Best prepaid cell phone plan?
 

We'll be in Europe for three months this Spring. I've found a plan with E-Kit that includes the purchase a basic global Siemens phone for $79 US. It charges a 25 centUS connection fee per call and then 49 centsUS a min. There is no charge to you for incoming calls.

Does anybody know of a better plan? We just want it for emergencies and reservations, etc. THANKS, Howdey

Both AT&T/Cingular and T-Mobile have GSM phones in their prepaid plans. I've never even heard of "e-kit", what kind of prepaid phone company is that? Of course, I'm assuming you want a regular prepaid phone for the US that happens to work in Europe, but maybe not. Then, you'd care what kind of network it had in the US.

I don't know T-mobile's rates in Europe (but will soon as I plan to get that prepaid plan), but AT&T'Cingular's are pretty expensive (around $1 a minute or something, in Europe). I just need a new plan anyway, so figured I might as well get one that worked abroad, as it would also just be for emergencies (not necessarily reservations). Three months is a lot longer, though.

Howdey, you can also just buy an unlocked gsm quad band phone and purchase sim cards in each country.
But if you want the convenience of one number, that deal doesn't sound terrible since you will rarely use it and no charge for incoming.

Christina, if you pay full price for your phone from T-Mobile, they are supposed to unlock it for you. Then you can switch the sim card overseas and pay a much reduced per minute rate. (T-Mobiles intl rates are over a dollar also)
Even if you don't pay full price for your phone, you can buy the unlock code off ebay for about 30 dollars.

If you want to use your phone in the US with either T Mobile or AT & T, check to see if the Siemens phone you mentioned is unlocked and operates on US frequencies. If it doesn't, I'd buy an unlocked quadband phone on ebay (e. g. a Motorola v195) and then buy one of the global prepaid sims discussed at

http://tinyurl.com/egoy7

For what it's worth, my wife and I have traveled in Europe with a united mobile + sim (hers) and an ekit sim (mine), both of which worked flawlessly.

Thanks guys ... the Ekit phone does not work in the US. I'm with Verizon in the States but their international rates are crazy and my phone doesn't unlock. I'd have to buy a new phone.

Since Sii said his Ekit phone worked great, I think I'll go with it and just keep it for travel. Thanks again. Howdey