What phone card to use to call home
 

FOr emergencies we want to bring a prepaid phone card with us to New Zealand to call back home (U.S.A.) any advice. Thanks. Alana

Not sure about NZ but in Australia you can buy them here at any newsagency or most convenience stores. I imagine same deal in NZ. Here it is about .03c per minute to the US plus the cost of a local call. (40c from public phone).

Like DropBear I'm extrapolating from Australia, but I imagine you'd also find a good range at Asian grocery stores (which would be most common in Auckland). We use a Chi-Tel card to call China at (AU) 3.9c/min (US 3c) + local call cost, and from memory I think a similar rate applies to the US. The quality isn't quite as good as a regular telco call but acceptable, and at that price who'se complaining?

Thanks for the replies. So I guess I'll wait til I get to New Zealand to get a phone card. Alana

Alana

If you are in downtown Auckland all the grocery stores sell calling cards. Cost is the same roughly as in Aussie. Chi tel cards are very popular but there are others for calling other parts of the world.

The cost of a local call on a pay phone is capped at 50 cents.

Hope this helps.

You may consider hiring a cell phone from vodafone. This is also an option. Details of phone hire are available at the airport on arrival.

If your cell is GSM capable you can just bring it with you - you hook into the vodafone network here. Make sure you have set it up for roaming with your USA provider prior to your departure from the US.

Steve

Good point, Steve. There was a thread a little while back on the relative merits of (a) renting a mobile (cell) phone in the destination country or (b) buying a (I think) tri-band phone before leaving the US. If the thread isn't here it would be on the Asia forum - can't remember.

Alana, the answer to that one would probably depend on how much travel outside North America you're likely to do - most places including NZ use the GSM (Global System for Mobiles) standard but there's not much of it in Nth America. If you have a cell phone that you can switch to GSM you can buy prepaid SIM cards in other countries. Of course, it won't be nearly as cheap as a phone card, but you're more contactable from home.

So I gather no one has brought a prepaid phone card from the US to use in New Zealand to call back home. Thanks. Alana

Alana, the consensus seems to be that while someone may have brought a card from the US (as Aussies and Kiwis we wouldn't know), there's no point.

An advantage of buying in NZ is that your card should carry the local numbers you need to dial to access their network - at least, my Chi-Tel card does. In my case there's a local (non-toll freee) number for each state capital city. I assume that in NZ the popular phone cards would provide local access numbers for at least Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Enjoy your trip.

Actually Alana - we took a phone card from the states when we were touring in Australia and New Zealand. We got it at Sam's Club and it had 600 minutes so it was perfect for our calls back home.

We learned quickly though in OZ and NZ that internet cafes were virtually everywhere and you could get online for very little money (less than $1) and send messages easier and probably quicker than phone service. I kid you not!!

I will probably use the internet cafes to keep in touch with home and buy a local phone card in New Zealand. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I leave in one week. Alana

I bought a MCI card from Costco and had no problems. MCI will give you the 800 number to call. I bought a card for local calls at a newstand and it was really handy. That way I could use my local card to dial the MCI number and I wouldnt be charged any additional charges. Especially nice when you dont have the exact change. Ive used MCI or Sprint in both countries with no problems.

In Australia, I was able to ask the operator for the australian toll free # for sprint -- so I was able to use my US Sprint Card.

I also was able to walk into any newsagent and purchase different denominations of phone cards that worked fine.

No worries

Eagle - "MCI will give you the 800 number to call. I bought a card for local calls at a newstand and it was really handy. That way I could use my local card to dial the MCI number and I wouldnt be charged any additional charges."

I don't understand. Are there extra charges when you dial the 800 MCI contact number (without using the local card) from a pay phone or your hotel telephone in NZ?

Also, can you use the MCI card for local calls in NZ? Is it better to use a local card? Thanks

A prepaid cellular (GSM 900/1800) will cost at least $150 plus a SIM card of $35 (NZD).

Of course, Vodaphone cellular (or "mobile") units come unlocked, meaning they're good for Europe. Just buy another SIM card when you get to Britain or France or Italy or wherever.

All Cell calls in NZ cost the CALLER 49 cents/minute. Probably a calling card is your best bet.

Any small convenience store ("dairy") will carry them. Ask what's best = if you make a lot of short calls, the "no connection fee" card is better.

Piece of advice for travellers.

You might need to call home and thus you may want to get yourselves a calling card. Convenient for those who can't take their cell phones with them and spend loads of money on calls.

Visit the http://www.prepaidphonecards4u.com website. They offer calling cards to all available destination countries in the world.

Hope this helps you!