Cell phone rental
 

Has anyone ever rented a cell phone to travel abroad? If so, what company would you recommend.

We used WorldCell in Italy. It was recommended by a travel consultant. It worked very well, and the shipping/returning was easy. I can't remember the exact price, but it wasn't cheap especially since we also got insurance on the phone.

I'm sure there are less expensive ways to go about this, but I was happy with the convenience and how well the phone worked.

If you search the board you'll find all the information you need. The topic comes up quite a lot.

I personally think it is easier/better to buy a cheap mobile while there and top it up with as many minutes as you think you'll need.

Some people here have bought unlocked GSM phones on Ebay. Then, when you get...where were you going?...you simply buy a local SIM card. That way you can re-use phone every time you travel (and at home also). Or...unlock your home phone (assuming GSM). That's what I did for Turkey.

Has anyone tried cellularabroad.com? wondering if that's a good company.
thanks

Michel: Would this work in any country? In other words could I buy one of these unlocked phones on EBay and then buy a SIM card anywhere I want to travel? Or only in Europe?

Would I need to have the phone set up or have any adjustments made and if so, could the person who sells the SIM card do this? Sorry to show my ignorance here. I am clueless about cell phones but with the amount of traveling I do these days it might be handy to have one..

Thank you.

Buy a SIM card from United Mobile and it will work in any country. Very reasonable and extremly good service. I've had to call them several times about different issues and have always gotten good results.

Incoming calls are free (to you) and outgoing about 39 cents per minute.

Let me amend that to say that it will work in any country that your <b>phone </b> will work in.

Thanks, Linda, Just to be clear.. I should look for a used phone that will work with a United Mobile SIM card? How would I determine this??

And how would I know what countries the phone will work in, if I buy it on EBay?? Sorry again to be so dense..

We just returned from Croatia and Bosnia. Before we left, and after much research here, we bought an unlocked phone on e-bay for less than $30. We then bought an international SIM card from United Mobile (since we were traveling to more than 1 country) - $75 included the SIM card, $13 minutes of call time, and an additional $30 of call time that we purchased. It was so easy! We activated the SIM card before we left so that we could give our number out to family. This turned out to be a great investment, and we can use the phone on future trips.

There is a great thread on here about unlocked phones that you can refer to for the details you need on the type of phone. We bought a Motorola quad-band phone.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35083727

I have an at&amp;t GSM phone and received the code and instructions to unlock it. I got a free sim card from Mobal ($10 shipping and handling)on a promotion while quanities last. I was given a UK phone number that is mine to keep. Charges per miniute in Germany are $1.25/min for incoming and national calls - $1.50/min calls to US and UK - $2.95/min calls to other countries - $.80 outgoing text - incoming text free. I do not plan on using the phone much - just for emergencies and to be able to be contacted in case of emergency back home or confirm a late arrival to our next hotel. If interested drop me an email and I will send you the link for the free sim.

ek, on ebay you just buy a phone that is 1) triband or quadband and 2) unlocked. Those are the two key features.

Don't know if this helps, but was in Paris last week with my Cingular (AT&amp;T) cell phone from home. Before I went I called customer support and got a 1-month international roaming feature added to my account for $5.99, which reduces the charge for calling the U.S. by 30 cents a minute or so. Called my husband from the Pont Saint- Louis bridge and got an immediate connection that was clear as a bell.

If you use your United STates AT&amp;T phone, then activate it in Europe. how much does it cost to make local calls while in Europe? Or, is that covered when you activate the phone for international use?

It's 99 cents per minute, whether you're calling locally or internationally.

<i>Thanks, Linda, Just to be clear.. I should look for a used phone that will work with a United Mobile SIM card? How would I determine this??</i>

Well it doesn't have to be used but you need to make sure it has the proper bandwidth.

The U.S. uses 1900 and 850. Europe uses 900 and 1800 so you need to make sure the phone you buy has at least the 900/1800. Most newer GSM phones have at least 3 bands,just make sure it's the ones you need.

If it accepts a SIM card, it will accept any provider's card as long as it is not locked to one provider. i.e. if you buy a phone at the Verizon store, it will be &quot;locked&quot; to Verizon. You can get usally unlock them but it's a bit of a dance to do it. If you buy it from another outlet it should tell you in the ad that it's &quot;unlocked&quot;.

Hope that helps. Here's some more (probably better) info:
http://goeurope.about.com/cs/staying..._phone_buy.htm

As I understand it, Verizon phones all use CDMA technology, which is incompatible with the GSM technology used in France, etc. So even if Verizon &quot;unlocked&quot; their phone, you still couldn't use it in France or most other places.

AT&amp;T international roaming costs $1.29/minute to both make and recieve calls whether internationally or locally while roaming...if you pay $5.99/month, they magnanimously drop it to $0.99/minute...T Mobile US without the monthly charge is 99¢/minute without any extra charge although you pay to both make and receive calls...local sims let you receive calls within the country of purchase (or throughout all of Europe with some international cards) for free.

Verizon is not gsm so their phones will not work in Europe for the most part...there are a couple of phone they offer, bug crappy sort of things, which use both CDMA and GSM but I've heard conflicting reports on whether they supply sim cards to tie into your local number and their rates are I believe $1.59/minute under their interntional plans but don't hold me to that.