suze1

I'm thinking maybe we should have a cell phone for our Germany/Austria trip, where does one get the best deal on a rental cell, or, should we just purchase a phone card on our arrival in Frankfurt. Would the phone card be good for Germany and Salzburg?

dfr4848

Don't know about phone cards, but we just got back from Germany/Austria/Czech Republic last weekend and took an international cell phone with us (only worked in Europe). We rented it here from our current provider (Verizon). They delivered it to our house a few days before we left. They arranged to have calls to my current cell phone forwarded to the international phone. It costs $4.50 for two weeks plus hourly rates (which were relatively high - about $1.50 per minute). We wanted it for emergencies and it served its purpose. Upon our return, we sent it back via UPS per instructions that came with it (shipping was already pre-paid by Verizon). Pretty easy.

dfr4848

Sorry - meant to say "minute" rates instead of "hourly" rates.

suze1

So are you saying it was $4.50 and then if you made a call it was $1.50 per minute?

suze1

I just called Verizon and they told me $3.99 per day, I think that's rather steep. I only want it for emergencies. Is there a better price out there.

logos999

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34815748

vette79stingray

Don't know if you are interested in Skype or not. They have these new Wifi phones that you don't even need a computer for, just a HotSpot...which if you were in an emergency might not be so convenient

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Fencoding=UTF8

if you are taking a laptop you can pick a really cheap USB phone up, to use with Skype. Thats what i'll be doing this summer when I'm in Europe, only like 2 cents a minute to North America.

Other that that...I would just buy a phone card for a Payphone...When I was in Italy last year, payphones were everywhere...and the cards are relatively cheap/per minute.

Travelnut

1. You can buy a $49 phone from www.mobal.com and pay the per-minute rates via credit card ($1.50-$3.00)

2. You can switch to T-Mobile, get a 'world phone' and pay $0.99/minute and no monthly or other fees (you might need to have 2-3 months' billing history before they'll activate the roaming for you)

3. Phone cards are usually much cheaper

lxchiang

If you plan to do world traveling from time to time, I believe the cheapest way is to buy a new or used simple cell phone -- UNLOCKED GSM quad band phone -- from Ebay costing no more than $100 including shipping. Then upon arrival at each country, you have to purchase a country-specific smart card which needs to be inserted into your phone.

This quad band phone will cover most countries of the world (I know Japan is one exception). Obviously going this way involves more work on your part. I believe the $49 phone mobal.com sells is the same type quad band GSM phone except probably locked for use with Mobal only.

Nannybeas

I just purchased the $49 Mobal international phone to use in England next month. It comes with an international SIM card. There are endorsements from several travel experts, and there is a 60 day money back return policy. (If it doesn't work over there, which I feel confident it will, I will just buy a phone card to use a payphone, and send it back when I get home.)

With this phone, they will deduct the air time charges from your credit card, so you don't have to buy top-up cards. Luckily, I will be in England and all incoming calls are free, so I can call the US, and have my family return the call for the .07 per minute that my long distance provider offers. Germany doesn't offer the free incoming calls, but to the US the cost is $1.50 per min., and text messages are .80 per message. Check the link that Ixchaiang left to check it out for yourself.

By the way, I ordered the phone online on Sunday night, and received in on Tuesday, via FedEx for the basic shipping charge of $10.