mdtravel

I don't know if there is a good solution for what I would like to do, let alone an affordable one.

My wife and I will be in Paris for 6 days (then to Belgium for 3). We will be together most of the time, but will take several hours on a few days to part ways and explore different interests on our own in Paris.

When we've done this in Rome in the past, she had a calling card and would call my cell phone to let me know where she was or where we should meet or whatever. That's an expensive inbound call. You can easily incur $50 in charges before you blink doing it that way.

I am curious if there are affordable solutions for what we do. Basically, we'd need two cell phones and a calling plan or pre-paid solution. I'm not sure where to even start looking; it doesn't look like ATT Wireless is the right spot for this.

I believe both of our phones are capable of operating on the European networks if that helps me at all.

Basically, we'd like a way to stay in touch when we split up for a while so we can make the most of our time both apart and together.

Can anyone point me to information or a company that does what I'm looking for?

xyz123

Are you from the USA? Is your carrier either AT&T or T Mobile USA? Apparently you do and from your story about Roma,you've used international roaming...

Unfortunately French prepaid mobile carriers are among the most expensive in the world and there is no really cheap solution I could give you which I can with the UK....

Calling using an American roaming carrier is expensive...a ridiculously high 99¢/minute (T Mobile) or $1.29/minute (AT&T which drops to 99¢/minute if you pay an extra $6.99/month) to both make and receive calls so you would have a double whammy....but text messaging is not terribly expensive so if it's a case of wanting to be able to rendez vous or I'm going to be late or meet me in St. Louis Louis, you can text message between yourselves.

Others have suggested you look into Roam simple (www.roamsimple.com)..if you already have gsm unlocked phones (if they're locked you can call your carrier to get the unlocking code)..$9 for a French sim card, not prepaid calls are billed to your credit card, you get the free reception of calls within France and you would be making a local call which cost only 59¢ (US) per minute and only one would pay as while in France, receiving calls is free...this seems to be the best solution...not terribly cheap to call the USA ($0.79) but you could fool around with my old friend enlinea which offers a callback service (they give you a US number to call, you ring the US number, the call is not completed so no charge, you hang up, they call you back and you enter the number followed by the number sign key now, and the call goes through..price is 28¢/minute (US) and remember you don't pay on the French end since you are receiving the call which triggers the international call..the more I think about this, the more I believe this is by far the best solution....(they have similar services for Germany and Italy; I wouldn't use their UK solution as there are very very very cheap ways to call using a mobile phone from the UK to Canada or the USA for as little as 3p/minute with a free sim card.

Hope that helps.

tod

The cheapest way I find is to just buy a French simcard when I get there - I am going to try my old one from 2 years ago first and if it doesnt work will renew it.
I've been told the 'roaming' option is very expensive.???

xyz123

French sim cards are among the most expensive in the world...and the thieves in France steal your credit after a specified number of days and then invalidate the card six months after they steal your credit...unlike sim cards from many countries, you can't keep the card active by simply making a transaction (I do it with web browsing although sim messages work too)...if you top up a French card for €10, after 15 days, they steal your remaining credit unless you top up again and while the card remains valid to receive calls, six months later, if not topped up, the card is history...with a €15 top up you get a months, €25 you get two months...what a bunch of thieves.

I can't see a down side to the roam simple solution above...for $9 you don't have to worry about renewing it every 60 days (according to the web site at the end of a year, they bill you $9 again and the cards are post paid not pre paid...is there fine print I'm missing????) or try www.tinyurl.com/37cpvh although somewhere in there is some fine print about paying $60/year....

tod

Thanks for that info mdtravel - We are in Paris for 7 nights and aim to just use one phone. If we get seperated we usually have a pre-arrangement on what we will do.

SemiMike

xyz123 (or anyone else), can you say more about texting being cheaper than calling when overseas? I was not aware that this was the case. That is, if I do not have a text messaging plan, do normal texting rates apply, or is there some special overseas "text roaming" as with calls? Thanks.

Sarvowinner

I pay around 75 cents (aust) for a text message when I'm overseas.

xyz123

You have to check with your carrier on their specific text messaging plan...I know I have T Mobile US as my US carrier...they charge me 35¢ for a text message while travelling and nothing to receive...but I have a grandfathered unlimited text messaging plan...I think the norm is 50 free incoming text message a month and certain fees to send text message...as always different carriers have different policies and different add ons!

Robespierre

I believe T-Mo charges a flat 35¢ within or without Europe with no charge for incoming - my kids used this method to talk incessantly from Europe to US last summer - with T-Mo Family Unlimited texting.

crefloors

I was in Paris year before last and just used my phone...AT&T. It was .99 per minute with a 5.99 fee. Sounds like it's gone up. I was there for nine days and my charges were about 50.00 when I got home. I'm not a talker and just had it with me incase my SO needed to contact me in emergency. I checked in with him about every other day. I could certainly see where this wouldn't work so well if you were making a lot of calls, or talk a long time, or using it daily to make dinner reservations etc, but in my case, it was the easiest way to go and wasn't all that expensive.

d_claude_bear

Within the past week I purchased two reconditioned Motorola V180 phones and two $9 France SIMs from Roam Simple. They arrived within two days, from Toronto to San Diego!! One of the batteries wouldn't charge, so Adam immediately sent a replacement phone and battery, which charged just fine.

I haven't used them in France yet, but I had numerous questions before purchasing, and Adam answered my e-mails the same day--sometimes within the hour. When I e-mailed him about the defective battery/phone, he called me so we could try various things in real time--and then said he would send a new set.

I will post an update about the use of the phones when we return in early June. So far, the Roam Simple customer service has been very responsive.

d_claude_bear

One more thought--for the few days in Belgium, calls made using the France SIM card would cost more than they cost in France, but using a Europe or World SIM from Roam Simple would make ALL calls in Paris more expensive. And the roaming cost of using the France SIM in Belgium is not too different from using a World or Europe SIM.

So the France SIM would be your best bet is you used the Real Simple product.

yk

I think in this case - the best option for the OP would be stick w/TXT messaging. It is definitely cheaper than calling.

ddena

I know of 2 very reasonable options for a solution, one free and one very modestly priced.
www.talkster.com is the free solution (a dial-in service)

www.callineurope.com is the low-priced solution based in the US! a cheap SIM card with incoming calls free and outgoing calls 0.39 per min.

Tx_lv2trvl

bookmark.

AJPeabody

Are the days of buying a cheap calling card at a tabac and using payphones in France over? It used to be the cheapest way to make local calls and calls to the US were not too bad, either. Doesn't work between two tourists, however.

mdtravel

Thank you every body.

My wife and I both have ATT as our carrier and both have Razr phones; one is about a month old and one is about a year old.

So if I go with the text message route, I don't have to have my phone unlocked, I don't have to change SIM cards, I don't really have to do anything...true statement?

And text messages are 75 cents per text message, from the last report?

Fodorite018

mdtravel--Last summer we used our Razr phones from AT&T with no problems. We did the $5.99 for the international plan, which made the rate .99 per minute. Texts were .50 per sent text, but there was no charge for incoming. I didn't do anything except go to my local AT&T center, have them put in their system the international plan, and we were set to go. Our phones were both about a year old at the time.

Robespierre

T-Mobile:

Voice 99¢/min, no monthly charge.
Text 35¢ outgoing, 0¢ incoming
International Roaming must be activated (can be done on My.T-Mobile.com for free)

ParisAmsterdam

You may think the cost of sending or
receiving text messages is small...
have a read of this article!

http://gthing.net/the-true-price-of-sms-messages/