mari

Any suggustions about renting an international cell phone while vacationing in Europe?

topper

I would like to know this too? Can anyone help?

Andy

Hi - go to AutoEurope website--they rent cell phones---I had one in May when we rented a car in England and it was good in England and in Italy and France--the phone cost us nothing but that was because we rented a car,,,the phone rates were too high ,but not cheap either-in England free incoming and .99 min for outgoing. In the rest of Europe 1.99 min for all outgoing. Phone was used for emergencies only and out entire bill for 2 weeks was $33.00

ronni

my english friend said that it might be more cost effective to purchase a phone and do a pay as you go. I checked into rentals and there's shipping fees, etc. and the cost was $70 for 2 weeks. To purchase a phone there can run about $40. <BR>

Linda R.

We rented a tri-band phone from Cell Hire. It was $99/month. We too, had it for emergencies. Sounded clear as a bell, like whomever you were talking to was right next door. The rates were reasonable and less than a dollar from England. We used it from Morocco through Europe to Ireland. We also used it a couple of days in the states as we were travelling to the cruise ship to get to Europe. It was shipped to us from NY (I think) and included a case, wall and car charger, extra battery and a shipping envelope to send it back in when we returned. We found the convenience well worth the money. <BR> <BR>Linda R.

edie

hi all, <BR>we rented a car thru Avis i believe in february in ireland. we got a free rental of a worldcell phone. the rates to call within ireland and to call the USA from ireland were comparable to my ATT/AmEx calling card, so we used it. of course, the phone itself was free to us, so i have no idea how costly that would be. ask your car rental if there is a deal like this. <BR> <BR>they fedex-ed the phone to us, with a car charger, a regular charger, converters, and little cards with our name and cell # on them. included a fedex envelope to return it. <BR> the bill for calls was about $100 american when we got home, on our credit card. we called the USA three times, for about a half hour each, plus lots of calls within ireland. <BR>i thought it was money VERY well spent. <BR>

Margo Classe

There are several companies in operation but I recommend Cellhire, USA because of their low rates and excellent reputation. Cellhire, USA: (888) 476-7368 or <BR>http://www.CellHire.com/ <BR>

Beverly

Looked into this and found Nextel had the best rates. It was about $50.00 to rent the phone for the week and $.99 a minute for outgoing and incoming calls. <BR>Call 800 information for the number of Nextel.

ozzy

We used a company called
Travelcell
www.travelcell.com

price &amp; service was great.

samejia

Ditto on travelcell.com. We used it during our trip in June. I liked having the phone delivered to us before we left and the rates were reasonable. I had a special calling plan put on my parents phone before we left which provided for cheap calls from the US to the UK. I called home from the cell phone when we were back in our hotel at night and my parents would call us back. I wanted the convenience of a phone since my parents were watching the baby for me. Susan

lincasanova

you can buy a cell phone pack in europe, including a pay as you go sims card, for anywhere from 50-100 euros.
also probably get a lot of free minutes as part of plan. these are sold at large department stores and specialized phone shops.

just need to let clerk know if phone will be used in other countries so they can explain to you what you need to do in that case.

you can then re-sell phone when you get back or save/lend it for future trip.

recharge phone cards ( in units of 5 euros)at all petrol stations, shops, grocery stores.. etc.
very simple.
all incoming calls free.. emergency 112 also free.

about 25 cents /minute to talk to other cell phones in same country.

cheapest way to talk to states no matter what is with a 200/240 minute phone card bought at kiosks or phone centers around europe, for about 5 euros.

LucetteHarris

Hi threre,

I have used CELLHIRE and was totally scamed. I will never use them again.

I want to alert everyone from being victim of their evasive business practices.

Lucette

bookchick

I used Piccell on my last trip to Italy a few weeks ago, and was very happy with their rates and the service.

BC

gracejoan

I have used the &quot;free&quot; rental with Auto Europe on 2 trips...jsut returned from one trip to southern France. They work out just great. No problems with them and with their system.

I have now rented one from Cellular Abroad for my trip for a month to southern Spain and Portugal. For the multiple country usage it is a different system...all on their website..sounds good..phone will be good in USA also, if I wanted to use it. It will arrrive to me 2 days befoore I leave, as did the Auto Europe one.

