I have seen suggestions from some of you for getting this Mobal GSM World phone but has anyone ever used it. Seems pretty cheap but then I realize you pay for the usage. we are heading for Europe in May and we need a phone. Neither of our cell phones can be used in Europe without adding something to them.

we purchased a phone in Italy a couple of years ago, and use it all over Europe.
The cards are very reasonable, and you simply buy additional time when you require it.
I couldn't believe how how cheap it was to call from Europe to Canada.
Love it.
Only drawback, is that if you want a worldwide phone, e.g. for SE Asia as well, you will need to buy a tri-band, and that is much more costly than the 40E we paid for our phone.

Shar - we bought one and used it in 9/06 when we went to Europe on our cruise. It was great. Easy to use. We're taking it with us in April to France.

Hi S,

The Mobal phone is good for emergency use, as the per minute charges are quite high.

>Neither of our cell phones can be used in Europe without adding something to them.

What has to be added?

Shar, The Mobal phone we bought prior to our trip to Turkey worked everywhere we went and looking forward to using it on our trip to Portugal this fall. I like it for having the same number for any country we go to and paying only for minutes we use. Downside is per minute rates are high so if you plan on using a phone a lot, which we don't, consider getting an unlocked gsm phone and purchasing your visiting country's sim card. Gobs of threads on this subject.

You can almost always do better than Mobal for calls within Europe by buying your phone there, but if you need to know your number beforehand or are only planning to use the phone for emergencies, then it's a decent option.

I always recommend that people buy a phone in Europe if they need the phone to make local (i.e., in-Europe) calls during a trip of at least 10 days. If you are just using the phone for emergencies, then a Mobal phone is ok.

thanks for the reply's I think I will purchase it. I was told that my cell phone would not work as is that I had to either buy a new phone or have a changed in it so theis $49.00 phone sounds good to me.

Shar--Mobal is a good deal for emergency purposes and if you do not use it much. Just remember that Mobal will have your credit card number, so you need to keep track of the phone.

I bought the Mobal phone and now have a number but am still now sure how it works. I don't see anywhere where I have to subscribe to a service? How does that work? Does it pickup a signal in Italy and then how am I charged?

Shar,

We bought two of these phones when they were on sale for $29.95 a couple of years ago. We have used them every time we go to Europe. Mostly, we use them to keep in touch when we split up to do different things, or give one to a couple that are traveling with us so that we can let the others know of changes in plan. They work great.

When you bought the phone, they asked for your credit card number. When you arrive in Europe, just turn the phone on, and it should boot up and find a local network that will connect you to Mobal, who are based in the U.K. When you make calls, they are charged to your credit card, and you will receive the bill in due course.

Just remember that, since all of your calls are routed through Mobal in the U.K., they will be charged at a high roaming rate. We usually use them in France, and that means if I call DW a block away, I get charged for a foreign call.

Still worth it IMO. Even with a frantic, and long, couple of calls to our bank in the States because of an ATM mix up, the bill for our three week trip last year wasn't much over $50.

Enjoy our trip.

Hi Shar,

Nuke is correct.

One point:

You will get several text messages as soon as you log on.

These are adverts.

Erase them.

thank you thank you thank you. This is one thing I don't have to worry about. All of a sudden things are falling apart or at least appear to be for my trip in May.

Just for anyone else (since it sounds like Shar won't be using one ) I bought one of these for Girl Scout trip a few years ago. I absolutely HAD to have the number BEFORE I got to Europe to give to the parents. The phone worked great and I have used it on two subsequent trips. That said, I use it only to call hotels in rare occcurances. I give the number to folks who might have to call me in an emergency, but I don't use it to call anyone so it's hard for me to see that buying a local phone would be cheaper. (My last trip, the total charges were $10!)