What's the best PAYG sim card to get in Tenerife?

[LexLew]

Any ideas on the best PAYG sim card to get in Tenerife for making calls back to the UK

[lopin]

http://www.gt-mobile.es/home/es 1p per minute land line to uk. 10p per minute to mobile

[Bob]

with a connection charge of 0.19€ how is that a good deal ?

[lopin]

Still a lot cheaper than using Lebara.

Uk Lebara rates

UK 0,10/min to Mobile
0,05€ /min to Landline
0,29€ Connection Charge
0,19€ SMSRates

[Suej]

Lebara... very cheap calls to UK... and competitive when using over here too... if you top up online you also get additional credit... 10euros gets you 15 etc

I also find Lebara good! easy to top up too!

[penelope pitstop]

Lebara... very cheap calls to UK... and competitive when using over here too... if you top up online you also get additional credit... 10euros gets you 15 etc

Apparently if you do not use your phone for a month with a Lebara sim you lose the credit on the sim & have to buy new one! Some of us have mobiles we use in Tenerife only when there, we have UK mobiles we try not to use when in Tenerife.

Our Spanish mobiles are on Movistar which is VERY expensive so we are looking to change & keep the existing numbers we have had for years. As we no longer live in Tenerife our phones only get used when in Spain or the Canaries.

Now going to look on the Mas movil website.

[adejebloke]

Apparently if you do not use your phone for a month with a Lebara sim you lose the credit on the sim & have to buy new one! Some of us have mobiles we use in Tenerife only when there, we have UK mobiles we try not to use when in Tenerife.

Our Spanish mobiles are on Movistar which is VERY expensive so we are looking to change & keep the existing numbers we have had for years. As we no longer live in Tenerife our phones only get used when in Spain or the Canaries.

Now going to look on the Mas movil website.

is important to understand how to keep a Lebara line active, which depends on the top ups you do. As long as you have balance, your Lebara Mobile SIM card will remain active for 4 months (120 days) since the last top up. If you top up today and you keep some credit, you will have 4 months to top up your line in order to keep it active. If you run out of balance (zero balance), Lebara Mobile gives you 2 months to reactivate it through a top up, during the last month you will not be able to receive calls.

If no top ups are made prior to the specified dates your SIM card will be permanently deactivated and the number will be lost.

[penelope pitstop]

is important to understand how to keep a Lebara line active, which depends on the top ups you do. As long as you have balance, your Lebara Mobile SIM card will remain active for 4 months (120 days) since the last top up. If you top up today and you keep some credit, you will have 4 months to top up your line in order to keep it active. If you run out of balance (zero balance), Lebara Mobile gives you 2 months to reactivate it through a top up, during the last month you will not be able to receive calls.

If no top ups are made prior to the specified dates your SIM card will be permanently deactivated and the number will be lost.

Thanks, at the moment the same happens on Movistar but the period is 6 months. It means we have to rely on friends in Tenerife to top up for us.

The other problem we may come up against if we change providers is that we no longer live there so have no address. We still have our NIE cards but did need a certificate of residence (not a Residencia)as proof of address at the time this ruling came into force.

I have tried finding out if Mas Movil do a pay as you go sim, but they have not replied to my e mail. On their website I cannot find one, it all seems to be a monthly payment.

[klm]

Thanks, at the moment the same happens on Movistar but the period is 6 months. It means we have to rely on friends in Tenerife to top up for us.

The other problem we may come up against if we change providers is that we no longer live there so have no address. We still have our NIE cards but did need a certificate of residence (not a Residencia)as proof of address at the time this ruling came into force.

I have tried finding out if Mas Movil do a pay as you go sim, but they have not replied to my e mail. On their website I cannot find one, it all seems to be a monthly payment.

You can always recharge online with Movistar on their page instead of relying on anyone ................

[carolethatch]

Been on to the Lebara web site, and the prices seemed to be from the U.K. to Tenerife, not Tenerife U.K. Have seen the sim card in Tesco. Would I have to buy the sim card in Tenerife to get the cheap calls from there. Calls to the U.K. in small print were the same as using my Orange U.K. phone.

[tfs1]

I have a LYCA.ES SIM for PAYG calls from Spain / Canaries to the UK. You can get these SIMs in Tenerife.

Call charges are 30c for the connection and 1c/min to UK laandlines and around 10c/min to UK mobiles. you get 50% more credit when you topup - ie add 20€ and the balaance becomes goes up by30€. They have a website and sometimes the costs change by a little - sometimes going down.

You need to make a call at least every 80 days or the SIM (and any blaannce) gets the chop and you then need to get a new one.

