andrea

I will be in Paris next week and want to know if it is easier to use MCI, or AT&T to call the states and if one company is cheaper then the other? I have a calling card from both but I don't think it is an international card. What about just calling collect?

laura

I was in Paris during the 9/11 incident and called back to the US a lot using my AT&T calling card and was STUNNED when I got the bill...over $1000! When I called AT&T they told me my calling rates from the US were good but from Europe to the US it was $1-$2 a minute. Long story short they adjusted it but I'd make sure what your plan is before you go.

Sue

If you are not on an international plan, calls on MCI vary from about $1.80/min to $2.50. I used to switch to their intern'l plan for trips, but it has changed and is now more expensive and then when I would change back when I returned, my old plan would no longer exist. I don't think it's any better calling collect, but you can check with your provider.<BR><BR>This time I plan to buy a "Ticket de Telephone," for 15 Euros (at a tabac). It is a prepaid calling card with a scratch-0ff PIN and an easy toll-free access number that you can use from any phone. Dial 3689, your PIN +#, and your number+#. I think it's about 30 cents/min to the US.

Diana

If you don't make many calls, one of the prepaid AT&T or MCI calling cards may be good for you. (I use this because I only make "safe arrival calls" to let my family know I've arrived and about once a week if I'm gone longer than a week. I'm on the phone less than 5 minutes.) The pre-paid calling cards are much less than the standard calling cards which get charged to your home telephone -- plus there are no surprises since it can't go over the pre-paid amount.<BR><BR>For example, the "600 min" AT&T pre-paid from Sam's cost $20.82. The 600 minutes is for stateside calls. The conversion chart which comes with it says that equates to 66 min to US from France or 54 from UK or 85 from Germany (others are listed but this is the range). Of course, this would be only for calling stateside so if you have a need to make calls within Europe, it wouldn't be good.

Gretchen

Get a prepaid card from Sam's. The phone company cards are expensive even here in the US.

Bob Brown

I would say use none of the phone company cards, least of all AT&T and MCI. I tried both of them in the past, and after paying some outrageous phone baills, I dropped both of them. I never use either of them for long distance calls at home, much less overseas because there are cheaper ways. <BR><BR>If you call a party in the UDS collect, you will need operator assistance. These are the most expensive calls you can make. You could pay as much as $2.50 a minute. In other words, a $100 phone call is only a few finger jabs away!<BR><BR>The simplest way I have found to call home from Europe is to purchase and use a phone card.<BR>I normally purchase several while I am in Europe. <BR>Last summer, I was in Austria for nearly 2 weeks. The easiest way to call was from the apartment I was renting where we got residential rates and the owner of the building had each phone wired into his computer and was thus able to bill me separately for each call.<BR>From Salzburg and Vienna, I used my phone card. The same was true in Germany. <BR><BR>All of the phones I have used in Europe, Switzerland and France included, have slots into which you insert the phonecard. An LED dislay unit on the telephone then shows you how much time you have left on the card. As you talk you can watch your money disappear!!<BR>Once I have used up the phone card, it simply goes in the trash bin, and I walk away with no entanglements and no surprises on my phone bill. <BR><BR>I find this to the simplest, least burdomsome way to call home.<BR>

kay

Andrea --- I second the recommendation for the prepaid France telecom card. I paid about $7 for it at a tabac and used it for 4 brief calls to the US (6-8 minutes each) and several local calls within Paris. There was still time left on it when I flew home, so I gave it to one of the flight attendants. My experience using my MCI card from Italy was a bill for about $28 for a call of less than 20 minutes!

Dina

Is this Andrea from Seattle? Bon Voyage, Andrea!<BR><BR>After reading these phone rates, maybe it's better to rely on Email for most of your overseas communication needs!

Bob Brown

That is USA; and bill, not baill or whatever crazy word my stiff fingers poked out this morning. <BR>Whatever, I think the message from all of us who formerly used AT&T and MCI is clear: you pay a lot. <BR><BR>I would like to add one gratuitous comment here about Sept 11. I was in Austria at the time where we had rented an apartment for a week. About 5 PM on the 11th. our landlady knocked on the door and told us that all phone calls from Austria to the USA for the next 8 hours were FREE.<BR>I called several friends in DC to find out more details. <BR>I thought that it was a very generous gesture by the Austrian government.<BR>

Howard

Has anyone ever gotten a card through www.prepaidcall.net? Its prices seem almost too good to be true. I can get a card (with AT&T connection) for $10 that'll give me 60 minutes of calling time from France to the US.

