Phone Card

Old Feb 17th, 2002, 08:32 AM
  #1  
dean
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Phone Card

Does anyone know exactly what the per minute charge is to call the U.S. Would like to buy a phone card while in London to touch base back in the U.S. Read somewhere on this board to buy the card in London, not in the U.S. before we leave and to buy the phone card that has connecting charges included in price. Again, does anyone have any idea what the price per minute is? Thanks
 
Old Feb 17th, 2002, 08:55 AM
  #2  
Marc David Miller
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It depends on the card--prices can vary 1000% (yes, 1000%) from one to another. In 1998 without trying I bought a card at a newsstand for "10 pence a minute" to the US, no connecting charge--I imagine that you could do even better today.

I have bought cards from

www.phoneshark.com

which is a kind of shopping mall for phone cards (both calling to and from Europe).
 
Old Feb 17th, 2002, 09:19 AM
  #3  
hope
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My son purchased the 7-11 card in NY a month ago, supposedly good for Europe, and it doesn't work in Ireland, England, Netherlands, Italy or Switzerland. He has trouble with some of the cards he bought in Europe, for example the connections cut out after a few seconds. It pays to shop around & get recommendations. Phone cards can be a good deal. (Be aware that it usually uses up more minutes to call a cell phone.)
 
Old Feb 17th, 2002, 10:09 AM
  #4  
Elaineb
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My sister bought a card in London for 30 minutes of international calling. She tried calling home three times and each time the home phone was busy. The fourth time she got through and immediately got a message that her card was no longer good. Apparently there was the equivalent of 10 minutes for each attempted call, even though the line was busy.
This is much like those 10-10 calls or whatever. We have learned that each time you get a busy signal there is a charge on your phone bill-- something like $1.50 I believe it was. Get three busy signals and you've already spent nearly $5.00 before you even get to talk to someone. We have an international plan on our home phone (Sprint) and my husband has found that calling home and reversing the charges is the cheapest way to go.
 
Old Feb 18th, 2002, 12:24 AM
  #5  
JEFF SHERMACK
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This is much like those 10-10 calls or whatever. We have learned that each time you get a busy signal there is a charge on your phone bill-- something like $1.50 I believe it was.

It depends. The best of the 101.. services is 1016868. No charge for busy signals and a charge of 7.9 cents a minute to the UK.....it is not 100% national but it does have a large coverage area. Try it and if it works, you have it. No call minimums, no monthly surcharge. Billed on your local phone bill.
 
Old Feb 18th, 2002, 03:52 AM
  #6  
anissa
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I don't know what it broke down to by minute, but on our recent trip to the UK in Nov, my cousin bought a phone card at the local post office -I think she spent around 30 pounds for it. We were there for a week, and all of us used it extensively (esp after the first call when it announced that we had HOURS left on it). I talked to friends at home for a total of 30 mins, and I know my uncle (an attorney) had to make a business call, and my cousin made several long calls home to her boyfriend. At the end of the trip we were looking for ways to blow the money and still ended up with around 30 mins remaining on our card, we ended up giving it to a stewardess. Definetly buy the one in the Post office as I have heard the others aren't as long.
 
Old Feb 18th, 2002, 03:54 AM
  #7  
anissa
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Oh, I forgot, when I got a busy signal on my calls, we were not charged for the minutes used - or not used. Also, I have used the cards here in the States, and they aren't as good as that one that we had in Britian.
 
Old Feb 18th, 2002, 07:10 AM
  #8  
dean
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Anissa: What was the name of the phone card purchased. There are several out there. The one you had sounds like exactly what we would want and need. Thanks. If you don't remember the name, would your cousin; if not, possibly the post office where it was purchased?
 
Old Feb 18th, 2002, 08:28 AM
  #9  
anissa
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Honestly, I don't remember if it had a "name" I will check with my cousin though, and can find out exactly what the amount was that she purchased. I do know though, all she did was go into the post office (we were in Scotland at the time, but they all have it - even in England, and we used the card from Scotland several times in England with no probs) and ask for a "phone card". I think that it is through the post office. In other words, instead of the card being an "AT & T" card it was a "Post Office" card.... I think that the Brits run their telephone system through their postal system, like the Germans do. Anyway, it is the only one that you can get at the post, and like I said, every post office offered it. My cousin found out to use that particular card from a friend of hers that had lived there for 6 months. She had said that it was the best deal around. Hope that helps, and if I find out anything else from my cousin, I will post it also.
 
Old Feb 18th, 2002, 08:42 AM
  #10  
dean
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Anissa: Thank you for your quick response. If you can find out what type that would be great!!
 
Old Feb 19th, 2002, 09:46 AM
  #11  
Eugene
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Dean,

I left you an e-mail message re calling cards in London. I used a Peanuts calling card which I bought in one of the grocery stores. Great value!
 
