isabel

I've been trying to figure out about cell phone use in Italy and have just about given up (at least for now). Seems that no matter where you turn you get not just different information, but conflicting information. So now I'm looking into buying a prepaid phone card. I used an MCI one a couple years ago in Italy and France and it worked OK. I've also bought cards once I got to France, England and Ireland and sometimes they are cheaper and sometimes they are more expensive. I figure since I don't speak Italian it would be smarter to get one from a company with the promts, info in English. Thus my research into MCI vs ATT etc.

Believe it or not, I'm getting conflicting information on this subject too. I've called MCI three times and gotten three different rate quotes! I've been quoted 14cents, 18 cents and 69 cents. The web site says 22cents. This is from Italy to US. Same thing happens when I ask for rates from Czech Rep. (And I won't even go into the story about the woman on the third call who wanted to know which country in the Czech Republic and when I told her the Czech Republic WAS a country said that's not what she heard!) The AT&T site has rates that seem much higher, and I can't even find the exact info I want.

So now here's the question. If you have bought a prepaid calling card to use in Italy where did you get it and what were the rates? Thanks

allanc

I think that one of the problems is that LD rates change frequently, as do the cards (should be always decreasing). Our experience is that the MCI and ATT cards were double in price but that was only at a given point in time last year-it could be different. We purchased our cards at an Internet cafe in Rome. It was 1/3 the price of an ATT card but who knows now. I would be tempted to buy one whilst you are there.

elaine

Hi
Buy a card locally--they are sold in tobacco shops and other locations.
You will find that your dollar goes much much farther than with any card issued by a US carrier such as MCI or ATT.

mikemo

I agree with elaine. That's been our experience recently in most of the world.
M

LarryJ

Years ago I used to buy the pre-paid telephone cards sold in tobacco shops in Europe. In recent years I have used my AT&T pre-paid card that I originally bought at Sam's Club years ago and I recharge it by phone for about $35 for 1000 minutes. That works out to a cost of 0.038 per minute in the USA and to call home from Italy, France etc. about .15 per minute.

Larry J

tledford

If you are going to be in Prague, the internet cafes offer calling to the US on a cell phone for 5KC per minute which is about 20 cents. I found this to be the easiest and most convenient because I was always out and about when it was a good time to call home. Maybe they have the same in Italy.

I had an MCI calling card on my last trip to Italy and never could use it because they were in the process of changing their international code.

LisaLH

I agree that local cards are usually the best (if you ask them specifically for the least expensive one for calls to the US). Otherwise, I've also had good experience with the Sam's prepaid calling card and would recommend that if you don't want a local one.

scottvan

AAA has a relevant product: for $100, you get an equivalent amount in the currency of your choice (not a great exchange rate, though, as I recall) and a phone card with about 30 minutes of free calling that can be used to call home. The phone card was from Globalphone corporation, and could probably be purchased on your own. It allows one to print out (via the web) a wallet-sized card with instructions and local English-language access numbers for the countries you're visiting.

I'm not sure if I'd get the package again due to the exchange rate, but I don't regret having done it. I still have the card and have used it since in the US.

If you just need to make a couple quick calls home during your trip, the per-minute rates aren't necessarily a big deal.

gelato_lover

Definitely buy a local phone card when you arrive in Italy. I used to buy the "tiger" card (scheda tigre) to call the US from Italy in 2000-01. At the time is was 10,000 lire and lasted 2-3 hours. Not a bad deal! The people in the tabacchi shops were usually very helpful in giving the best card for the money.

Cobos

I don't know about Italy or Czech republic , but this weekend at the University of Oslo I was trying to guide a foreign student to a phone booth, but since the one building with a phone booth was closed for the day I realised the nearest booth was about 5 miles away donw in the city center. The moral of this story is that due to cell phone usage becoming commonplace in Europe they are slowly removing all the card and pay phones. You might actually have to spend quite a bit of time trying to find one that works. Thus I would try to get some help here for a cell phone, especially xyc1234 (I think that is his nick) has good solid advice which AFAIK is 100% correct.

Sindre

isabel

Thanks for all your replies. I finially figured out why I was getting different prices every time I called MCI. The number of minutes/rates you get for a certain price (say a $20 card) depends on what store you buy it from. An MCI card from Costco is different from an MCI card from Target which is different from an MCI card from Sam's Club. Also, apparently the rates change almost weekly so it's hard to keep up.

Anyway, I got myself an MCI card from Costco so worst case scenario is it will cost me 20 cents a minute from Italy and 37 cents a minute from the Czech Rep to call the US. Once I get there I will probably try to buy a local calling card. But they can be confusing too. Last year in England I got two different cards with vastly different rates which I was not aware of when buying the cards, and since there was no language barrier there I'm figuring it will be even harder in Italy to figure them out.

I still have one more idea about getting a cell phone for a reasonable price (I'm just not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on this) and if it works I'll post here what I find out. I must say it's good brain exercise doing all this research though.

francophile03

I agree with Elaine too. I wanted to know the same thing before my trip to Paris earlier this year. The consensus was to buy a local calling card. It worked very very well and cost me only 7 euro for 500 hours. I bought it at a tabac on Blvd. St. Germain and asked for the one with a scratch off code. I was able to use it in the comfort of my hotel room. Sure the minutes evaporated quickly while using the room phone but I was able to get more than several uses from the one card. Mine was produced by a company called Iradium. I see they even have a website selling phone cards for many countries. It's www.iradium.fr if you want to check prices.