Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I think this option is MUCH preferable to the data caps / slow speed and to paying $10/day to AT&T or Verizon for their data plans. Obviously if you will be in Europe only for a short trip, it doesn't make any sense, but you can do the math. Here are my pros and cons: PROS: Reliable, high speed (4G / LTE) almost everywhere in Europe. 10 GB so no need to worry about data limits unless you're streaming. I was a heavy user of Google maps and other services and never had an issue. Check the Orange website if you want coverage details but it covers most countries in Europe. I started in Switzerland, also went to several cities in Belgium, Portugal, France and Spain and it worked great. Also topped off (since I was there more than three weeks) online with no problem. Sometimes it might take a couple of minutes to connect when I went to a new country. - Two hours of calls - 1000 texts - Can be used as hotspot for your other devices (or your friends') CONS - You need an unlocked phone. (Your carrier can tell you how to do this and whether you are eligible. If you're under a plan that subsidizes your phone purchases, your phone is probably not unlocked.) - Biggest drawback -- you will have a French phone number, so if you call or text people and they don't know that you have a different number, they won't recognize you. Basically while using the SIM Card you no longer have a US phone -- you have a French phone. You also won't receive texts at your US number but if you use WhatsApp or some other service that isn't a problem. ALSO -- I created a contact named "[my name] Europe" and sent it to all of my friends so they'd have my info. You also need to add +1 to all of your US telephone numbers in your contacts that you plan to call from Europe, or your calls and texts usually won't go through. Sometimes they did though for me. You can check your US voicemail from your French phone -- so check it once a day if you think you are missing calls. - You have to register the SIM Card but this is easily done online and takes about five minutes. The site is in English. Despite this you will still get texts and emails for a week stating that you need to register but eventually you should get an email or text saying you're registered (or at least I did). You MUST do this and you need the SIM Card phone number to do it, so you have to wait until you receive the card to do it. Much easier to do before you go on a laptop or desktop. - You have to be comfortable with taking out the old SIM Card and putting a new one in. There are lots of YouTube videos that show how for every model (that's how I learned). - As others have said, you'll receive texts in French but you can ignore them. Most of them are wrong anyway. When you go to a new country you get a text in French telling you the data rates, but they're wrong because your card gives you a much better deal. Just ignore them. I cut and pasted them into Google translate to confirm what they were telling me, and then I realized I didn't need to read them.