Cell Phone for Germany
 

Heading to Germany and need a cell phone to keep in touch with my family in the USA.
Any ideas???

There mauy already be threads on this subject in the Europe forum, which is probably where you need to post this. You may be able to buy a cheap one there.

or just not keep in touch, which is what I do on vacations. I am sure you could find a place to email

You can buy a cheap phone in Germany. It's very easy to do. I bought one from Vodofone. The phone was a very basic one... no added features, which was fine with me. You purchase time and can replenish your minutes easily.

Thank you for your replies.

What service do you have at home? We have AT&T, and usually just use that to make the very infrequent calls we make to home. Even at $1.29 a minute, if you only talk for 10 or 20 minutes throughout your trip, it's the easiest way to do it, and not expensive. Of course, if you don't have international roaming (Verizon), or if you plan to make a lot of calls, that won't work.

In the US I use AT&T... I have just placed an order with Call in Europe- they sell a basic phone with SIM cards for Europe- I bought a German SIM card from them and a phone.

have you looked into Skype?

computer to computer calls are free - I've even had video calls to Europe for free

computer to phones come at a low rate (as low as 1.2 cents a minute):

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/supp...es/callphones/

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/prices/

Look into Skype to see if one of their programs fits your needs.

To be on the safe side try purchasing a cellphone that is Tri or Quad band. At least you can be assured that it will work in Germany.

We have Verizon service and rented a blackberry phone (we both don't have Blackberry's) from them for our recent trip to Europe. They put my phone number on the phone and we received and made calls easily. We didn't talk lots but were able to call home every few days and also received calls from customers and family. We also had internet access on the phone and got our e-mail, etc. The roaming charge changed from country to country but it was not terrible. We were happy with this option.

I honestly didn't want to take the risk of using my AT&T phone in Germany because of roaming- I have heard a lot of bad stories.
I went online and I found a European company which provides a cell phone solution for Europe- I found Call in Europe.
I just need to make sure to call them when I am back to the US to disconnect the service then I am done and I don’t have to worry about my AT&T bill.
I am leaving tomorrow so I will let you know about my experience with Call in Europe.

I actually tried Call in Europe when i went to France, back then they didnt have German sim so i dont know how that goes. It was very usefull though when i went to Europe, i came back and just canceled the account with no fuss. Best of luck on your trip.

Came back from Germany and I have just called call in Europe to disconnect my service. I have not used the phone too much, but it worked so great!

eutravel: Thanks for reporting back on your experience.

It's invaluable for those of us planning trips to get to know how others have fared and so able to plan better.

Thanks again!

I am going to be in France next month and I am looking for a cell phone with a French local # 06-......... Any ideasss? I dont like pre-paid SIM card. Thank you.

Just want to say that I was very pleased with Call in Europe. I bought a German SIM card from them and it worked great. Just waiting for my bill to come via e-mail.