Hello, I will be traveling to Germany in Aug. and will need to check messages & call family. Does anyone know the best way to do this? Phone cards, renting a phone once there, or other ideas? Thanks so much for any advice!

Hi anna,

Enter "mobile and phone" in the "search this forum" box for lots of suggestions ranging from emergency only to many calls per day.

We didn't use this, but Auto Europe gave us a phonecard with 10 minutes free. The card has great rates to USA, example London to USA $.08/min.

Additionally, it has a voicemail feature where family and friends can leave you messages for free. They give you a US toll free number for your friends/family to use.

The card says the web address for the card is: www.autoeurope.ekit.com

Again, I haven't used this so my comments can't be construed as a recommendation. You'll need to check it out yourself. Maybe others have used this and will comment. Hope this helps.

I tell you something not to do... never use the access number posted on pay phone boths (every single pay phone will have one). I just did this in Italy (I can't believe I was so stupid)... 10 phone calls over the course of 3 weeks cost me a total of about 500$s (billed to my credit card). I know better - and I am kicking myself. But it was so much easier than using the card I brought from home that required you to enter lots of numbers...

Do you have a Costco near you? They have a wonderful international phone card with rates from Europe to USA running around 8-10 cents/minute. Before you leave the US, though, make sure you make note of the access numbers for each country you will be visiting (Germany). You dial that number first, then it gives instructions how to make the rest of the call. I've used this card for years from various countries, and it works great.

Of course, sometimes I've run into a situation where the room phone was not a touch tone, so I'd have to go to a phone downstairs in the lobby or wherever to make the call.

Good luck!

To access a 0-800 access number from a public phone costs an extra 10ct/min, so you will need a german phonecard anyway. Also: ceck if you can make 0-800 calls for free from your hotel.
Try this: http://www.unicall.de/
0180-1955 555, 4.8ct/min 9am-6pm
0180-333 1 222, 9ct/min rest of the time
no additional fees from any public phone
All you need is a standard T-com phonecard.

We use this phone service on our home phone:

http://www.avcinc.com

They are so nice and so cheap! We have a calling card through them. That way it just gets billed to our home phone and it is really cheap rates and then I don't have to worry about running out of minutes. We just used it in France and it worked great. Just make sure whatever you use you take the local number to call in Germany.

The best thing and cheapest way for me has been to simply buy a phone card there. I often pay about 10 euro and I've figured the rate comes out to about 10 cents/minute to call the USA. As someone suggested, do know the USA access code. I really like the fact that my name and phone account are not linked to the card.

You guys are awesome! Thanks for all the great ideas!

Germany has several operators. Several operators-networks can be accessed call by call with help of a four digit number.But you need access to a priavte phone (i.e. hotel room). The rates differ between day & night time and the day of your phone-call.

You can find an overview of the different rate via

www.sueddeutsche.de/app/wirtschaft/telefontarife

It will be close to impossible to access a 010 call-by-call number from a hotel room. Any decent hotel has blocked those numbers. So toms advice doesn`t really help ;-)

Will Sam's Club also have an international calling card? Who do you call to get the access numbers?