Any ideas of how to rent an inexpensive phone (with reasonable per minute charges) for a one week stay in London?

A Phone card is soooo cheap and easy to use.

Call in any phone shop and buy a SIM card on a Pay as you go basis. It'll work in your phone. Your phone will work anyway!

Not true Lifeman, it has to be a phone which is also suitable for Europe, so a tri or quad band phone, or it won't work. And if it is Sim-locked it also won't work with a paygo Sim.

Gabi895 what do you want to use the phone for? Calling within the UK or for contact with home - this will affect which advice is best for you.

I need to make calls to the U.S. from the U.K. Are there public phones in London? (There are hardly any on the streets in New York City.)

Best way to go is to BUY a telephone at ~$49 USD that works in Europe and pay the modest per minute charge directly to your designated card.

Look at www.mobal.com

I have used this service for many years and have always been pleased with the quality of service and the fact that the only charges are the per minutes that I use for several different trips throughout Europe and South America.

There are still payphones in the street and at other public places like stations, but are disappearing because of popularity of mobile (cell) phones.
You can go into just about any mobile phone shop and buy a cheap pay-as-you-go phone from under £10, provided you top up at least £10-£20. You can use it to phone within UK and internationally, and people can phone you for which they pay higher call rates (you don't pay anything). Most such phones are locked, so you can only use the SIM card of the company that supplied you the phone. But if you go to an independent store - not tied to a particular provider like Orange, Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile etc, they can supply an unlocked phone if you ask for one specifically.
It will be cheaper than renting, and the phone can be used on future visits or passed to a friend or relative.

If you want to own a phone, this is what to shop for:

GSM technology
900/1800 mHz (more bands is okay; this is the minimum)
Unlocked

Then walk into a Virgin, O2, or T-Mobile shop and get a SIM with some time on it.

The minimum hassle method is to get an unadvertised special from one of the carriers' stores. I got one from Virgin a few years ago for £20 with £5 credit on the SIM.

If all you need the phone for is calling to North America and you are staying in a home or hotel with landline, the cheapest option would be aprepaid long-distance calling card -- cost approx $10 and talk 1-2 hours. No need to hunt for pay phones, where you'd probably pay a lot more per minute.

If you have need of a phone for other sues too, I also recommend buying a quad-band GSM phone and a local SIM. Search "GSM" on this forum for lots of info.

An unlocked quad-band phone is the way to go, if you are even a moderate traveler.

However, each country has its own options. Some are great, like Jamaica, where you can buy a sim card with virtually unlimited calling within Jamaica and more importantly back to the US for less than $20.

Unfortunately, you must do the research before you go to get the best option when you get there.

If you already have an old gsm phone from your provider...

1. It can be unlocked. T Mobile USA is very easy on that. If you have 1800 mhz as one of its frequencies (tri band or quad band) then

2. Go to the T Mobile UK web site..they will send a free T Mobile UK sim card to the address of your hotel. Upon arrival insert the sim card, use the swipe card at any chemist, phone store, grocery chain store and top it up for as little as £5.

3. Go to the web site www.yourcallworld.com. It gives you a number to call where with the T Mobile sim card you can call the USA, Canada, Australia (landlines), France (landlines) for 3p/minute. So for a minimum £5 top up, you will have 167 minutes of calls to outside the UK. You will have a UK number where you can be reached. You will be able for whatever the T Mobile UK tariff is call within the UK.

Very little is cheaper than that.

If you don't already have a spare gsm phone, they are readilly available on ebay or upon arrival in the UK. Just make sure it has 1800 mhz as one of its frequencies and you can use T Mobile UK.

To get the free T Mobile UK sim card (2 of them as a matter of fact) see:

http://tinyurl.com/bk42fg

It may also be important to you to have the UK phone number before leaving. You can purchase on ebay if you're in the USA a T Mobile UK sim card by looking at

http://tinyurl.com/cwcw57

Price $5.99 including shipping.

None of these cards come with any time on them but upon arrival in the UK, as noted, go into any chemist, grocery chain store, mobile phone store, convenience store. They give you a swipe card which looks like a credit card. Tell the clerk you want to top up for £5, pay the £5 and voila you're in business.

You can read all about yourcallworld at www.yourcallworld.com. They give you a UK number which you dial, as soon as you're connected dial the foreign number (start it with 00 so to call a US number you would dial 001 212 555 1212) and most importantly press the # key not the send key and you are connected for 3p/minute...only down side is the timeing starts when the triggering call is completed but they time by the second so if you're not connected, you're out the 3p...a small price to pay.

Connection is excellent and the system most assuredly works as advertised at the price advertised.

By far, the best way to go (although a company called Talk Mobile had a promotion on during January where calls to the USA, dialed directly, cost 2p/minute...I think the regular price is 4p/minute) so, at least in the UK, there is this myth that the way to go is with phone cards...actually the best way to go is with one of these deals if calling to the USA and many other countries is your prime purpose and of course with a calling card, you can't receive calls.

<i>Author: altajoe
Date: 01/28/2009, 11:01 am

An unlocked quad-band phone is the way to go, if you are even a moderate traveler.</i>

<b>NO, IT'S NOT!</b>

Unless your US carrier uses GSM (AT&amp;T or T-Mobile), paying for a phone with the North American bands is a waste of money. All you need to talk in Europe is TWO bands: 900 and 1800 mHz.

If you want to buy or rent a cell phone - fine. They are convenient. But you pay for that convenience for sure. Most posters want the latest technology - but that may not be your best bet.

If what you really want to do is just make calls back home and a few calls w/i the UK (like to make restaurant reservations, etc . . . . just a simple phone card will be <b>MUCH</b> cheaper.

You can pick them up at most any corner shop, news agent, book store, tube station etc etc. Will cost just a few ¢ a minute for either UK or international calling.

I usually buy a &pound;5 phone card and it gives an hour or two total talk time depending on where I call.

Of course you can't receive calls w/ a phone card - but it will cost a fraction of a cell phone if your mainly want to make out going calls.

Robespierre is correct IF you only travel in Europe. Even though this is the European forum, I my reply assumed that a reader might travel to the Americas.