tominrm

My daughter will be leaving for Vienna in two weeks for study-abroad program. She will be there from Feb. 1 to the end of June, 2005. In order to save our phone bills, we plan to call her cell phone (she will get one as soon as she gets there) using pre-paid phone card. It looks like there are a lot of prepaid phone cards available through the internet that costs about 22 cents to 25 cents a minute from the U.S. Are these cards any good? Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Also, there are a few discussions about cell phone services in Europe on this forum, but if anyone has any recommendations, it would also be appreciated -- like which company, service package, etc.
tom

rv224

Try PinCity.com. Their rates are low - nhot sure about Europe but to asia their rates are as low as 4 cents a minute!

Clea

I used to use a phone card until I discovered that the "10-10-987" service has international calls for 3 cents a min. I have a few friends in Germany and this allows me to talk to them every weekend! You don't need a phone card, just a home phone.

Clea

janis

I agree w/ Clea. Assuming you have a home phone you don't need any sort of phone card. 10-10-987 is one of the most popular access numbers, but thare are others that might be even better depending on your location/local phone company. (I can use 987 but I have a friend who has to use a different number) This will be cheaper than a Costco/Sam's Club, etc. issued card.

Try 10-10-987 - if it works fine, if not you can search for another number.

harborgirl

My daughter is on semester abroad in Barcelona. I checked with my local phone company and found for $4.00 a month I can call for 15 cents a min. any time of day. This is convenient for me and she says she is charged nothing for received calls on her cell phone. She is renting a phone (15 cents a day, cheaper than buying one) from Piccell.

janis

harborgirl: $4 per month plus 15¢ a minute is a lot. One of the 10-10 access numbers would only run 3¢ or 4¢ / min and there's no monthly fee.

tominrm

Thank you very much for your replies. All those pre-paid cards charge 3 to 4 cents a minute if I make a call to a land-line phone, but when I call a cell phone (receiving party in Europe does not have to pay air time), the rate jumps 22 to 25 cents a minute. I will check with 10-10- number, but I have a hunch they might charge 25 cents or so. Unless they charge a lot more, 10-10.. is the way to go.
Thanks again for your help. Now I need to find out the best way of renting/buying a cell phone in Vienna.

tominrm

I wonder if PicCell is available in Vienna. 15 cents a day to rent a phone seems like a very good deal.

tominrm

I've just check with PicCell and found that in Austria, incoming calls are charged at .325 Euro a minute and .99 Euro per minute for making local calls. Calling the U.s costs 1.75 Euro a minute plus .69 Euro for connection fee. That's a lot. It is a lot cheaper to use a cell phone in Spain for some reason. i.e. no charge for incoming calls.