How to Get a French Phone Number Without a French Bank Account

You can get a French phone number in your first days in Nice, while you’re still in an Airbnb, with no French bank account and no French address. It just has to be done in the right order, because French phone plans and French bank accounts each want the other one first.

If you’re also keeping your US number, our guide to keeping your US phone number after moving to France explains how to run both numbers on one phone.

The short version: a French number in three steps

Get a prepaid French eSIM. Lycamobile sells one online for €6.99 a month, paid by card. Register it with your passport within 30 days. (If your phone still has a SIM card slot, a prepaid SIM card from a tabac works too.)
Open a French bank account using your new French number. Nickel is the quickest: you open it at a tabac with your passport, and it needs no lease. Revolut is the free, app-based alternative.
Stay with Lycamobile, or switch later and keep your number. Lycamobile already costs less than most monthly plans, so there’s no need to move. If you ever do, calling 3179 gets you a transfer code that brings your number with you.

Want your French number working the moment you land? Orange Travel can be bought from home before your flight, though it costs more (see step 1).

Step 1: Get a prepaid French eSIM (or a SIM card from a tabac)

Prepaid means you buy credit upfront and nothing is ever taken from a bank account, which is why it’s the place to start. French law requires operators to keep a record of who uses every phone line, prepaid included, so you register the line online with your passport within a deadline, or the line is cut.

First, check whether your phone takes an eSIM or a SIM card

An eSIM is a SIM built into the phone. Instead of inserting a plastic card, you add your French line by scanning a QR code the operator emails you. iPhones bought in the US since the iPhone 14 only take eSIMs. They have no slot for a SIM card at all, so the plastic prepaid cards sold in shops won’t fit. Not sure? Look at the side of your phone: no small tray with a pinhole means eSIM only.

Prepaid eSIMs that come with a French number

Prepaid eSIM	Price	How you buy it	Register your passport within
Lycamobile	€6.99 for 60 GB, 30 days, with unlimited calls and texts in France; eSIM free	Online, by Visa or Mastercard	30 days
Lebara	From €6.99 a month; eSIM free	Online, by card or PayPal	At purchase
Orange Travel	From €24.99 for 20 GB, 14 days	Online, before you fly; US cards, Apple Pay and PayPal accepted	30 days

Lycamobile is the cheapest and a good line to keep. It runs on the Bouygues Telecom network, and the €6.99 plan includes unlimited calls and texts within France, plus 11 GB of data when you travel in the EU. Picture messages (MMS) aren’t supported, and a line with no activity for 90 days can lose its number, so use it at least now and then. Once it’s set up, you can also top it up with cash: tabacs, supermarkets and petrol stations sell Lycamobile top-up vouchers, and you type the code into your phone.

Lebara works the same way but renews automatically each month from your card or PayPal account. Its page puts it plainly: “no need for a RIB, you pay with your bank card or your PayPal account.”

Orange Travel is Orange’s eSIM for visitors, and you can set it up at home so your French number works the moment you land. It costs about three times as much as Lycamobile, so it’s for your first few weeks. Orange sells versions with French numbers and with Polish ones, so check that yours starts with 06 or 07. We couldn’t confirm that you can move an Orange Travel number to another operator later, so if you want one number for the long term, start with Lycamobile.

If your phone has a SIM slot: a prepaid SIM card from a tabac

A tabac is a tobacconist and newsagent, found on almost every street in Nice and marked by a red diamond-shaped sign outside. Most sell prepaid SIM cards over the counter for cash, and supermarkets and phone shops sell them too.

Prepaid SIM card	Example offer	Register your passport within
Orange Mobicarte	€9.99 for 150 GB, one month	The line stays temporary until you do
SFR La Carte	€9.99 for 40 GB, 31 days	15 days
Lycamobile	€6.99 for 60 GB, 30 days	30 days

Orange Mobicarte and SFR La Carte come as SIM cards only, with no eSIM version.

Will a travel eSIM like Saily or Airalo give you a French number?

Usually not. Travel eSIMs from companies like Saily and Airalo are mostly data only: they get you online, but nobody can call or text you on them. The ones that do include a number don’t give a French one. Saily’s phone number add-on is a US number, and Airalo’s eSIMs with a number don’t cover France, which leaves Orange Travel, run by a French operator, as the exception.

That matters because a French (+33) number is what the bank, your landlord and the doctor’s office will ask for, and French banks and websites send their security codes to it by text.

A data-only travel eSIM is still handy for your first day or two. Install it before you fly and you’ll have maps, WhatsApp and a way to reach your Airbnb host when you land at Nice airport. Then get your prepaid French eSIM and let the travel one run out.

Step 2: Open a French bank account with your new number

The order matters because the online banks that open accounts quickly want a phone number first: Revolut asks for a French number before it gives you a French IBAN (the international number for your bank account), and Nickel asks for a mobile number to send your card PIN and contract to, which is exactly the gap your prepaid number fills.

Nickel, Revolut and N26 all give French IBANs to people living in France, and none of them needs a lease. Nickel is the quickest: you open it in a tabac with your passport and pay €25 a year. Revolut costs nothing on its standard plan and is the better long-term account for many people. Wise gives a Belgian one, which some French companies refuse. Our guide to getting a bank account in France without a French address compares all four.

Step 3 (optional): Switching plans later and keeping your French number

You don’t have to switch at all. Lycamobile’s €6.99 for 60 GB costs less than most monthly plans (RED by SFR, one of the cheapest, charges €9.99 for the same 60 GB), and you can set it to renew automatically from your card, so there’s no monthly chore to remember.

