Perhaps one of you jet setters can give me some assistance in finding a phone card to purchase in the U.S. and use for calling back here from France, The Netherlands, and Italy.<BR><BR>Thank you, Sidley

Buy the phone cards in tabbaco shops in each country. They are very cheap, easy to use and give you plenty of calling time, especially in Italy.

I have bought phone cards in 4 European nations and used them to good advantage.<BR>I don't think you will get your best rate if you try to buy an all purpose card. I general, what Arnie says is what I found to be the case.<BR>The telephone systems are national systems in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France. Tobbaco shops invariably sell phone cards in various denominations of units. I find that they work so well that I get one, or more, and when I want to make a call, I just walk into a phone booth, insert the card, dial the number, and watch the units count down toward zero.<BR>Particularly in the France, Germany, and Austria, I never had a problem finding a phone booth on the streets. They are usually enclosed and quiet so you can hear. I have not tried it in Italy, but it works quite well in France.<BR>

The phone card that you can buy at Costco has international access numbers that you can use in many foreign countries, including the 3 mentioned. <BR>The cost per minute is generally cheap, you need only one card, and don't have to worry about unused time.

To Sidley:<BR><BR>The normal "etiquette" on this firum is to put your "thank you's" and follow-up questions into (THIS,) the "thread" which contains your original question - - not into a separate posting.<BR><BR>I have not had any experience using the Costco card cited by Dav (bigduv), but others have described it here, and I think you CAN use it from residential telephones (you call a toll-free number which sets up the call and deducts "time" from the allocation made to your card).<BR><BR>If heavy telephone use is important to you, you should be aware that there are some hotels that have contracted with a specific overseas provider and they will have blocked your use of the Costco card - - as well as AT&T, Sprint etc - - very frustrating, so you might want to ask hotels in advance if this is important to you. When hotels do this, the carrier they use is almost always NOT economical - - with per-call setup charges which are often $10 USD or more.<BR><BR>I had this experience with Hotel Giada in Florence. I am not sure what might be the best way to diplomatically ask about this in advance. I think that hotels that say explicitly "Direct-Dial" telephones in every room generally do NOT have these terrible contracted carriers, but I am not sure it is a fool-proof slogan.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

To Rex,<BR> I appreciate your attempt to polish up my rough edges (novice that I am)!<BR>Thank you for your follow-up phone card advice.<BR>Sidley

The Costco card is the way to go -get the one good for at least 200 minutes(US).The hotels that block these cards almost always have a phone by the desk for your use.If not just ask for the nearest phone outside and they will know

Another plus for the Costco card is that you can use it up when you get home.You will be stuck with the European ones or save them as souvenirs!

We have travelled with others who "wanted to use" Costco card. What turned out that they had difficulty punching almost 40 digits of numbers correctly and ended up borrowing our local phone card to make calls to US all the time. With local card, all we need to remember was international access code, which is almost always "00" and US country code "1", then US area code and rest. We had no misdial problems other people had with us calling cards. Besides, you need a local calling card anyway to make local calls.

Greg,shame on you for giving up on punching in the correct digits!We Americans want a bargain but don't want to punch in a few digits correctly!You don't need a local card to make a local call,how about a local coin.The phone in the hotel lobby is free!And yes you can use the Costco card from a private residence.Next you'll be telling me it's cheaper to rent a cell phone.........no it's not!

Just returned from Paris and I bought a phone card from Sam's Club for $18 for 500 minutes, AT & T. To call from Paris to Texas you have 166 minutes of call time, but the remaining minutes I had when returning home was 133 domestic minutes. I had no problem calling from our hotel to the US and there weren't any charges added from the hotel. I recommend it. Have a wonderful time!

Hi Sidley,<BR><BR>I was in mainland China as well as Hong Kong and Bangkok in May. We used the Costco card and it worked well. We had a bit of trouble figuring out how to use it and had to go through an operator for some help. One place we called from we had charges on our room for calling. Never could figure it out. I do think the Costco card is good and I have one left to use in Paris next June. I think we got a package of them at Costco and each one had so many minutes on it. Good luck to you.