Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - renting international cell phones

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renting international cell phones

Has anyone rented an international cell ? Are there companies to avoid? Any success stories? I'm going to Spain.

Kathy, It's cheaper and a lot less hassle, no waiting for delivery, no shipping back, just to buy a pre-paid phone in Europe once you get there. They will work anywhere in Europe, and the best part is, you don't get charged for incoming calls. So basically you call who you want and ask them to call you back. You loose about a minute of your pre-paid time that way. You could add more time, so just keep the phone, and when you go back to Europe, you'll be all set.

I also agree with the poster above, get the phone once you get there. We rented from American Express Platinum card in the U.S. and waited for the shipping, had to ship it back, etc. It was actually a U.K. phone number, so everyone that called us within Italy still had to dial internationally, what a hassle. Next time we'll just wait to get to our destination before we rent a phone.

Hope this might help you. Best wishes, Rex Excerpted from recent posts on another thread : cell phone rental Author: nycgal ([email protected]) Date: 10/10/2002, 11:28 am Message: does anyone have an idea of what it would cost to rent a cell phone from the US to take with me to spain for a week. ALso, how would you rate the service? THANKS --------------------------------------- Author: Rex ([email protected]) Date: 10/10/2002, 11:58 am Message: A one-week rental seems to be a worse deal than a multi-week. You might find one for about $50. A number of "regulars" here (including myself) have found it a much better deal simply to buy a phone with a pre-paid plan once you get to Europe. Incoming calls are typically free, and you can get a decent phone for 80 ? which includes the first 25 ? of outgoing calls. You buy more time as you need it. And then, "sell it forward" to someone here, planning a trip. You might even ask in a separate post if someone has just such a phone to "sell forward" to you. Best wishes, Rex --------------------------------------- Author: Heidi ([email protected]) Date: 10/10/2002, 12:37 pm Message: I'm actually leaving for Spain tomorrow and was wondering about the same thing. If I do as Rex recommends, would you be interested in buying my phone (and leftover minutes) when I'm done? I really don't plan on using it much, but need to confirm some travel plans, tours, and other reservations. I imagine there will be plenty of time left on it. I'm just in New Jersey, so it wouldn't take that long to get to you. I will be returning on 10/22/02. Let me know! --------------------------------------- Author: nycgal ([email protected]) Date: 10/10/2002, 02:48 pm Message: Hi Heidi I would be interested in buying your phone. Please let me know how much you think it will cost. Thanks ps-- please email me at [email protected]

As we go to Spain often, for me it has made the most sense to buy a phone with a pre-paid card in Spain. We are now on our second, purchased in September in Madrid. It is a pretty nice Siemens phone with service provided by Vodafone. We purchased it at a branch of the Corte Ingles department stores for approx 125 Euro, including 30 Euro calling time. I believe you do get charged for incoming calls (ie, charged for actual airtime). I had to call the US at least twice a day, plus there were lots of calls within Spain. The rates were high, as they tend to be with pre-paid plans. The 30 Euro lasted about two weeks. There are a million retailers in Spain for cell phones. The nice thing about the Corte Ingles is that they issued arefund on the phone. Make absolutely sure to save the PIN and PUK (SKU) numbers that come with the phone, as well as the phone number itself. With Vodafone, you could add money to the account at a vodafone dealer, at tobacconists, at ATMs, and even at many gas stations. You could do it over the phone and web, too, but you needed a Spanish bank account #. The user interface for the phone was in Spanish, but you could select any of about ten languages (including English) if so desired. The documentation was in Spanish. Hope this helps. For one trip a rental may be more cost-effective, but purchasing is definetely better for longer-term use.

just amending my previous post, el Corte Ingles refunded the IVA (VAT) on the phone, which knocked approx 15% off the 125 Euro price....

Has anyone purchased a WorldPhone in the US, had it unlocked, and then purchased a SIM in Europe to use with it? I've heard you can do this and am curious about cost and how well it works. I would be using it in France, UK and Germany.

It depends on the country and the provider. In the UK, the easiest provider is Virgin Mobile. A Virgin service pack with a SIM card costs £10 with £5 worth of service credit. No registration of the phone is necessary. Insert the SIM card and you're done. Call costs for costs to landlines in the UK is 15p a minute timed to the second for the first 5 minutes of use each day. After that, calls are 5p a minute for the rest of the day. Calls from the UK to North America are 20p a minute (less than a BT landline but more than a prepaid long distance card). The calls to North America count towards the determination of the first 5 minutes daily. All calls are timed by the second and rounded to the nearest penny. Incoming calls are free. Quite a simple deal to understand. Roaming, that is use of the card outside the UK, is not permitted under this plan for non residents of the UK. In France, the simplest plan is called the Mobilcarte offered by Orange-France. The service pack costs 30 Euro which includes 10 Euro worth of credit. Unlike Virgin, this initial credit is only valid for one month. Virgin's credit is valid indefinitely although they require use of the phone once each 180 days. I believe a call into your voice mail will meet this requirement and allow you to keep your number active. With the plan in France, you will retain the number for 6 months that is after 1 month if your credit runs out, you can still receive calls to your number for a further 5 months. The calling rates in France on this prepaid plan are not as favourable as on the English plan noted above. The basic French plan costs 50 euro cents a minute for calls within France. Calls to the US can be made by calling Orange and asking for that service and waiting several days. Calls to the US and Canada run about 80 euro cents a minute. On the mobilcarte plan, calls are timed to the nearest second after the first 30 seconds of a call. Also, you can request a slightly different plan where you select one six hour period during the day as your prime calling time. During that prime callng time, calls within France are 30 euro cents a minute as they are all weekend. At other times on this plan, calls cost 60 euro cents a minute. In France, you recharge the card by buying a voucher at a tabac. Vouchers are available in denominations of 15 Euro, 20 Euro and 25 Euro. On the 15 Euro voucher, your calling time is valid for two minths and you retain the number for six months thereafter. This time frame is always developed after a recharge. I haven't been to Germany so I don't know the Germnan deals but in answer to your original queston, yes with an unlocked GSM phone, Virgin in England and Mobilcarte in France work and work very well and very easily. With both you get free incoming calls and free access to voicemail; although you have to know some high school French to set up your French voicemail.

