Has anyone had experience with renting a cell phone from the vending machines at Charles de Gaulle Airport? Is the service easy to use and economical?

I have four words of advice:

<b>Never rent a cellphone.</b>

The reason is simple - cost. You'll never really know what you'll pay until you get the bill and then it's too late.


There are just too many great alternatives. Some people like Call in Europe:

http://www.callineurope.com/

If you do not have an available GSM phone, I recommend purchasing one for 29€ ($41) from Virgin (stores all over France). There is no setup fee and it comes with a SIM and 12 free call-out minutes. Additional minutes are available in increments of 5€ with some plans starting at .27€/minute. There is no charge for inbound calls.

www.virginmobile.fr/

Have you contacted your cell phone provider to ask about rates and coverage in Europe? Unless your phone is very old it probably works there.

Have to agree - don't rent at the airport, there will be lots of hidden fees! If you just need it for emergencies, first check your home provider about their EU service and your phone. T-Mobile is 99 cents/minute, AT&T a bit more. In addition to the Virgin phone mentioned, you can also go to an Orange store, FNAC, France Telecom shop, etc. and get an Orange prepaid phone. I bought one in Jan 2009 (Orange store) for 19 euros with 10-15 minutes of call out time (inbound calls are free). You could send a text msg back home when you want to talk and they could then call you, which costs you nothing on an EU phone. Text messages are cheap. BUT, do note that calling from the US to an EU cell phone is a bit expensive (25 cents or more per min).

Thanks, I appreciate the responses. For the record, Verizon is my carrier, I have a new Samsung Omnia "smart phone" it does not work in Europe. Verizon does rent cell phones that can be used in Europe, but I have found the service to be hideously expensive. I think that Call in Europe will be what I try for this trip.

Do you go to Europe more than once in a lifetime? Even if only once a year, simply go to ebay and purchase an unlocked aud band gam phone. They start at $20 to $25 depending on the bells and whistles you want. Then all you need do is purchase a sim card for France or you can purchase an international sim card for $9 + $3 shipping on ebay called ei-kit simple. I described it elsewhere here. You will be reachable in France by people calling a US number for 19¢/minute or for free if people want to spring and call an international number (the number is in off shore Britain but so what)......it works and it works well. No minimum usage required to keep the card active except one event every 9 months (and since it costs only 9¢/minute plus a 50¢ set up fee, it's easy to make a call into the phone, answer it and voila another 9 months starts).

This is the 21st century. Nobody needs to rent a gsm phone anymore.

xyz - could you explain the "ei-kit simple". I was unable to find where you described it. I can't find it on ebay. Googling didn't bring up anything either.

I have an united-mobile sim and loved it but seems they are out of business so I need something else. I know I can just buy a local sim if I am only going to one country but I liked the way you could travel to several different countries and not have to get a sim for each one. Would this be a good replacement for the united-mobile.

United Mobile is kaput....

Ebay has a couple of ekit cards (do an ebay search for ekit sim card).....they have one called, I believe US simple. Cost is $9 + $3 shipping and comes with $10 credit....can't go wrong at that price eh.....

You get two numbers on the same sim card.....an off shore British number with a +44 country code and a USA +1 number...call prices are described completely with the card but to make a long story short for your trip to France it will cost you:

1. Nothing to receive a call dialed to the +44 number (your caller pays for a call to a UK mobile)

2. If your caller dials the US +1 number, he or she pays whatever the carrier charges for the call. You pay 19¢/minute to receive the call. (We are talking about call rates to France but it is the same for most of the rest of Western and Central Europe as well as the land of oz, New Zealand, South Africa....all the countries they list as zone 1)

3. Calls from France to the USA are 49¢/minute not too bad. All calls made to the USA (and Canada too) would also include a 35¢ set up fee (one time not per minute)

4. Calls within Europe to landlines are the same price as above with the same 35¢ set up fee. Calls to mobile within Europe are pricey.....84¢/minute along with the set up fee...that is an ouch admitedly.

5. You can check sms message prices. Don't remember them off hand....

With the demise of O9, United Mobile and several other international cards while not as good as they were, it isn't too bad. There are still some Estonian sim cards available (Air Baltic) but calls to Estonian mobiles are quite expensive.

With a bit of a search on ebay, you'll find the card and the description is pretty much there as outlined above. And as I said, for $j2 including shipping with $10 worth of credit, how can you go wrong? And indeed it works.

Hi,
When you are looking for tepephones mobiles in Paris , you can try this :
http://compas-france.eu/Paris/101.html
I hope it's util.
Maurice Perreira