Anna

I've done a search on the boards, but only came up more confused. I want to buy a prepaid phone card here, either from Walmart or Costco, when I call the US from France, Italy and England.<BR><BR>But, can you only use the prepaid phone cards from your hotel room? Are you unable to use them from a telphone booth?<BR><BR>Also, some posters said that some hotels would block your use of a prepaid phone card - how do I find out about this in advance?

Mike

Anna, I'm not familiar with using phone cards bought in the U.S. while overseas; my guess is you may experience problems trying to use it. While in Italy for six weeks last fall, we bought phone cards in the tabaccherias; I don't remember the exact price, but the price divided by the number of minutes on the card meant we could call the U.S. for about 10 cents a minute. The only time we couldn't use it in our hotels was when we stayed somewhere that didn't have touch-tone phones in the room. And I did use it a few times from phone booths in Rome and elsewhere with no problem.

et

You can use them from phone booths but that may invoke an additional surcharge. And yes, some hotels do block out certain access numbers in an attempt to force you to use their service.<BR><BR>Also, bear in mind that the minutes specified on the phonecards are what you'll get for domestic use only; when calling back to the US you'll only get a fraction of the specified minutes.

Bob Brown

Those MCI and ATT phone cards you buy at Walmart for what seems like a low price per minute does not strike me as being a good deal for Europe. You get about a third of the minutes. <BR>In Austria, France, Germany, and Switzerland, I buy the standard card from tobacco shops, and I can use the card in any pay phone installations, which are easily found. In Paris in particular the phone booths have closing doors and are they are commonly located along the streets.<BR>In Germany, the public phones are usually arranged in pairs. One of the phones takes coins, the other one takes phone cards.<BR><BR>

ggrant

Hello, I think it is much easier and also very inexpensive to buy a phone card in each country. I always buy a phone card from a small grocer/fruit market in England, tabac in France and in Italy bought at a small souvenir kiosk. If you buy the ones with the computer chip they are the easiest to use, just insert & dial, but the ones with the scratchoff code gives more minutes. I am always able to call home every day or two easily using phone cards purchased when I get there. Most of the phone cards I buy are less than $10usd. I do always use the phone cards at telephone booths so if you want to use hotel phone I don't know if this would work for you.

Kathy

Anna-<BR>Don't buy your prepaid phone card from Walmart or Costco. I did, but regretted it while I was in Italy and France. <BR><BR>First of all, in Italy, if you have a prepaid phone card (bought in the States), the access number is not a toll-free number. I couldn't use either prepaid phone card (Sprint or MCI) at any pay phone. I ended up buying a prepaid phone card in Italy for 5 Euros (and had something like 150 minutes for international calls). It was a much better deal. If you go for this approach, make sure that you get an Italian phone card with a magnetic stripe, as opposed to a PIN number. Those PIN number Italian phone cards can only be used on certain pay phones.<BR><BR>In France, I was able to use the Costco prepaid phone cards. HOWEVER, it's an annoyingly complicated process in which you actually need to speak to an operator before connecting to your party. <BR><BR>In short, buy the phone cards at any "tobacco" shop in Italy and France. The 5 Euro cards offer plenty of time and are easier to use than the Costco prepaid phone cards.

Heather

Hi<BR>I bought the one from Costco. It worked great. Never had a problem, used it right away when we got to the airport in London. The hotel in London charged a 2 pound charge for each called places using it though. When I made a local call there without the phone card it was 50 pence. In Paris I was not charged at all for using the card. I guess every place is different. We made several calls to home and still have plenty of time left on it <BR>

Frank

Anna<BR>Used a Costco card in Italy last month. I had no problem using it from the hotel room and was never charged for it. It is a bit of nuisance going through the operator, giving the pin and phone #, then being connected to the US line where you get to punch them in all over again, but it seemed very cheap. My daughter made seven or eight calls of 5 to 10 minutes apiece and we had only used up half of it. To use it from a pay phone you need the 5 euro phone card, and I think they ding you another 25 or 50 cents. Overall, a good deal but it sounds like the local cards are still more convenient. However the downside there is if you go to three different countries you may wind up with unused minutes on each card.