They are offering the service of recharging an existing SIM card for the fee of 2Euros + amount you want on the card. They offer to pay by using Paypal which I find very handy. Anyone used their services?
Originally posted by Anastasia: There is a way of doing through SMS: send SMS to 4916 with PRE CRE SIN as text using the phone, and you receive a SMS with your balance.
Can you do that while the cell phone is in the USA? While at home and I turn on my cellular with a TIM SIM card, it goes into AT&T network and I'm unable to check airtime balance.
Originally posted by María I.: While at home and I turn on my cellular with a TIM SIM card, it goes into AT&T network and I'm unable to check airtime balance.
Really? Where do you live? What country is the TIM SIM from?
Posts: 645 | Location: Pittsburgh, PA U.S.A. | Registered: 16 December 2005
Hi, If you use your phone: go to messages text, then type your message, then enter the address 4916 then ok to send.
I am doing it from Canada and it works perfectly. Here it comes with Rogers network, but because I am using my TIM SIM, I receive my messages in Italian. Should work with AT&T as well. I sent an SMS and I received the reply 1-2 min later. It is an SMS with my ballance. This is very handy.
quote:
Problem is the Top Up Service link for Tim does not work.
The link doesn't work but I have contacted the company by email an they answered within 1-2 hours. Then if needed they invoice you through paypal.
FYI I found Telestial offers a top up service for the Italian TIM SIM card on their website. I too received an email response from saveonroaming but I am a little worried about using the service because the website is now a listing of sponsored links.
Hello everyone, I just recharged my TIM SIM card using www.saveonroaming.net and it went like a breeze. Everything very smooth, payed through paypal and was able to put 10E and received a confirmation right away from both the company and from TIM on my GSM phone. So, normally should be able to keep my number for another year.
Hi, When I requested info I could find the site in English and German, but it looks like they restructure it. In any case, I contacted them by email info@saveonroaming.net in English and got all the answers really fast and they provided their email for paypal (this is not the same as the info one). I provided them with my phone number, so they could do this. They sent me an invoice for requested amount plus fees, and after I paid through my paypal account(you can pay anyone who has an email address), I received confirmation from TIM on my cell phone with my new balance and another for the recharge amount.
Wir können für Sie Ihr Guthaben aufladen und sämtliche Datenoptionen aktivieren. Which means: Do you have a prepaid SIM card by TIM? We can manage your credit and any data options.
Thanks Martha, that's great. (I guess I could have gone on the website myself and found that out, huh.) And we're sure that just recharging your phone is enough to keep it going for another year - we don't have to place a call?
Posts: 287 | Location: Cool, CA | Registered: 17 February 2003
NP Why not email them at the address in Anastasia's posting above? Then you will have all your questions answered directly from the horse's mouth. Martha
I was in a TIM store a few weeks ago while in Italy and asked for them to show me how to recharge on their webpage. There was only one tricky part to create your password. Your user name is your phone number. If anyone is interested, I can try to find my notes to figure this out again for you. I had them do this part while I was there.
You do need to know a little basic Italian, but not much to use the webpage. Once you create a password, you are in and can recharge with a credit card and check your balance right on the web. It even shows each call you made, the length of the call, the cost, and the cost of the SMS messages you send. I finally was able to find out that the charge for an SMS from the US to Italy is .49.
Once you create a password, you are in and can recharge with a credit card and check your balance right on the web.
girasoli, just to clarify -- you can do this from the US with a US credit card, right? I recall some comment in the past that US credit cards could be a problem -- although I can't understand why if you are ordering via the web.
That's what I was told. I asked specifically if I could use a US credit card...although I have not actually tried it yet since my sim card is active til next summer. I would think though that since it is through the web it should work. I would be intersted to know if anyone else has been able to do this.
We did create an online account for our TIM card last year, but have never used it to add time. I just logged in, and could see that we have 14 euro left, which unfortunately will expire about 6 weeks before our next trip. However, when I tried clicking on the link to add time, it told me that the page was not currently available and to try again.
I will report back if I ever succeed in doing this!
Roz, I went to check to see what would happen if I went to try to recharge my phone. It took me to the page BUT then I realized that they have only my friend's name and Italian address (when she originally got the sim card for me, she registered it under her name). I did find a page where I could change that information, but before doing that, I am going to ask her to make sure that won't mess up my account/sim card number. I guess that is why it was always so easy for her to recharge my card for me and to call and check on the amount left on my card. I am glad I didn't wait until my card was about to expire before I tried to recharge my card. I hope you have more luck.
Martha, I have had enough difficulty communicating with them in person. I am lucky though that my friend lives in Italy and can usually help with the TIM card situation.