XXX

GET A CALLING CARD!!!<BR><BR>As a "life long" customer of ATT, I was more than SHOCKED a month after arriving home at the total charges. <BR><BR>Use a calling card, even the internet but DO NOT use ATT!!!

andrea

Thanks for the info. I called AT&T and they were of little help. I called MCI and because I have business accounts with them decided to go with their international calling card. They charge $5.95 a month and 15 cents a minute to the US from France. They also said that if you use a pay phone there is a 30 cent charge per call additionally. You can sign up and off this service without a fee, so as soon as I return I will cancel the service. Another reason I'm going to use them is because the last time I was in Paris I did buy a phone card and for some reason (probably my inability to figure out how to use it ) it didn't work.<BR><BR>Thanks again.<BR>Andrea

Going to Europe

Ok. Would one of your experts give us 1 clear example of how to call home from Paris using a telecarte and a public phone booth. Lets assume the number to be reached is <BR>202-345-1111<BR>Precisely what do we dial in Paris?<BR> After reading several weak examples, I think I would dial<BR>001 202 345 1111<BR><BR>Rick Steves says dial the the international access code, the country code, and the number.<BR><BR>He says the international access code from Paris is 00.<BR>Then 1 for the USA and then the area code and number.

CJ

Dear "Going to Europe": the Rick Steves info is correct. That is how you would call home.<BR><BR>I am also curious to hear other people's experiences with prepaidcall.net. I agree that the prices seem too good to be true. How do you dial home if you are using one of their cards? Are they easy to use?

Shanna

Andrea, Clark Howard was just talking about this. He uses MCI prepaid card for overseas calling, or AT&T, which he buys at Sam's Club or Costco. But NEVER use the the card they give you with your home service - it can run up to $1 a minute!

going to europe

The example I listed above with all of the numbers in place was deduced from Mr. Steves' book. He does not give an example. His talking about it is in 2 separte places of his Paris book.<BR><BR>I hoped I had figued it out correctly, but I was not sure. So I asked. <BR>It was more educated guess work than anything else. <BR><BR>I still think examples are poor in all the travel books I have and the subject is weakly discussed.<BR>

andrea

Are you telling me that MCI may have told me that they charge 15 cents a minute using the international calling card but that in fact they are going to charge me a higher price? How is this possible? I didn't ask them if they rate was different during the day or night, weekends etc. Should I call them back to see if there are some hidden costs they didn't tell me? I hate to be taken!<BR>Also thanks for explaining how to make a call. <BR>Andrea

Patrick

I too have given up on the special international plans you might have with your long distance carrier. It was once explained to me that those rates only apply to calling from your own phone at home to international points, not the other way around. Essentially if you are dialing into that system from Europe, you are calling the US which then connects back with you in Europe which then connects with the number in the US that you are calling.<BR>More recently on the few phone calls I have made from Europe, I simply dial direct from my hotel. If staying in a big American type hotel like a Marriot or Hilton, you might get racked, but many small hotels even have a special international dialing rate and they will only charge you what it costs them -- generally a lot less than any of the "special" cards or rates will do. The few times I have called "home" recently the calls have only been a dollar or two -- and there is no charge if you don't reach someone, while there invariably is a charge if you have used a calling card. Before you call, check with your hotel and see if they can tell you roughly how much it will cost to dial direct from your room -- you really might be pleasantly surprised.<BR>

Heather

I deiced to call my at and t universal calling card #. Besides rude service I also found out it would be over $6 for the first minute and another $2 and change for the additional minutes.<BR>I am definitely going for a pre paid calling card. I was hoping to be able to use the at and t one when I get to the airport and then pick a card up after making my calls saying I arrived but it doesn't look like that's going to work.<BR>Anyway got the card from BJ's? Just curious.<BR>Thanks<BR>Heather<BR>

greg

Andrea<BR>Depending on the amount of calling you are planning to do, you might want to weigh benefits of preparid calling card vs simple local telecarte.<BR><BR>As Kay and others indicated, for occational calls to US, local telecarte is only few dollars and give perhaps about half hour of talk time. It is also simplest to dial, 001 then us area code, no LOCAL ACCESS+PIN numbers to contend with.<BR><BR>While a correct prepaid card is cheaper, consider that you need to punch in almost 40 digits correctly. We travel often with folks who think they were smart in getting cheap per minutes rate, but turn out they often have difficulty punching in all these digits correctly and end up using our French Telecom telecarte to make calls.