LuizGrant

Well, you can add my name to the list of victim of CELLHIRE. I rented a phone from their office in Paris and CELLHIRE completely abused us. We were simple tourists and they simply took advantage of me with all their hidden charges.

I compalained and they never responsed, I contested the charge thru MBNA and CELLHIRE had the last word.

Say away from CELLHIRE in France.

xyz123

When are people going to learn, to actually read the threads...

95% of the time, renting a mobile phone (the proper European term) is a waste of money.

The only time it might pay is if you are going to be in a country for 2 or 3 days but even then there are alternatives.

Once you are going to plop down in any one country for a week or more, the best way to handle this is to buy either a dual band (be careful has to be 900/1800) or tri band (try to make sure it is 900/1800/1900 not 850/1800/1900) phone. They are either available in Europe or on e-bay and you don't need one with all the whistles either and in each country to buy prepaid plans (SIM cards). Receiving calls is always free! You will probably pay less for the phone than the rental company rip offs and certainly your call charges will be less.

As an alternative, if you are on one of the American GSM carriers (T Mobile, Cingular, AT&amp;T WS) they have international roaming but it is somewhat more expensive and unfortunately you pay with them to receive calls. But you will retain your US mobile number. Click on my name above and read the threads I have contributed imensely correct and useful information for free to (and unlike some of the stuff you may read, my information is correct).

To the poster going to both Spain and Portugal, if you're going to be in each country for at least a week, it would pay to buy SIM packs in each but you have to be careful of the issue of locked GSM phones if you buy the phone on arrival say in Spain. Again read the threads or if you have a question post it and I will answer it.

Continually I just don't understand reading all the complaints about mobile rental agencies why people just don't wise up about these rip offs and continue to do business with them.

And I simply don't buy the convenience garbage. Buying prepaid SIM's is an everyday occurance in Europe...Europeans are eons ahead of America when it comes to mobile phones and technology associated with mobile phones. Nothing to it...wander into any mobile phone shop (and believe me in the big cities they are on every corner) and within 10 minutes you will be hooked up.

And as far as notifying your friends of your mobile number, you can use text messages to their mobile phones at home or e mail or whatever.

Somebody did follow my advice and posted about his trip to Scotland and saw how wonderful it is.

It sure as hell beats disputing cc charges with a phone rental company.

xyz123

Let me just add one other thing..

Ryan air, the Irish low cost carrier, is in the process of introducing an international SIM card that has many desirable features.

Their new mobile phone company is called buy tel and I have received an intoductory offer from them.

The basics sound pretty good...i.e. &euro;0,49/minute to make a mobile phone call just about anywhere in the world and &euro;0,39/minute to receive anywhere in the world.

The current offer includes a phone for &euro;49 and you pay &euro;50 for the SIM card and your initial service.

Currently the offer, unfortunately, still has some problems including a ridiculously high price for shipping the phone (close to &euro;50) which of course makes the cost of the phone around &euro;100 (which when you get down to it isn't outrageous for a tri band (900/1800/1900) phone, but since I have a bunch of unlocked GSM phones, I don't need the phone and am waiting for an offer for the SIM card only. Apparently you will retain your US mobile number i.e. you will set your US mobile to call forward to their switch on a local US number which will handle all the rest but this is still a little vague.

I will keep you guys posted on this...this might be the beginning of bringing down the artificially high international roaming rates and may be a god send for frequent travellers and perhaps even infrequent travellers as the rates are not terrible greater than US pre paid carriers are charging anyway.

xyz123

Just one other thought to clinch the deal so to speak...

Read through all the threads on mobile (cell) phones on this and other boards.

You won't find a single complaint about any prepaid GSM carrier in Europe; not one.

Yet the board is full of complaints about phone rental compznies too numerous to count.

If that doesn't convince you, I guess nothing will.

John_the_wanderer

You have to be careful about who you rent a cell phone from. I rented from Piccell Wireless and had a hellish experience when I had to contest improper charges. Stay away from Piccell!

JEAN33437

Has anyone rented from WCR (world cell rental)?