Girasoli, I sent these people an email the beginning of this week with a question on another subject. I had a response in less than 24 hrs. Sorry to hear you did not have a similar experience. Martha
I just tried again to recharge online, and this time I got as far as a registration screen asking for name and address. The problem is that it requires you to select a province from a drop-down list, showing only Italian provinces, and also to enter something called Cap -- I don't know what that is. You can't get past that screen without filling in those blanks.
So I don't think it is possible to recharge online if you can't enter an Italian address. I would guess that the address you enter should match up with your credit card, so you probably couldn't enter a friend's address in Italy unless they were REALLY good friends and wanted to let you use their credit card.
Roz, if you scroll all the way to the top, it says something that means out of the country or another county (can't remember the Italian words and exactly what it means at the moment). I think it is possible to put in a US address once you do this.
girasoli, that option wasn't on the page I landed on. There is a section at the bottom where if you don't have a codice fiscale you can put in your date and place of birth, and there is an option for other countries there. But you have to enter an Italian address in the section above that in order to submit the form.
Martha, I think Anastasia was talking about emailing another service, not TIM itself. I was trying to top up the account directly from the TIM web site, not going through saveonroaming.
It looks like you need a Paypal account to use that service. I don't have one, and I would only use it if I could pay via credit card.
I wonder if we have been signing in differently? Did you have to use your phone number as your user name and then send an SMS to ibox to set your password?
Roz, you can use your credit card with a PayPal account, though they would rather have you debit your bank account. When you set up the account, they ask for a credit card number as backup. Then when you use PayPal to pay for something, you just opt to use the backup rather than the bank account.
I hope that anyone who is able to recharge on the TIM site will report how they accomplished this. In 2006, I inquired at the TIM store in Rome just why I was unable to do so online; they checked with a supervisor who stated that you needed an Italian credit card to do so. Perhaps this has changed.
More than a year is going to elapse from my last trip until my next one, so I am probably going to have to give saveonroaming a shot. Since my cell phone was purchased in Italy, I will not be able to get SMS confirmation here in the States so I won't find out whether it works until I get to Italy.
Posts: 303 | Location: Virginia | Registered: 24 April 2003
Originally posted by girasoli: I wonder if we have been signing in differently? Did you have to use your phone number as your user name and then send an SMS to ibox to set your password?
Yes, I did that while in Italy. But now what has happened is that I think the TIM web site is somehow screwy. It stopped accepting my password, which was stored in my browser, and had been working fine a few days ago, so I don't see how I could have mistyped it. Now it tells me I have tried too many times with the wrong password and it won't even let me try to log in until I send a text message and get a new password.
Meanwhile a very nice person has offered to let me use a Ricaricard that he isn't going to need, so I should be able to add 5 euro to my balance and keep the card active for my next trip. That suggests to me that it probably is a good idea to buy one or more of those Ricaricards (the scratch-off cards with the code number) to bring home when you are in Italy. That should let you keep the SIM card active for a couple of years, anyway.
I have lived in Italy for the last seven years, and that TIM site still irritates me. They only take Italian credit cards and the password situation you had happens too often for my patience level!
Because I have an Italian bank account, I can recharge online using my bank account or at an ATM machine with my account. But when I am traveling to other countries, this can still be a problem.
I'm considering switching to Vodaphone as their website takes all credit cards and can be had in English. You can now keep the same phone number if switching to another provider.
Originally posted by girasoli: That's what I was told. I asked specifically if I could use a US credit card...
Our friend arrived in Italy today and discovered that it had been too long since her last recharge, so she went to the TIM place in Termini, but was told she couldn't use her U.S. credit card. I'm wondering if the website is any different....sales clerks tend to say yes, everything is fine, everything will work, then somehow....NOT!
I can't use my American credit card at the TIM stores or the TABACs BUT I can recharge my TIM card at Media World and Ipercoop and they take my American credit card - as it is all considered merchandise.
Have things changed that much??? In April 2007 I used my american credit cards at TIM stores on the Corso by the Spanish Steps as well as Corso V.E. II near Piazza Navona in Rome. I also made purchases at the TIM store a block before Santa Maria degli Angeli Basilica and the tabac which is 1 block behind the Basilica both at the bottom of the hill below Assisi. I purchased extra time on my TIM phone card and time on my TIM internet card as well as a phone and some electrical equipment and did not have any problems. My grandson even used his VisaBuxx card in the TIM stores! Martha
Yes, things are changing that much. There is one TABAC in Assisi that MAY take your American issued credit card to pay for a TIM recharge but highly unlikely.
The stores that sell other items - such as groceries or household items - will take your American issued credit card with the TIM recharge included.
But, just a couple of months ago, I went to the TIM store in Collestrada Mall(near Perugia) and they would not recharge my card with my credit card.
I'm considering switching to Vodaphone as their website takes all credit cards and can be had in English.
Does anyone know whether Vodaphone has an Internet data plan like this one from TIM, where you can both get online from a smartphone, and use your cell phone as a modem?
