Calling Amsterdam from the US
 

I got this number (+31) (0)20 406 0 405 and when I try to call adding 011 it never goes through. Am I doing something wrong? Anyone called Amsterdam lately? Please help

The + sign on some mobile phones replaces the 011 so you don't dial the plus...you dial 011-31-20-4060405. The zero in front of the 20 basically is used only on domestic calls within the Netherlands...it tells the switching equipment that a domestic call is coming up. It is not used on calls from outside the Netherlands.<BR><BR>Incidentally, you might wish to investigate prefixing the call with 1016868. 1016868 is the cheapest by far of the alternative 101 services. You don't have to sign up, there is no monthly charge, no hidden minimum charge or set up charge, you simply dial prefixing the call with 1016868 and you pay something like 10 cents a minute to call the Netherlands to be billed on your local phone bill..Note that 1016868 is not universal in the US but is widely available. The only way to know is to try....if it works you have it.

Drop the "0" in parens when calling internationally. So you'd dial.<BR><BR>011 31 20 406 0 405<BR><BR>As far as these "101xxx" services: yes, you can save a great deal if you make a lot of calls with it, but if you are making only one or two calls, watch out. Each month you use these services, you are hit with a flat set of taxes/fees imposed by the government. It could be $2.00 or more for the month (on top of the per-minute rate), so if you are making a single 2-minute call to Amsterdam for the month it could be quite an expensive call! Call your long distance service first to ask what they charge/minute before using these 1010xxx services.<BR><BR>Andrew<BR>

Andrew...<BR><BR>You are absolutely right but the point I tried to make is that with 1016868, you don't pay $2 a month, you pay $0 a month. If you make 1 call, it costs you 10 cents with I think a 1 cent tax bite period end of the discussion; the cheapest rate there is.

Thank you XXX and Andrew. It worked

xxx:<BR><BR>OK, I did a little research on this, after getting slapped with what I found out was a "FEDUSF" fee the last time I used 1010636 (I have never used 1016868). I used the service for about a year before that without the FEDUSF being charged - they simply started charging it one month.<BR><BR><BR>Looks like FEDUSF is a tax usually passed on to the consumer by these 10-10xxx plans. Clear Choice (10-10636) now charges 75 cents/month plus a 7.3% FEDUSF charge, which as I said they didn't used to charge.<BR><BR>101-6868 (that's the name of their company I guess too) charges a 9.99% USF fee. That's not bad, but beware that (like Clear Choice, which never used to charge a USF flat fee) it could change any month.<BR><BR>I found all this out incidentially at a cool site called <BR><BR>http://10-10phonerates.com/state.html<BR><BR>Andrew<BR>