Hi...I've been trying to get honest information from my phone company (MCI), and I've been given different rates for calling the U.S. from Paris. What is the best/cheapest rate for calling home? Thanks for your help.

The best rate is to get a phone card in Paris.

Now slightly more expensive, but you will know the rate and you can use it in the US, is to look up Net2Phone in the US. Costs 15 cents/minute to call from France to the US and unlike the cards you might purchase in a specific country, which indeed are cheaper, net2phone can be used in all of Western Europe and in the US also (although it seems that hardly anybody in the US still makes long distance calls because of mobile phones and free long distance plans).

Just go to any tabac or news kiosk and get a phone card. Easy as pie to find and use.

Thanks for your help. I'll check with the Tabac.

mimi2000:

Make sure you ask for a phone card with a scratch-and-reveal pin code printed on the back. With these cards you simply dial an access number (also printed on the card), enter your pin code and make your call. Those truly are the cheapest.

For between €5-€10, you'll get anywhere from 100-300 minutes of talk time depending on A) what brand of card you buy; and B) whether you use the card with a payphone (you get less minutes this way) or with a private phone--like the phone in your hotel room (you'll get more minutes this way).

There are other phone cards that you will occasionally be offered in Tabacs that are designed to actually be inserted into pay phones. These cards have some sort of micro-chip or something like that on the front of them. These cards are a total rip-off. Do not buy one of these. We paid €8 for one of these cards and got €15 minutes of talk time! They're terrible!

Good luck and have a great time in Paris!

Jennie

Unless you speak French fluently, the cards that rely on the hidden pin numbers may be useless. After dialing the initial phone number, you are requested to enter other numbers based on the type of call you are making, etc. The instructions are in French. My first use of this type of card required four attempts. I kept getting stuck on "quatre-vingt-onze," which is 91. Also, if used from a hotel phone, there may be a hefty surcharge (check with the staff). The France Telecom cards, which are inserted into the phone, must be used in a public pay phone, but are very convenient, since nearly all such phones in France are capable of processing them.

Jenny, I bought one of the cards with a chip this spring for about 7.5 eruos.

After 2 calls within France and 3 calls to the States (one was about 10 minutes and was about 20), about a quarter of the time was still remaining on the card.

Keith

Wow Keith, you got a much better deal than we did. We stuck that card in, got some sort of message saying we had so many "credits" and then proceeded to watch those credits tick away. Our phone call to the states was cut off, mid-sentence after almost exactly 15 minutes.

On the other hand, unlike smueller, we did not have any trouble using the scratch-off cards at all. In my experience they were, as St.Circ said, "Easy as Pie" to use. In fact, out of curiosity, I got out one of the ones we brought back from our trip and the instructions on the back are in French and English . . .

Jennie

Does anyone know if using the cards described above are much cheaper than using one of the pre-paid cards you can buy in the US such as those from AT+T? Thanks in advance

JonJon:

I found that buying a card overseas is cheaper than buying one in advance here in the states.

I bought a 120 minute AT&T pre-paid card here in the states before we left for our trip for around $8 at Wal-Mart. The way it works is that AT&T uses you a ratio of charged minutes to actual minutes for international calls. For example, from London, I believe they charged me 4 minutes for every 1 minute I actually talked. Therefore, my 120 minute card was, in reality, only good for 30 minutes of ACTUAL talktime.

In France it was also 4 minutes charged for every 1 minute talked; and in Italy it was, I think, 6 minutes charged for every 1 minute talked (meaning I only had 20 minutes of talk time). The Sprint and MCI cards both operate similarly.

Compare this to the card I bought in London for 5 pounds which actually bought me around 200 minutes of talk time and the cards I bought in France and Italy for 5 Euros that actually bought me around 100-150 minutes of talk time.

Hope this helps
Jennie

For cost, I don't think you can beat a telephone card for use at the Paris public payphones. You may have to wait in line to use a phone, but it is dirt cheap and you can buy a card at any metro station. Just put the card in the phone, remember your international codes for the US and dial your number. Remember also that if you use the telephone in your hotel room, you will be charged by the hotel. So you will end up at the pay phone anyway.

I have an AT&T prepaid card that I use anytime I call long distance. But I didn't think I could use that card in London and Paris because I didn't think calling the 1-800 # would work over there. Am I wrong?

girlfriendred:

Look on the back of the card and check and see if it says something along the lines of " . . . for international rates call 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx for more information." or something like that.

If it does say something like that, you have to call that number and they'll tell you how to use the card overseas.

Basically, they give you an access number for whatever country you'll be calling from (it'll be a toll free number in that country, so you can use the card from a pay phone w/o inserting coins) and you dial that number instead of the regular 800 number you'd use here in the states. From that point on, it's pretty self-explanatory.

Good luck,
Jennie

thanks Jennie. My card does not say anything about overseas calls, but it does a customer service # that I will call to check this out. FYI - I get my AT&T card at Sams (instead of Walmart). A 600 minutes is only 20.00 ! I use it all the time - I don't like surprises on my home phone bill.

We just got back from London, and my aunt had bought one of those AT&T pre-paid cards (available everywhere) with 150 minutes before leaving.

Sadly, when we got there, we discovered that there was no toll-free number for use calling FROM Europe on the back of the card. The card was only good for use calling FROM the U.S.

Luckily, there were pre-paid cards available in almost every small grocery store for 5 pounds, which gave 200-300 minutes (depending on which card).

Very easy and convenient.

Contrast this with a previous trip overseas whereby I used my own MCI phone card from regular pay phones at airports, street corners, etc. in Europe. I ended up with a $500 bill when I came back home.

Not pleasant at all!!!!!

Sorry, but forgot to add this tidbit:

We visited Paris for the day, and bought a phone card at the Louvre museum post office (underground, thru the Pyramid), and the gentlemen was very nice to show up how to use the card (in English).

It was 7.5 euros, although I'm not sure how many minutes we had, as the recorded message was all in French. Basically he told us (as he pointed out the directions on the back:

Dial 3003...wait til the lady stops talking (in French)...enter the PIN code.....wait til the lady stops talking....dial the number.

Voila! Worked every time!

NurseSkip:

On those AT&T pre-paid cards, you have to call the (800) number on the back before you leave the states.

You tell them where you'll be traveling and they will give you a toll-free access number that will work in that country.

Jennie

I have found the scratch off code cards to be the cheapest and they always offered instructions in English as well as in French. Be careful buying a card that inserts because some cannot be used for long distance.

the cheapest thing to do is to not call. Go to an internet cafe on day 1, send an e-mail saying you arrived safely. Calls invite words about work, problems at home etc.....be on vacation and let it go...