Old Feb 19th, 2002, 02:15 PM
  #12  
anissa
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Dean,
I confirmed it with my cousin, there is no real "name" to the thing = she thinks it is just "British Post phone card" but like I said, go to any post office, and ask the teller for one, they'll know what you need/want. And I asked her again what she spent on it, she doesn't remember which denomination she bought (you can ask for several different pound amounts ie: 5, 10, etc) but remembers it was no more than 30, and prob much less. I would seriously go with a cheaper amount, because we were really trying to use it up at the end and couldn't - try several 30 min phone calls home to see who won a football game etc. Good luck!
 
Old Feb 20th, 2002, 06:51 AM
  #13  
dea
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Anissa - Thank you for taking the time to find this info. Will check it out once we arrive in London. Thanks again.
 
Old Feb 22nd, 2002, 07:31 AM
  #14  
pscaltreto
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Found the website for British phone cards. The Pay Peanuts card appears to be the best rates when using a payphone as there is no pay phone surcharge. However, and this may be a stupid question, if you use the phone card from your hotel room are you charged an additional fee because you are actually using the hotel phone service and not a pay phone. There are Pay Peanuts phone cards that you do not have to use in a payphone, but if you do you will be charged a surcharge. Any info or comments?
 
Old Feb 22nd, 2002, 05:29 PM
  #15  
anissa
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When we used the British Post card, I am not aware that we were charged a surcharge - I kind of got the impression that since the phone service was run through the postal service (I could be very wrong on this) that they encouraged you to use this phone card. I do know for a fact though that we didn't have to pay a surcharge from our hotel phone.
 
Old Feb 22nd, 2002, 07:32 PM
  #16  
teri
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I bought a phone card at the airport in the United States before leaving for Spain. The card was supposedly international. Of course, it didn't work in Spain. Wait until you get to your country of destination to buy your card. I just bought a card at the train station in Madrid and it worked fine.
 
Old Feb 23rd, 2002, 06:52 PM
  #17  
Suzzane
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Hi - need a summary of the phone card issue:

1. Read a couple of other posts below - some say the Costco card works, others don't.
I don't have a Costco near me, so do you think a WalMart card would work? Stupid me - the last time I was overseas, I dialed direct and came back home to a massive phone bill!

Will the British phone card work in other countries? Or should I buy little inexpensive card in the countries I am in?

Summary of questions:
1. Buy card at Wal Mart (no Costco)

or

2. Buy one multi country in Europe - if they exsist?

or

3. Buy a card in each of the 4 countries I am visiting?

Thanks
 
Old Feb 24th, 2002, 08:52 PM
  #18  
Wilma
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If you buy a card in the United States (and the Costco card does work) you need to call the service provider BEFORE you leave and ask them for the phone number to call in the country you will be visiting. TheCostco card is Sprint, and I got wonderful rates calling between Germany and the US, but seemingly outlandinsh rates between, say, Germany and Austria. (maybe inter-country phone rates in Europe are always high, I don't know.) It cost more to call Austria with my Sprint phone card than it did to call USA. The rates were so good to the US that I even called home to get my messages (and returned them, even non-critical ones), something I wouldn't have done if I was paying direct dial rates.

Some hotels charged for calls made with calling cards on a per-call baisis, ranging from 2.50 eu per call in the *****hotels to .85 in the ** and ***.
 
Old Mar 2nd, 2002, 07:17 AM
  #19  
Diana
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Suzanne,

I purchased an AT&T pre-paid from Sam's before I went to France last year and had no problems using it. It comes with a card giving the toll free access numbers in several countries (including both UK and France) as well. It also tells you how many minutes your card would convert to if calling from overseas to US. For example, my 500 min card would convert to 55 minutes from France to US which I computed to be approx 38 cents per minute. From UK to US was 45 minutes. (I think I bought this card before Sam's dropped the price on them so not sure what it is now.) I don't make many calls when I'm travelling, just a safe arrival call (less than 5 minutes) and maybe once or twice if I'm changing countries or going to be gone more than a week so it works well for me and is convenient. But, I believe you can get better rates by buying a card locally if you need to spend more time on the phone. And as far as charges added from the hotel, the hotel I stayed in did not charge for calls to the local toll free number but, just like in the states, it will depend on your hotel.
 
Old Mar 3rd, 2002, 02:00 PM
  #20  
Mike Stump
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If you are lucky enough to have a Voicestream Tri-Band mobile phone it will work in the UK. Voicestream uses the same phone technology, GSM, that Europe uses. The catch though is that in Europe their phones are at 900 MHz or 1800 MHz and the US is at 1900 MHz. Normal GSM phones in the US only operate at 1900 MHz which is why you need a Tri-Band which operates at all three. This is normally a Motorola P7089 or P280. In the future Cingular and AT&T mobile will also be using GSM. There are also smaller operators in the US that use GSM.

Rates vary from $0.18 to $0.40 for local calls to $0.48 to $1.38 for calls to the US.

Another benefit is that you will receive calls at your regular number.
 

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