If you're the sort pf person who would never dream of opening up the back of your mobile phone, then you might as well stop reading this page right now

If, like me, you don't live permanently in one country  and still regard a mobile phone as an asset then you really don't need to buy a second mobile phone in Spain.

A little-known fact is that you can buy just the SIM card for a Spanish network and then introduce it into an unlocked British mobile phone. If you visit Spain regularly then you will be surprised by the extra flexibility that a mobile phone gives you. Naturally you could keep the phone as it is and pay the ruinous international call fees.



Bought new, SIM cards (see right) are about 30€ each ...a lot cheaper than buying the phone too. You can sometimes buy second hand SIMs from Rastro stalls (in Spain) that sell other mobile phone paraphernalia.

Related Spanish terms:

Sometimes mobile phone shops just refer to the SIM as a SIM (but with Spanish pronunciation) "seem." Other shops refer to the card as a 'tarjeta" (the 'j' is pronounced as a guttural 'k' (much the same as the 'ch' in 'loch'. Roll the 'r' and you get "tarr-khay-ta". The mobile phone's display might turn out be in Spanish ...but the shop will change this for you if you ask:

Spanish: ¿Puedes cambia la idiona a inglés?
Phonetics: Pway-days cam-bya la eed-eeyoma a een-glays
English: Can you change the language to English?

A PIN number is often referred to as a "numero secreto" (secret number) ...pronounced noomay-ro say-crayto. You can also get this changed at the shop to conform with an existing pin