OneSimCard - Greece
 

Has anyone had any experience purchasing a OneSimCard in the states and using it in Europe?

http://www.onesimcard.com/

Much obliged...bdj

I always get the Cosmote SIM when I go to Greece because you can easily find Germanos Stores wherever you go if you need more minutes. There's one at the Athens Airport so you can buy it when you first arrive and they'll activate it for you.

You can also buy additional minutes at supermarkets, etc. Look for the Cosmote livery this year on Hellenic Seaways highspeeds and flying cats:
http://photos.marinetraffic.com/ais/...0011&size=full

Can you get Cosmote SIM on arrival in Crete ?
Is this a replacement for Vodaphone?

If you're arriving in Heraklion by air check in the Arrivals Hall. Sometimes the magazine stands sell SIMs.

Cosmote and Vodafone SIMs are not the same. One is not a replacement for the other. You can choose one or the other.

Oh ok, I'd assumed that the Vodaphone painted ferries had been changed to Cosmote, so the company must have changed name.

You may also be confusing the photo of the Highspeed4 that Heimdall provided with a photo you've seen of the FlyingCat4, which is painted in the Orange Vodafone motif.

FlyingCat 4 is also painted in Cosmote green this year: http://www.ferries.gr/hfd/.

Cosmote and Vodafone are two competing mobile phone services, and both have near 100% coverage throughout Greece. One won't be replacing the other, so you can still buy a Vodafone SIM if you wish. There may be some areas in the mountains where one will have a better signal than the other. :-)

I have been using OneSimCard for over 5 years. It just worked well in over 15 countries I traveled including Greece. If you do not want to spend your time dealing with buying a local SIM and then figuring out how to top it up and then lose the balance on the SIM and the SIM itself when you leave the country, then OneSimCard is the way to go.

Trammo,
Looks like you are coming from Australia? If you are flying to Crete from Athens, a Cosmote store was in the departure side of the airport and none (that I could find) in the non-traveler area. It was in the restricted area after checking the boarding pass but before the carry-on check. It took about 20 minutes without waiting in line to complete the purchase. What took long was that in addition to various data entries, the salesperson had to communicate with the carrier on my phone to complete the setup.

TravelRoger...greatly appreciate your feedback.

A couple of questions if you will: What will be the process the moment we land to make and receive calls?

I have a dual sim, unlocked, quad band gsm phone. Moving from the US sim to the OneSim is no issue but I am wondering what specifically I need to do in the states upon receipt and what needs to be done upon landing.

Much obliged...bdj

Trammo = Tommmo right?
We're flying into Crete from Venice direct, so no Athens (purposely) but we'll get out of the airport and check in Heraklion town.

You can use OneSimCard SIM in USA too. However, if you got another SIM for USA, then your dual SIM phone is perfect for this. There is nothing else that needs to be done - You just land in the country and the service is running - you can start making calls instantly. It will probably cost you ittle bit more per minute than with a local SIM, but there is no hassle of dealing with the local SIM issue. I think OneSimCard even offers Australian or Greek additional numbers, so your SIM will have Estonia mobile number as a main number and then you can add other countries numbers for a small fee. They also offer pretty good deal for Data in Greece and most other EU countries.

The best thing to do is to check with their web site - Rates and Coverage page http://www.onesimcard.com/cell-phone-rates/. OneSimCard on-line support is pretty good. Any questions - just ask them.

TravelerRoger...

Just to follow up. They offer live chat on the website and spent 20 minutes answering every possible question I had to my satisfaction. It will be 39¢ a minute for all outgoing calls with all incoming calls free. And 40¢ per outgoing text while all incoming are free.

I'm not certain if this is competitive with rates for a card purchased locally. The OneSimCard cost $29.95 with free shipping. Activate at home and start making/taking calls the moment I land.

I'll follow up my experience upon return. I suspect I've paid some cost for handling this in advance. But hoping to go to London in the fall and Germany next spring, so perhaps I've solved the phone issue for subsequent trips.

Thanks again for your input.

BDJ,

I looked up the rate from Greece listed on their web site. It is USD $0.29 per minute. SMS is $0.15 cents when sent from OneSimCard menu.

We all provide an advice based on our priorities. OneSimCard works for me because I often go from one country to another and with them I have one phone number and no need to get ready for each country I travel to. I am guessing that a Greek local SIM will cost somewhere around 15 c/min to call Australia land-line and 25 c/min to call to a Mobile. I am not sure about this. Add to this the cost of the lost balance on the SIM that you will part with when you leave Greece. Then add the cost of your time dealing with this instead of having good vacation time or doing business. This time is very valuable when you have better things to do there. At the end it will come to the same or better cost, but with less hassle and as you properly noted, you will be able to use the service in other countries next year or whenever.

Good luck.