Here in the states we can buy a cheap phone with prepaid minutes. There will be 5 of us coming and we want to buy 3 of these just for use during our two week visit Is there any such thing? Our current phones will cost us 1.69 per minute.

I haven't seen disposible phones in britain, but ordinary ones can be purchased for as little as £20 withh pre-paid minutes on them. You can sell them to phone shops when you leave.

Which country are you visiting? In France, you can buy a cheap cell phone for about 30-60 euros, either from Orange or Bouygues (and probably carrying a 5-10 euro credit). My regular cell phone is a pay-as-you go Orange phone.

Phones are not designed to be disposable, and constitute a pollution problem if you bin them.

If you need a cell-phone for only a short period, please recycle it when you have finished with it. You can always pass it on to somebody else -- perhaps at the airport, as a gift to somebody coming off a plane.

Padraig's absolutely right.

Except that airports are generally designed to stop arriving international passengers from mixing with those departing - and at most of those that aren't, arriving passsengers will all have come from a country like Sweden where everyone's got a few dozen mobiles of their own anyway.

I was about to add:

So how do you pass used mobile phones on to someone who can use them, rather than throwing them away so they just add to landfill?

In Britain, put them in a stout envelope, address it to:
Oxfam Bring Bring Scheme
Freepost LON16281
London
WC1N 3BR
and pop it (no stamp needed) into any Royal Mail postbox.

This particular Oxfam scheme doesn't work from other countries, and other posters may have charities they think can do a better job with phones no-one needs any more.

So any other suggestions?

There are, seemingly, countless options in the US; one that immediately comes to mind is the "battered wife" charity in a local town or city. They accept "disposable" phones to give to such women who might otherwise not have a means to call the police.

We purchased a phone while in Germany which works for the year. We bought minutes (pre-paid style). The minutes last for the 365day year. To renew, we need to buy more minutes. We got the phone at a verizon-like shop in a mall with a grocery store. We can buy more minutes online now that we are setup with an account or we can walk into another similar shop and purchase them there.

Just a reminder that if you're planning to donate your phone to a US based person or organisation - don't. It won't work.

I think you mean a Euro-cell phone won't work in US, and vice versa; not that you won't be able to donate it.

European tri band mobile phone will most assuredly work in the USA...with T Mobile USA and of course many people are in the market for an inexpensive tri band phone to take to Europe.

European dual band gsm phones will not work and the cheapest phones you can get are probably dual bands.

Great idea to donate! Thank you.
Where can these be purchased? Going to London and then Paris.

Every high street has a load of shops selling phones. Failing that - look for an Argos shop.