People who do switch usually want something Lycamobile doesn’t offer, such as a shop in Nice to walk into, or their phone plan with the same company as their home internet (our guide to setting up home internet on the French Riviera compares the providers). Those monthly plans are called forfaits, and the ones to look for are sans engagement (no contract), which you can cancel whenever you like. Most are paid by prélèvement (direct debit), and a US bank account won’t work for this anywhere. In theory any account in the EU should do, since an EU regulation stops companies from insisting on a particular country, but some French companies still only accept a French IBAN (one starting with FR), so that’s the safe choice.

Of these, RED by SFR is the easiest to get as a new arrival: it accepts a passport and doesn’t list proof of address among its requirements. Prices change often and many are introductory offers, so check what a plan costs after the first year.

How to keep your number when you switch

You can take your prepaid number to any new plan for free, so the bank, your landlord and your doctor never need to learn a new one:

Call 3179 from your French phone. It’s free, works 24 hours a day with every operator, and an automated voice gives you a 12-character code called your RIO. It’s also sent by text.
Give the RIO to your new operator when you sign up.
Don’t cancel your old line yourself. Moving the number cancels it automatically.

The switch happens within three working days, and your phone is without service for four hours at most.

Leaving a sans engagement plan without switching is simple too. You can cancel at any time without giving a reason and without the early-exit fees a contract would carry, though a few operators charge a small closing fee (B&You’s is €5). Cancellation takes effect within 10 days, and if you signed up online or by phone rather than in a shop, you also have 14 days to change your mind.

You don’t need this section to follow the three steps above. It’s here for when you’re comparing operators, or wondering why one turned you down, and it comes from each operator’s own terms and help pages in September 2026:

Operator	ID	How you pay	Proof you live in France
Lebara	Valid ID	Bank card or PayPal	Not listed
RED by SFR	Passport accepted	French bank account	Not listed
Free	Not published	Bank account; card also accepted	Can be asked for
SFR	Original ID	Bank account; card once you’re a customer	Address, no document listed
Sosh / Orange	US passport needs a sworn translation	European bank account	Required
B&You / Bouygues	EU passport or French residence permit	European bank account	Required

Why Sosh, Orange and Bouygues can wait until you have a lease

These three ask for more paperwork on mobile plans than the others, so they’re easier later than in week one.

Sosh and Orange want a justificatif de domicile (proof of address) in mainland France, and a lease isn’t on their list. What they do accept, among others, is a utility or internet bill under three months old, or your home insurance certificate (attestation d’assurance habitation) in the first month after you move in. You’ll need that insurance to sign a lease anyway. A US passport also needs a sworn French translation, which a French residence card replaces. Their help page mentions a €265 deposit for non-EU passports on mobile plans, but a French long-stay visa in your passport waives it, so most people moving here won’t pay it.

Bouygues Telecom, which also runs the budget brand B&You, lists an EU passport or ID card or a French residence permit as accepted ID, plus a document dated within the last three months proving you live in France. B&You’s online checkout only asks for an IBAN, but the Bouygues terms still apply to the contract.

Free’s terms let you pay by bank card instead of direct debit. Whether you can skip bank details entirely when you sign up is less clear: Free doesn’t say, though several French comparison sites say its store machines take a card. If you want to try, Free’s store at 23 avenue Jean Médecin in central Nice is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30am to 7pm. Bring your passport, a bank card for the €10 SIM or eSIM fee, and an email address, which Free requires.

RED by SFR needs bank details at sign-up. Its new-customer page asks for your bank details for the monthly direct debit, and a bank card only to pay for the SIM. Once you’re a customer, you can pay individual bills by card, but that’s a manual payment each month, not a way to sign up.

The “live in France” rule in the fine print

Free, Orange, Sosh and several smaller operators say their plans are for people who live in mainland France or have a lien stable (a stable link) with it. If you’ve moved here, you live here, even while you’re still in a rental looking for a lease. Free’s terms add that you must be able to prove that link if asked, so keep your visa and any rental agreement handy.

Will a US bank card work?

Orange Travel says outright that it takes cards in dollars, plus Apple Pay and PayPal. For the other operators, we couldn’t find anything either way, apart from SFR La Carte, whose terms say topping up by card over the phone needs a card issued in France. People on French forums report foreign cards being declined by fraud checks, so bring a second card. Once you have a Lycamobile line, cash top-up vouchers from a tabac need no card at all.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a French number on an iPhone with no SIM card slot?

Yes, with an eSIM. Lycamobile, Lebara and Orange Travel all sell prepaid French eSIMs online that you register with your passport. What won’t work is a plastic prepaid SIM card from a tabac, because there’s nowhere to put it.

Can I use my Airbnb address to get a French phone plan?

For the routes in this guide, you won’t need to prove it. Prepaid registration asks for your ID, not proof of address, and RED doesn’t list proof of address among its requirements. Orange, Sosh and Bouygues are the operators that want a document such as a utility bill, so leave them until you have a lease.

Do I need a French residence permit to get a French phone number?

No. RED by SFR, Lycamobile and the prepaid brands accept a passport. Bouygues and B&You are the exception: their terms list an EU passport or a French residence permit.

Can I pay for a French phone plan with PayPal?

Yes, at Lebara, and Orange Travel takes PayPal for its prepaid eSIMs, but we didn’t find another major operator that does.

Is prepaid more expensive than a monthly plan?

No. Lycamobile’s 60 GB eSIM for €6.99 costs less than most monthly plans, and you can set it to renew automatically from your card.