Buy Spanish SIM, or Spanish mobile phone?

[MaureenG]

We'll be coming over to live in July - I have an unlocked mobile & my husband needs a new phone. Should we buy a new unlocked phone for him here in the UK and then buy Spanish SIM cards for both phones when we arrive? Or would it be better to buy a phone + SIM for him and just a SIM for my phone after we arrive?

How much are Spanish PAYG phones and Spanish SIM cards, and where can you buy them? (We're likely to be living in Caleta De Fuste, so is it better to got to Puerto Del Rosario?)

[SheilaW]

You just want a bog-standard PAYG, not a smart-phone? If so, Movistar shops sell them for 15€. OTOH, if you're a resident and you have a Movistar monthly contract for fixed phone and Internet (called "Fusion"), then you can get a really good deal on a mobile phone contract too.

We had French smartphones with a contract from Orange and we unlocked them and transferred them to Movistar. I wouldn't do it that way again as our phones are full of Orange rubbish that we can't get rid of and can't use either - things like Orange backup, Orange maps, Orange browser... Can't load any Apps now as they're so full of this junk, and I think we'd lose too much if we got them "re-rooted" or whatever it is that you can do. But I don't know if that would apply to you.

[MaureenG]

Thanks Sheila. I've got an unlocked Galaxy smart phone (currently on 3 network PAYG), so I'll get a Spanish sim card for that. My husband just wants a PAYG basic phone, so it's probably best to buy one when we get there if they're only 15 euros, as we'd have to pay £15 in UK for a sim-free phone anyway. I didn't realise they were so cheap now - they used to be more expensive when we bought one in Southern Spain 12 years ago. Thankfully we won't have the nightmare of dealing with Orange rubbish and we won't want contracts so it should be straight forward 

[Archer]

For Spanish calls: Orange do a PAYG sim either from any Orange store (they claim to have English speaking staff in all stores) or from the Correos (Post Office) where you'll get additional free credit. Go to Orange.es to view the call charges. They are cheap for local calls but do take 1 x Euro Teach week. Beware Spanish providers appear to charge just to check the balance so look online at yours. They do a deal for International calls as well.

[MaureenG]

We went to the Movistar shop in the Atlantico Centre in Caleta today, but the cheapest PAYG phone they had was 39.99 (Sim-free, so no credit included) - I don't want to pay that much. Does anyone know where we can get a cheaper Spanish PAYG mobile?

I just remembered that my husband has a cheap Orange PAYG phone from UK - will a Spanish Orange Sim card work in this, or would it have to be unlocked?

Also, are the orange Sim cards available from the Post Office in Caleta by the Castillo San Jorge Hotel?

[SheilaW]

We went to the Movistar shop in the Atlantico Centre in Caleta today, but the cheapest PAYG phone they had was 39.99 (Sim-free, so no credit included)

I don't understand the "sim-free" bit - though I don't understand much about these things, TBH .

The one we got is a Movistar phone, and you top it up with credit as a Movistar phone and use the Movistar network. It cost 15€ and came with just a few minutes of credit if anything at all - maybe it could just receive calls until credit was bought, I don't remember. You can top it up at certain cash-points, but we do it via the phone itself.

[jamjar]

We are considering our options re mobile phones for when we move to Fuerte in 18 months time. We believe the best option for us will be to have a pay as you go phone each so we can contact each other when apart, and for any local calls we need to make.
For contact with family and friends back in the UK we are planning on using the good old internet and Skype in particular.

[MaureenG]

WARNING about Spanish Orange SIM cards....

We went to the Correos in Caleta today and bought an Orange SIM card to put in my unlocked phone that I brought over from the UK.

There were 3 different prices and the most expensive was 15 euros, although the assistant told me it was 12 euros and when I asked if the difference was IVA (because it's lower in the Canaries), she said "si".

I didn't know which one to buy - they all looked as if they had credit on them when you bought them, but the assistant didn't seem to know a lot about it (she didn't even know they sold them until she checked with her colleague) and I couldn't follow everything she was saying in Spanish, so I decided to go for the one which had some info in English on the back of the packet (the 12 euro one). This said you could browse the internet for a month and make cheap calls to Spanish phones, and on the front it said "incluye 15E de saldo" (which means "includes 15 euros of credit")

When I got home I put the SIM in the phone and went online to check my balance. It was 48 cents. Then I read the info on the English version of the website and found that the tariff on the SIM I chose - called "Tarjeta Ballena" takes a fee of 14.52 when you first register and then every month after from whatever credit you have on the phone. As I wasn't bothered about internet and only wanted it for the occasional call, I should have chosen the cheapest tariff: "Ardilla" which takes 1.07 euros per week fee. I have changed my tariff online, but did not get the 14.52 transferred to it.

This is a new thing to me, being charged a monthly or weekly fee for Pay As You Go. In the UK I used a 3 Network SIM which didn't take a fee - whatever charges I incurred for calls/ texts or internet use were taken from my credit at the time I used it, with any remaining credit staying on the phone until I used it again. Does anyone know of a Spanish network that provides a PAYG service like this?
 

[TheCooler]

Opposite the Florida apartments in Caleta is a blue kiosk by the playground and children's rides.
The guy in there sells reasonable cheap phones. (Asian guy , english speaking) He recommends  Lebara Mobil.I don't think they charge a monthly fee . Their Pay as you go now has internet options.He has always been helpful. Even  reducing a sim for me to go into an iphone. Give him a visit he might be able to help.