a French cell phone number, so you will need to either keep the same apple ID (if you use an IPhone) or whatsapp to contact your loved ones.
- If you are staying for a long period of time, you’ll want to pause your local service, so you’re not paying double. Most providers will still charge a small monthly fee in order to preserve your number upon your return.
- If you have an IPhone and sync your icloud with the new SIM card, all of your contacts and data will be there but you might need to do some tweaking to the contacts We noticed that we had to add a “+1” to our U.S. contacts in order for the contacts to properly sync.
- If you are also planning to set up the internet, Free offers a package deal for only 25€/month for both phone and internet service!
- The other major provider is called “Orange”. Lots of people use this service, but we found the prices to be a bit higher.
Trust us, setting up your cell phone in France could not be easier!