Can anyone compare options on calling home? My cell phone company wants $1.20 a minute. Is it possible to get (rent) a cell phone over there, and would it be cheaper? What does a pre paid phone card charge per minute? I assume that can be bought at the little corner stores. In the past, we've bought phone cards, but it would be nice to have a cell phone for business. I have Bellsouth long distance at my home, and it's soooo cheap to call Europe...10-20 cents per minute. I just wish we could find a cheap way to call in the opposite direction. Thanks!

Don't get the BT phone cards in London (the ones easily available at the airport). These cost something like 1 pound per minute used from a pay phone. The ones you buy at corner stores are less, but I don't remember how much. If you use them from a pay phone, they're not that cheap, but if you can somehow get access to someone's private line, they are very cheap. I don't know if I would recommend using a phone card from your hotel room, because who knows what the hotel might charge you. (I've been unpleasantly surprised once.)

This has been the subject of many threads.

Phone cards are relatively cheap as a matter of fact very cheap in London and Paris. You buy them at newstands or tobacco (tabac) shoppes in London and Paris.

Cell phones? You need a dual or tri band phone that uses European frequencies (900 and 1800) as opposed to US (850 and 1900). There are many merchants selling dual band unlocked phones (unlocked means you can use any service carrier) for as little as $80. A good bet is the Nokia 3310 a very basic dual band similar to the US Nokia 3390. You don't really need all the bells and whistles.

You then buy a prepaid plan in either London or Paris. The London is far cheaper. My recommendations is always Virgin Mobile. The service pack which includes the SIM card (a little chip that goes into the phone and provides your subscriber info) costs £10 available at almost all UK mobile phone shopes. The service pack comes with £5 worth of credit. Calls within the UK costs 15p a minute for the first 5 minutes of use each day and then drop to 5p a minute. Calls to North America cost 20p a minute. All calls are timed to the second, speak for 20 seconds and pay 7p on a call to the US. Receiving calls is free unlike US mobiles which charge for air time whether making or receiving calls.

French rates are somewhat more expensive. The starter pack runs €30 and calls to North America cost 0.80€ per minute, more than $1 a minute. But there are ways around this such as call back services. But even there receiving calls is free. The caller pays a greater fee.

There's lots more but renting a cell phones is rarely a good idea. Not only do you pay a rental fee but the charge for calls is massive, more than $1.20 that Cingular(ne Bell South) charges.

I've had a couple of different phone cards, purchased at newstand type stores. One, called the banana card, was OK but not great, I got an hour's worth of calls to the US from London for 5 pounds. The other was much better. For 10 pounds I made at least two to three times as many calls and still had half of it left when I got home. I was calling home those last few days just to try and use it up. Unfortunately, I don't remember which company that was (they were both the type where you just type in the pin number from the back of the card.) But the point here is there are some really great value phone cards available in the UK and with the abundance of those adorable red phone booths everywhere it makes calling home a breeze.

Oddly enoough, I found that in Italy and France,the best long distance cards
(value for money) were sold in the internet stores. We used to get them when we used the computers. Often, there was no sign, we just asked if they sold them. Stay away from the large name brands-BT, ATT, etc as they are usually 2-3 times more expensive.

Ok, so this may be off topic, but here goes anyway

My husband is from the UK and now that he is living here in Florida with me, we are always calling back "home". We use a 10-10 number and its only 3 cents a minute with a 39 cent connection, so he gets to stay on the phone for as long as he wants its so cheap! 10-10-987 (and no I don't work for them, just wanted to let everyone know what a great deal I had found)

I bought an America First calling card (I think that's what it was called) in a little shop in London and bought a 5GBP card. I didn't know how many minutes it had, but when I made my first call, it said 200 minutes! I checked with the hotel first about the charge to make calling card calls, and it wasn't too bad. The card lasted all week. HOWEVER, using it at a payphone once ate up tons of minutes with a service charge, so don't use it there.

xyz123,

we will be arriving at heathrow next week. we are bringing an unlocked 900/1800 phone and want to buy a Virgin Mobile starter pack at the airport. we arrive at terminal 3. do you know what shops at t3 carry the starter packs?

No one mentioned this option, so I will. We bought a 600 minute AT&T calling card at SAM's Club for under $25. I called ATT and ask about a European 800 number to use the card and they gave it to me for Paris. I had to call the US every day sametimes 3 and four times to check answering machines at home and at work as well as several extra calls resulting from those calls. The service was great and I think I got charged double minutes but that was still less that $.07 /min. I plan on using it again in London this trip. Just call and make sure they have an 800# for where you are going.