I think the plan you posted is being phased out end of this year. They are pushing new Alice plans. No transfer limits but hourly limits. Either 100 or 150 hours for a month.
Meanwhile a very nice person has offered to let me use a Ricaricard that he isn't going to need, so I should be able to add 5 euro to my balance and keep the card active for my next trip.
Roz, I wasn't aware you could buy a Ricaricard and use it almost a year later to reactivate the phone while in the US. That is a great idea.
Regarding using a credit card in a TIM store, I am pretty sure Jan (jgk) used a US credit card while in a TIM store in Acqui Terme this July. I wonder if it just depends on the store?
Regarding using a US credit card on the web, I wouldn't be surprised that the girls in the store gave me the wrong information. They probably just assumed that a US credit card would work.
I don't understand why they need to make it so difficult to recharge the phone to keep the phone number. I wonder if it is just as difficult if someone from outside the US wanted to keep a US cell phone number?
I am lucky for now to be able to have my friend recharge it for me if I can't do it on my own, but I would rather be able to do it myself and not have to ask her. Vodaphone may just be the way to go.
Because my phone number is under my friend's name though, I am not sure if I could switch to Vodaphone and keep the same number. I didn't realize until this year that my phone number was not under my name (she originally bought the sim card for me). That also will probably create extra problems for me trying to recharge it on the web even if a US credit card would work.
Originally posted by Roz: Martha, what e-mail address did you use?
I just tried again to recharge online, and this time I got as far as a registration screen asking for name and address. The problem is that it requires you to select a province from a drop-down list, showing only Italian provinces, and also to enter something called Cap -- I don't know what that is. You can't get past that screen without filling in those blanks.
So I don't think it is possible to recharge online if you can't enter an Italian address. I would guess that the address you enter should match up with your credit card, so you probably couldn't enter a friend's address in Italy unless they were REALLY good friends and wanted to let you use their credit card.
- Roz
FYI when asked for the cap it is like asking for a zipcode...
Posts: 733 | Location: USA | Registered: 08 June 2008
Originally posted by mholzgrefe: Yes Vodafone also has a data plan. We used both the TIM and Vodafone internet access plans when in Italy last spring.
Did you try using your cell phone as a modem? One plan I was looking at on the Vodaphone site said you couldn't do that, but there may be others I didn't find. We found that very useful with the TIM data plan.
I just used the saveonroaming.net service to recharge my TIM SIM and all went through perfectly. I was in Italy in June and took the card down to zero but find myself returning unexpectedly next week. I wanted to arrive with enough balance to touch base with the party I'm meeting up with in Venice to gain access to the flat I'm renting. I didn't want to waste time searching for a tabacchi shop and as far as I can tell, there is only one TIM shop in Venice and not at the airport. So I went to the saveonroaming.net web site and clicked on SHOP. It took me to a page with an email link for info@saveonroaming.net, which I then emailed, explaining I wanted to recharge my TIM SIM. I received a reply within that day asking for my information (SIM card number, name, etc.) and how much I wanted to recharge. Sent that and within a day received a reply with information about paying for the recharge through PayPal. After I paid that, I received a confirmation email from saveonroaming that indicated the recharge would go through within a few hours.
I was a little nervous because I'm in the U.S. and can't check the balance through TIM with 4916, etc. I tried calling TIM direct at the +39 3399119 number but the call wouldn't go through. It seems from the recording I received that number is no longer valid. Tried using my SIM in a couple friend's phones (with other mobile providers) but it was never recognized. So then, as a last resort, I stumbled my way through the TIM web site (http://www.tim.it/consumer/homepage.do), clicked on CONTATTI and went to "Scrivi al 119." I wrote a message in English (chose Veneto as my region, but I think I could have chosen anything) and explained I was in the States and wished to check my balance and could they please send it to me by email. Honestly, I didn't expect a response but this morning I received a very polite message telling me my balance is 25.55 euros, which confirms that the saveonroaming.net transaction went through. When I return to Venice next week, I will try to find the TIM shop in Venice and see if I can ask about the process of registering on the web site and if it will be possible to recharge online after that.
But if that's not possible, saveonroaming.net definitely is an alternative. Just email TIM to verify the recharge.
Hope this information helps someone...
Posts: 2 | Location: New England, USA | Registered: 26 August 2008
the email I received from TIM customer service came from etim119@web119.tim.it It might even be possible to email them directly to ask for a balance on a SIM card.
Posts: 2 | Location: New England, USA | Registered: 26 August 2008
Wordsmithy, Thank you for sharing your experience. Now we can all see we do have a tool to get the recharge done from this side of the pond. Regards Martha
Originally posted by wordsmithy: I didn't want to waste time searching for a tabacchi shop
For others looking for a top up. It's not just tabacchi shops. Everything from grocery stores to electronic shops to bars. Plus anybody else that might sell phones.