You can setup online acclount to see the calls and costs of each call, yuor balance etc, a balance using your phone costs nothing, other providers have a charge for this.

You can topup at most of the ususal outlets.

[penelope pitstop]

That is an option, but we want to come away from Movistar if we can as their charges are extortionate.

[tfs1]

LYCA.ES initially used the Movistar network but in the past couple of months seems to be using Vodafone.ES, however, the call charges are still silly money (ie low) when you comapre what I was paying when I had the Movistar PAYG SIM, around 60c/min.

I use the phone daily now its so cheap whereas when it was the Movistar SIM it was the exception - so more chats and contact with family and friends in the UK.

Chris

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[LexLew]

I have a LYCA.ES SIM for PAYG calls from Spain / Canaries to the UK. You can get these SIMs in Tenerife.

Call charges are 30c for the connection and 1c/min to UK laandlines and around 10c/min to UK mobiles. you get 50% more credit when you topup - ie add 20€ and the balaance becomes goes up by30€. They have a website and sometimes the costs change by a little - sometimes going down.

You can topup at most of the ususal outlets.

This looks just like what we are looking for
When you say they are widely available does that mean i would be able to get one and top up in Mercadona

[penelope pitstop]

We don't want to use our phones to call the UK, only call & text within Spain. I will look on the LYCA.ES website & see if they have a pay as you go sim without a time limit.

30c sounds a lot of a connection charge. I don't think we pay that on Movistar for calls within Spain, not sure.

I also need to know if we can change a sim without having to re register with a Spanish address.

[tfs1]

I got my LYCA SIM from an interent cafe in mainland Spain but have seen the LYCA.ES logo in places in Los Cristianos, the Valdes Centre rings a bell. I have also seen offical looking people going around with Lyca tops on, I guess it depends how comfortable you are buying this way.

Topup is usually at one of those typical outlets where you could buy mobile phones/cameras etc. I do mine at an outlet selling phones etc a few yards down from Lewinskis (down from the Los Cris Bus Station), next to the fruit/veg shop. never had a prroblem with this and on ocassions when they are unable to do it there and then, I have left them my money and thetopup text appears an hour or so later, exactly when they say it will appear.

I have never tried topping up in Mercadona so I cant answer that queston.

I got mine some years ago and not sure what info was provided and may well have provided our Spanish Address and NIE, although I recall the guy just asked me my name and he did the rest ! Whatever SIM you get in Tenerife it will have a similar 'registration ' process, some maybe more detailed than others.

30c connection maybe a lot for Spain mainland calls but the 1c/min to Spanish (and UK) landlines is good value. I dumped my Movistar PAYG SIM years ago and what a relief it was to have a SIM that offers good value and is affordable.

The only thiing is I talk more now as its great value !

Movistar was 60c for everything related to calling the UK ie 60c connection and typically 60c or more a minute, unless you want to call outside of peak time ie 2000-0800.

I was told that LYCA were the lowcost SIM option of Movistar and in the early days you would see LYCAMOBILE and 'movistar' beneath it on your phon.

For the past few months Vodafone is now shown rather than movistar, however all the time you have only been paying the LYCA rates. I presume they now use the Vodafone network.

[penelope pitstop]

Thanks tfs1 I didn't realise how high the Movistar costs are, until it was stated that they are 60c connection charge. I knew they were dearer than others. We have had Movistar for about 15 yrs I think.

The LYCA sounds ideal as long as we don't need a Spanish address.

I know a couple of years ago we bought a sim card (not sure what one it was) for €15 at the phone shop by Mercadona in Las Am for my son to use whilst he was on holiday with us in Teneriife. It did not need registering, no idea why.

Has anyone on here bought a LYCA sim recently, if so did it need registering at a Spanish address?

We still have our NIE numbers & could give our hotel address without the hotel name!

[lesbroz]

We recently bought a HITS sim, which sounds very similar to the LYCA. To register the sim, we had to provide NIE, Passport and give a Spanish address (although we did not have to provide anything to prove that we lived at the address.) Hope this helps.

[tfs1]

I think the NIE is the main requirement, where you live can change ! A few years ago all SIMS had to have something that associated them to Spain or they were deleted by the provider, we added details to make sure our Movistar SIM still worked.

