What's the cheapest and best way to phone home from Ireland?

A cheap way to phone the U.S. is to buy a phone card-available in many small shops all over the country-and you dial 001 and your American number from a phone box that accepts cards-most of them do now.It is cheaper to phone in the evening or weekend..You can get whoever replies to phone you back if you want to be really economical.

I agree. <BR> I bought a phone card (EIRcom to be specific) while in Ireland in November. We paid 10 pounds and were able to call home just about every day (9 day trip). We even had some time left over. Very economical - much better than putting it on your credit card <BR> (Did that in England - boy was I suprised at the cost of those phone calls <BR> <BR>Almost every small shop carries them- especially news stands & places to buy soda,etc. <BR> <BR>good luck.

Could somebody kindly provide an updated answer to the original question?

A cheap way to phone the U.S. is to buy a phone card-available in many small shops all over the country-and you dial 001 and your American number from a phone box that accepts cards-most of them do now.It is cheaper to phone in the evening or weekend..You can get whoever replies to phone you back if you want to be really economical.

I agree with Mr. O'Flaherty but I add that you buy an Eircom Phone Card with an I/C on the card: available in 7 or 14 Euro denominations. Eircom phones are all over the place!

Don't buy the kind of card that requires you to call an 800 number

In the eurozone, the price of a call to the United States with a phone card is about 1 cent a minute. From my home phone in Paris, it is just a local call along with 37 other countries.

If you call the US from Ireland using a cell phone and an international sim, the cheapest rate I've found is
$0.40/minute, using the United Mobile + sim.

Well, IF you have a computer and IF you have high speed internet access and IF you have a Skype acct, that wins on the cost side, like 2 cents per minute. On the quality side almost any real phone is better than skype.

dave

RE: &gt;&gt;buy a a phone card-available in many small shops all over the country-and you dial 001 and your American number from a phone box that accepts cards-most of them do now&gt;&gt;.

Really dumb question (bear with me...). I buy card, find the appropriate phone box, insert card, dial 001, dial what American number? (the number I am calling, right?): WHEN do I need to enter the calling card number? (I told you it was a dumb question....!)

I believe people here are talking about two different kinds of calling cards. The one they are talking about has a computer chip on it. You must find a public phone that accepts these cards. You insert the card into the phone and then dial who ever you want.

The other type of card has a toll free number to call. Then you enter your PIN and dial the number. With this type you do not have to find a special phone that accepts the other cards. You may have to put money (50 cent) into a pay phone to start but will get it back at the end of your call. You can use any phone with the PIN type card.

Many internet cafes have call centers where you can make international phone calls cheap.

Got it! Much, much clear information.

I have never used them, but I notice that may internet cafes offer low-price telephone services (possibly using voip, but I don't know). They generally draw attention to rates for calling places like Poland or Nigeria because of the number of long-term residents we have from those countries, but it might be worth checking what the offer for calling the US.

We plan a trip to Croatia in the near future. Have used phone cards in Ireland and on several trips to Italy and Spain. Are similar cards available in Croatia? I've done a lot of searching on varioous Croatia info sites, but haven't found the answer to my query. Ciao!mhm

I think phone cards are available everywhere now and certainly in Croatia. Little by little, land line use is becoming as good as free. Today I was amused to note that my France Telecom bill arrived with a notice that Bulgaria is henceforth a local call. This does not particularly rock my world, but I'm sure that a few thousand families in France were thrilled to receive the same notice.

My attempts to use the usual &quot;scratch off to get a pin number&quot; card have not been great.
I bought one in Italy and although it has a free number you can call that is in &quot;English&quot; that number is NEVER available -- later the store that sold me the card even admitted it. Finally when I couldn't figure out what the Italian being spouted at me was and I couldn't get through, I went into the store and the guy actually came out to the pay phone and helped me. Although the card didn't say so, you have to press the star key after you dial your pin and also after you dial the number you're calling. That helped, and I did have a couple of successful calls with it.

Meanwhile, one thing I learned at two different &quot;internet center&quot; phone booth places was that I couldn't do business type calls as the phones work like dial phones. When I got a &quot;press one for English, etc.&quot; at the place I'm calling in the US, the US phone will not recognize any signal from that phone, so the recording just keeps going and the call is dead ended. On the other hand I called a couple of individuals back in the states and calls from these places were dirt cheap.