Disposable Cell Phone - France

Was just in Paris - I signed up for Sprints International Plan for $ 4.99 per month and voice was $ .99 / minute and text was $ .50 / text/ recipient and $ .05 / received. This seemed to work in France but not in Zermatt ? May want to check with your carrier to see if they offer a international plan .

Gerard, thanks. Verizon advised me that my phone will not work in Europe, that's why I'm looking for a "disposable" pay as you go to use just for my trip.

Donna,

so far, i haven't seen any "disposable" cell phone. Ive seen some "inexpensive" ones in the UK. If i remember correctly some of them were in the 10 USD isn range.

Just so you know, if you buy one you can bring it back and use it for the next time, loan/give it to someone else traveling or sell it. You can also use it in the USA too.

I would look for one that you may want to use at home and that way minimize the e garbage going into the landfill.

happy trails.

You may be able to get your verizon phone "unlocked" then just buy a french sim card- or look on craigslist or ebay for a cheap unlocked phone and buy a french sim card at the airport.

Donna, I'm going to France in May. I have an Iphone5 with a VZ plan. It is unlocked.

My information is $4.99 for the activation fee, and pay as I go at .99 cents/minute calls to the U.S. within Europe. Texts sent are .50 cents, received texts are .05 cents.

Last year before I went on a muti-country travel to Europe, at the VZ store I paid exactly as I wrote above and off I went without a hitch. I also had additional data paid for at $25.00, prorated to number of days used there. It was a waste of money due to the free Wifi at the hotels and cafes. I am not buying it this year.

I call home each night. I used it a couple of times for navigation and to look up a restaurant, and
for some photos when I left my camera in my room. Everything else was offline. I used the Hotel's computer to check email and used free WiFi when I wanted.

What kind of phone do you have?

Hi Diane, I have a I-phone 4. I asked Verizon if I could use it in Europe and they said no. I didn't ask about an international plan. I've heard stories about people who incurred hundreds of dollars in roaming fees and I'm sort of afraid to take my phone. I'm going to France with a friend and I thought we could pick up a pre-paid phone (maybe it's not correct to call it "disposable") at the airport or in Paris and just use it to call home.

I've heard about Orange and Vodapone and was wondering if there was a particular brand that people had success with.

Last year I bought phone cards but was traveling in several countries and had to buy a different one for each country (although they said they would work in the other countries, they didn't). Also had trouble using them in some hotels and couldn't find many pay phones.

you can't buy a burner phone like in the US -- any use of a cell phone requires passport and registration etc etc. But at any Orange (and presumably other services as well) you can buy a cheap phone for about 30 Euro with maybe 5 Euro or so on the chip -- then add whatever amount you want. Note that if you buy an Orange phone in France, you cannot load it at Orange in Spain -- found that out the hard way and because they are locked you can't buy a new sim card in Spain either. You also cannot load it on line without a French credit card; if we had loaded it in France before moving onto Spain last spring, I believe we could have used it with hefty roaming charges. We only use them rarely, mostly to contact each other when we are touring separately or for the occasional reservation.

Better is to get your US phone unlocked and then get a sim card in France. We did that with old pay by the minute cheap Tmobile phones and used them for several years in Europe. My husband now has an unlocked Iphone and we plan to buy a sim card next time we are in France -- haven't tried it yet though. I still have my old cheap unlocked T-Mobile which I will use again. (the other one finally lost battery power and you can't replace their batteries)

I would see if you can manage to get an unlocked GSM phone (Tmobile, ATT, some of the newer "Cricket") and purchase a SIM card once you hit the ground. I've done it both ways in the UK - buy a cheap disposable phone and SIM (10 quid) and I brought along a nicer GSM phone that I had unlocked here the next trip. Check your local craigslist for folks doing "flashing" and you should be able to get an older smartphone from either carrier that the flashing (clearing and updating the phones firmware) will unlock the phone and allow you to use any carriers SIM card.

One thing to note, the SIM cards come in a couple of different sizes - the original one, and then mini ones (Iphones, etc). I'd look for one that uses the full size, since you can get a spacer to use a mini one in a full size, but not the reverse so far as I'm aware. I'd also see if you can get a phone that uses a standard USB connector to charge with, instead of a proprietary connector. That way if you loose or break the charging cord you'll have an eaiser time tracking down a replacement.

$.02

Glenn

Verizon also offers a Global Travel plan whereby they send you a phone that will work wherever you are traveling. The phone is free but they do charge $19.99 to ship it to you. The cost per minute is either $1.29 or 99 cents depending on which plan you want (for 99 cents you pay a $5 charge). Data is $25 for 100MB I believe and texts are 50 cents to send & 5 cents to receive. We will be in London & Paris in late May and that is what I was planning on doing since I have an iPhone4 which will not work internationally. Not sure what phone they send you. Good luck & enjoy your vacation!

Thanks everyone for your comments. I'll go to the Verizon store and see what they offer. After what I'd read about crazy roaming charges, I was just afraid to take my phone. Figured that there wouldn't be any surprises with a pre-paid one.

I've been also looking at eurobuzz.com for the same, as I use a track phone at home and that will not work in Europe.