Perfect. Exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks.

We just returned from Spain this week and rented a cell phone through onspanishtime.com We highly recommend their service! We were met at the Madrid airport by Jeremy, an American, and the company's owner. Both incoming and outgoing calls to the States were crystal clear and reasonably priced as we used a Sam's Club ATT calling card by first punching in the access # to the States. At the end of our trip we handed the phones off at the Madrid airport to another American entreprenour and Jermey's friend, Rocco, who owns madridinsider.com Rocco's company specializes in housing, tours, etc. I think both of these companies/websites are wonderful resources for travelers. Helen

Such a good thread.

This may seem like a stupid question but I'll try anyway. I am about to purchase a tri-band phone here in the US to use in my European travels as well. How do you recharge the phone overseas? When I stay in cities only, I don't rent a car so I can't use the cigarette lighter as an outlet. Since all plugs are different do you need an electrical adapter for each country you travel to? In case you don't think this is a serious question - it is. I have read most of the threads on purchasing cell phones, and none have mentioned recharging. Thanks.

The Motorola tri-band I purchased in the US came with an adapter that automatically chooses either 120 or 240 depending on which country it is plugged into. It came with a US style plug with an adapter for British mains. I then purchased a very inexpensive plug in London that converts the plug from British to European. If you don't get the automatic adapter above with your phone, most likely the phone will have a 240 mains plug so going to Europe will not be a problem. You can buy devices here that you plug into your socket and then can use the car adapter readilly available for motorola (I assume it's motorola) phones sans problems. Or if the phone comes with a US style adapter, you can scour the internet and buy from British internet merchants very inexpensively a charger adapted to British voltage and plugs. You then buy the adapter that converts a British plug to a European plug. Or in Britain or Europe, you can buy the adapter that allows you to plug in and use the cigarette lighter adapter. I liked that solution the best as the cigarette adapters are very very cheap and much lighter than the more bulky regular adapters. The solutions above are all relatively inexpensive and indeed work and work very well.

I think that re-charging (electrical power) will be very nearly a non-problem. And as for the experience I have reported, purchasing a pre-paid phone in Italy - - a recharger came with it (not a cradle - - just a little cube with a cord that plugged directly in to the phone).

For the people that bought and used a tri-band phones. How did yoy get charged for using the phone overseas? Did you get charged by your local phone company, and if so how expensive was it? Or did you have to sign with a foreign company once you were there? I can't help but think that would be a very expensive proposition either way, but maybe I'm wrong.

Have: I have seen very good Motorola dual bands and tri bands available from internet merchants in the US for well under $100...some of the dual bands run about $70 and the triband around $95. If you go through a company such as Voicestream you will pay much much more. Go to say Yahoo shopping and do a shopping search on GSM dual band (or tri band) phones and you'll see lots of possibilities. The phones are unlocked and will work with just about any SIM card.

Two years back, we were going to visit my niece in London. I purchased a cell phone with prepaid service. This gave me my own phone number in the UK. All incoming calls are free. Outgoing calls were a very reasonable rate and I purchased recharge cards from small shops. In London on that trip, my wife and I could get out and around on our schedule. When our 20-something niece was ready to meet us, she could call us on the cell phone and we could arrange a meeting. No waiting at the hotel for a call. Since that time I have used the same phone in France and Greece. Purchasing a pre-paid plan was very easy in Greece, there was a little more bureaucracy with France Telecom. Prepaid service only makes sense if you will be in a single country for a minimum of one week. Each country has it's own prepaid plan that is not really useable in other countries. In November I will be purchasing a T-Mobile Klax card in Austria. It appears that I can use it for the 2 days I'll also be in Germany with some restrictions. There is also a Swiss Telecom prepaid plan that can be used in many countries, but calls are expensive. There are several good places to buy phones. Make sure any GSM phone is unlocked if it will be used in multiple countries. I bought my phone with UK Orange prepaid service from http://www.telestial.com/ They have good information about prepaid service. It is cheaper to buy prepaid service in the country then from Telestial. The advantage of using Telestial is that you are ready to use your phone as soon as you arrive, they provide directions in English and you may have your phone number in advance. I find it very helpful to use babelfish to translate how to information from the prepaid companies website before I go. All the Greek prepaid plans had web sites in English, but I have not found this true for any other country. A somewhat dated listing of prepaid GSM plans is http://home.swipnet.se/OsbyMikro/presime.htm