banares

I am to meet a friend who lives in Voorburg, Netherlands. I will be taking a train to Den Haag where she'll pick me up. She gave me her son's phone number as contact; I don't know where he lives and I don't have time to write her before I leave for the Netherlands. She gave me 06 - followed by 8 numbers (06-xxxxxxxx). All the numbers I see for Netherlands have 7 numbers. I know that when I call from the US, I dial 011 31 areacode and local number. I can't figure out which of the 8 numbers is the area code and which is the local number.
When I call from the US, do I dial 011 31 06 xxxxxxxx ?
When I call from Amsterdam, do I call just the numbers she gave me ?
Thank you.

hetismij2

A 06 number is a mobile phone number. They don't have an area code.
All Dutch phone numbers are 10 cijfers, either 06 followed by 8 cijfers, or (say)010 foll0wed by 7.

From teh US you dial 011 31 6 xxxxxxxx.
If you are calling with an American phone in the Netherlands you can either call the same number or just 06 xxxxxxxx. With a Dutch phone just the latter.

The_lonely_traveler

No, when using a US phone in the Netherlands, you should *not* dial 011 31 something because 0113 is used as valid areacode for a couple of Dutch towns in Zeeland (Goes, Yerseke etc). The telephone system would just throw away the extraneous digits at the end and think you dialed someone in Goes or Yerseke.

Instead, dial +31 6 xxxx from your mobile phone and it should work everywhere, from the US as well as from the Netherlands (or Australia if you happened to be there ).

spaarne

Whether from the USA or from within NL, when you dial a cell phone in Holland you pay, dearly. Make it brief and/or ask the other party to call you back.

When dialing from the USA to Europe one of the 10-10 numbers can save you a lot. There is usually a connection fee of about 50 cents with a per minute rate of less than 5 cents. Do an internet search for 10-10 to find the best deal in your area. No subscription in required and the cost is billed with your regular phone bill.

spaarne

Sorry, my comments about 10-10 are out of date. I haven't used the service in a few years, since I started using Skype, and the costs have gone up at the one I used, http://1010987.com/. 10-10-987 now has an 83¢ connection fee, a calling fee of 9¢/minute, and a mobil surcharge of 12¢/minute for the NL. http://www.skype.com/en/ is free and includes live video. What a deal.

banares

Thank you all for your input. I was able to call this cell phone from the US inexpensively using a tel3 phone card that I bought online from tel3.com. My call lasted several minutes and surprisingly cost me only a few cents. I preceded the number given to me with 011 31.

I found out from a friend that I can use the same phone card to call from the Netherlands to the US.

But in the Netherlands, I think I'll buy a phone card there and use public phones even though I hear public phones are not common any more.

The_lonely_traveler

Public phones are hard to find these days, that's right. Amsterdam has a couple here and there, but you'ld need a phone-card to use them.

As for getting a prepaid card for your mobile phone, that is pretty easy. You can get those even at Albert Heijn, pay €9.95 for a card that includes €5 calling credit. There may even be cheaper options out there, you'ld just have to do the googling for that yourself