If they will TRULY unlock the damn phone for you, you can get a sim card in France for France and only spend about 10 cents a minute for calls anywhere, including the U.S. The phone stores are very reluctant to do this for you. My husband spent hours online and got very detailed instructions on how to UNLOCK our iPhone, and it worked! This is really greedy on the part of U.S. Cellphone providers, because they want to make you pay their exhorbitant roaming rates. We successfully had a sim card inserted in Paris, I carefully kept my U.S. simcard and reinserted it when we returned home.

In the past, I went to the first phonestore I saw in Europe, i.e., "vodaphone," "wind" or "orange" or whatever, bought their most inexpensive phone, and they inserted a sim card for that country, and I topped it off at any tobacco shop as I ran out of minutes. For some reason, Spain works on its own system. I have used this inexpensive phone many times in Europe, and have loaned it to friends and family for their use also. The Sim cards are only good for a year, even if they have remaining minutes. So we just bought another sim card and put about 20eu on it for every trip. I never paid more than 60eu for the phone, and it was worth it to be able to call home inexpensively.

You DO need to have your passport with you when you purchase a cellphone in Europe. This is because cellphones can be used by terrorists for various ugly purposes.

None of this is as complicated as it sounds. You can go either route, either getting your own phone unlocked, or buying an inexpensive phone when you get there. I do not remember seeing a vodaphone or other phone store at CDG. Ask the front desk at your hotel for the nearest phone store. Doesn't matter whether it's Vodaphone, Orange or whatever. They all have inexpensive phones. I've done it in France, Italy and Spain -- either to buy a cheap phone or to have a sim card inserted in my own iPhone.

www.eurobuzz.com
Buy here and bring with you. That is what I am going to do in September. Anyone recommend this phone. Reviews seem good.

You will have a few options when you get there. If you buy your phone at the airport you won't get the cheapest options on phones but if you wanted to wait until you were in the city center you could find a good option at a main shopping street or square (could be as low as 30 Euros). Once you have your phone you can pick the sim-card plan that seems to work the best for you. I usually end up getting Lebara once I am there and you can find more information on their site. They have worked for me but you may find another company that better fits your plans when you are there.

Eurobuzz at 79 cents per minute seems expensive. Lebara is less than 21 cents (at 15 Euro-cents), and if you bring your own unlocked phone and go to a good "boutique de téléphonie mobile" that is not beholden to any one company (not a "Boutique Orange" for example), you might do even better.

I was surprised to learn my Sprint HTC One phone will work in Europe just as Gerard described it up top. I am going to be in Paris for a month in October and plan on going to Switzerland and Belgium. What Gerard may not have known is that there is a separate access charge for each country that you set up before you leave the States. As he stated, the charges are, IMO, extremely reasonable (I text more than I talk). Sprint is a CDMA carrier which is not the international standard so I am not exactly sure how they do it.

Its the htc One phone thats the answer, has the the CDMA, worldband Gsm, and LTE capacities onboard.

the whole locked phone thing is abusive. we did manage to get our old T mobile cheap pay by the minute phones unlocked but it took weeks and was a big production -- but they did work until they died and the batteries were not replaceable (another charming planned obsolete ploy). we now refuse to buy a phone that is not unlocked; my husband just got an I phone through T mobile that is unlocked and we hope it will work with a new sim chip in Europe.

the EU may be one big 'country' now but if you buy a locked phone in one country, you won't be able to charge it in another even with the same company. we discovered this as I noted with 'Orange' which does not have reciprocity between France and Spain 'Orange' companies.

Hi, Donna

Are you planning to take a laptop with you? If you just want to call home, have you thought of using Skype then you don't need a phone?

chun

janettravels44: "the whole locked phone thing is abusive. we did manage to get our old T mobile cheap pay by the minute phones unlocked but it took weeks and was a big production -- but they did work until they died and the batteries were not replaceable (another charming planned obsolete ploy). we now refuse to buy a phone that is not unlocked; my husband just got an I phone through T mobile that is unlocked and we hope it will work with a new sim chip in Europe."

T-Mobile now has the "Simple Choice" plan, and if you switch to it, you get cheap international calling: 20 cents a minute back to the US while roaming internationally and 20 cents a minute within the country. (Not all European countries are covered but many are; check their list.) I used this last month with my Android phone. They also offer FREE WiFi calling if your phone has that feature - mine did and I used it a number of times to make free calls back to the US. I think the iPhone does not have the WiFi calling feature, though. The plan also gives you free texting overseas and free 2G data unlimited (slow but I lived with it for two weeks - included Hotspot to use my laptop with it too).

I got my Android unlocked (by T-Mobile - it was easy, just one phone call, but it was a T-Mobile branded phone) thinking I would buy a European SIM in Germany as I have on my last few trips to Europe, but because the T-Mobile plan is so cheap, I didn't need to. I spent all of $1.80 in calling while in Europe, far less than the cost of a SIM.

"iPhone does not have the WiFi calling feature." Skype over WiFi. Simple. Easy. Free/Cheap.

Bruce, I've used Skype for years, but WiFi calling with your actual phone number is a lot easier. I make the call the same way I would using my contacts, etc. The person receiving my calls sees it's from me as well. And Skype to another phone isn't free unless I'm calling someone else's Skype (another smart phone or a computer).