I'm not suure how accurate this needs to be, a friend only provied his NIE for his new LYCA SIM (he didnt make a call for 80 days on his old one and it was deleted)

LYCA is not for everyone, but it works for me

Chris

Chris

[angie_oz]

GT-Mobile (http://www.gt-mobile.es/home/es) seems to be the best that I have encoutered!! Between two mobiles of the same network calls are absolutely free, and you do not even need credit to make a call to another gt mobile!! Also national and international rates are the lowest that I have seen. To call UK (25c connection fee) land lines it is 1cent a minute, and 9cents a minute to call uk mobiles!! check out their website. The connection fee is 19 cents for all national calls except inter mobiles of the same GT mobile network. For the first 15 minutes the calls to any normal spanish landline or mobiles of other network are 1cent, after 15minutes the calls go to 9cents per minute! Hope this helps!!

Angie

[penelope pitstop]

GT-Mobile (http://www.gt-mobile.es/home/es) seems to be the best that I have encoutered!! Between two mobiles of the same network calls are absolutely free, and you do not even need credit to make a call to another gt mobile!! Also national and international rates are the lowest that I have seen. To call UK (25c connection fee) land lines it is 1cent a minute, and 9cents a minute to call uk mobiles!! check out their website. The connection fee is 19 cents for all national calls except inter mobiles of the same GT mobile network. For the first 15 minutes the calls to any normal spanish landline or mobiles of other network are 1cent, after 15minutes the calls go to 9cents per minute! Hope this helps!!

Angie

This sounds even better than LYCA. As long as we can keep our existing Movistar numbers we have had for years, it's sounds ideal.
I will look on their website.
How long did the changeover take as we will only be over for a week next time & use the phones all the time, would hate to be without it for too long.

[carolethatch]

Right, I have just bought the lebara sim card, paid £12 to unlock an old phone, but when I went on their web-site, when you get the roaming rates, they are still the same price as my Orange sim. It does ask you what country you are phoning, and it gives a different tariff (very cheap). Which tariff would I be put on, as I would be roaming, ringing Tenerife from the U.K.

[tfs1]

just sent my first LYCA,ES SMS (probably my last !) to our neighbour up the road on their Spanish mobile and it cost 13c (inc IVA/IGIC etc).

GTMobile sounds good, do they give you 50% extra when you add credit ie topup with €20 and they 'give' you 10€ more ?

Chris

[penelope pitstop]

just sent my first LYCA,ES SMS (probably my last !) to our neighbour up the road on their Spanish mobile and it cost 13c (inc IVA/IGIC etc).

GTMobile sounds good, do they give you 50% extra when you add credit ie topup with €20 and they 'give' you 10€ more ?

Chris

I have e mailed them to ask this, will let you know what they reply. The only drawback is that you have to top up every 45 days from next month. With our current Movistar SIM which is ancient, it's within 6 months, which is far better but the calls cost too much.

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Right, I have just bought the lebara sim card, paid £12 to unlock an old phone, but when I went on their web-site, when you get the roaming rates, they are still the same price as my Orange sim. It does ask you what country you are phoning, and it gives a different tariff (very cheap). Which tariff would I be put on, as I would be roaming, ringing Tenerife from the U.K.

E mail them via their Spanish website (it's in English) & ask, that's what I have been doing.

[penelope pitstop]

I have just had a reply from GT mobile about the top up query. The amount u put on is the amount u get, they have no promotions.

[gr8getawaycard]

Orange pay & go to the UK 0.10 per min!

[Marita17]

may seem a silly question but where do you get a Lebara sim? I found this thread very helpful by the way

[carolethatch]

I bought a british one in Tesco for 99p. As you stand in the check-out, they are facing you on the stand with all the other sim cards. Go on line and type in www.lebara.es, and you get on the spanish site, then search the "nearest dealer", most of the suppliers seem to be in the many phone shops on the main road through Los Cristianos.

[jacko89]

Hi Everyone, I'm new here nice to meet you all!

A quick question with regards to getting a Spanish SIM, I'm over in late august for a little while has we have an apartment in the San Euengio Bajo area, I'm looking to get the best deal on a SIM to pop into my iphone 4s, basically I want it for the data usage so I can still use such apps as whatsapp and facebook to continue communicating with people back home, as this will be the cheapest way than using my UK SIM.

Have any of you got an idea on the best network to use and also, in relation to the nearest Vodafone, Orange, Movistar stores in my area, for reference, our apartment is within the Santa Maria on Ave de Espana

Look forward to getting to know you all

Jack

[Vortex Wake]

Welcome to the forum :)

Other than what has already been said on the subject on this forum , type 'Spanish sim cards' in to eBay ;)

[cgs]

Hi there is an orange, vodafone and movistar shop at gran sur. I have a lebara sim card which I use to text uk sometimes and its really reasonable. Im sure everyone will help you out on here and you will get a good deal.
Hope you have a great time x