Bank says you "can" call 1-800 from overseas. Confused.

My bank (Wells Fargo) had numbers for each country...that were typically the same number...;-), but I've never been given toll-free numbers, BUT they're on their website! Must be new, at least to the phone operators...they were always collect-call numbers. As to who's paying - from WFs website: "Customers outside of the United States can call Wells Fargo customer service toll-free from most countries." For pretty much all of Europe, it's 00-800-86935577 . Never take anyone's word for it if it sounds weird - I once had a kid at WF assure me over the phone that there were WF ATMs all over Europe 8^0. Mmm, yeah...LOL! Always call aqain and try another agent. NOTE TO A SMARTER PERSON THAN I In the USA, the phone number for WF is the same as above except it's only one '7'; should it be an 8-digit number from Europe, or is this a typo?

You can call the numberr easily. Just dial the country code of the US first (00) before the number. But it won't be toll free from Europe.

You can also use one of AT&Ts international access numbers from anywhere in the world. More info here: http://www.att.com/esupport/traveler.jsp In addition Skype will also accept 800 numbers. FYI, a couple years back I had problems with my ATM card in Europe. I called my bank via the 800 number on the back of the card via Skype, connected with them, and the rep told me that I was not allowed to use the 800 number from overseas and had to call them via a direct number collect .....which I did via AT&T.

Holly, you have encountered a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing. Our experience has been that, depending on the institution involved, if you ask four of their "knowledgeable" representatives the same question you will get at least five different answeres. Assuming you would only be calling back in the event of an emergency, know how to call one of the bank's regular numbers. It will cost you, but it is an emergency, right? You might get a cheap prepaid calling card there and use it to cut down on the expense. We always have a list of four or five different numbers for each bank. That way, hopefully, one of them should work. TC

Are you talking about a credit card? If your card is issued by a huge bank, you shouldn't have to pay for the call. Just dial the access code (00 for most of Europe) and hold on, you'll get an operator who can place the call for you. I don't know about your bank, but my cards all have numbers that are not toll free but start with a traditional area code instead, such as 302. The intent is that the bank will accept a collect call from a customer using an international operator. The bank pays for the call. My bank has a toll free number for calls from US and Canada and a 302 number as described above for calls from everywhere else. Look at the back of your card.

We have had to call a bank a couple of times when traveling overseas. They had numbers given for calling when outside of the U.S. No, the 800 numbers don't work; and yes, the calls are collect calls. There were no problems getting through. Now, as to whether our problem (WF atm card not working in Spain) got solved. That's another story. Short version: no.

I tried to call a credit card using the "call collect to this number" option printed on the back of the card. Absolutely did not work. I ended up calling that number, but I paid for the call. With 1-800 numbers, I think I was able to make them, but they were treated just like a call to any other area code. That is, I paid for the call. But I can believe having a problem with toll-free numbers when outside the toll-free area. Does your bank have a local number? I'd make a note of that one to use if the 1-800 one didn't work. Any number to get in the system would be good even if you had to pay while they tried to transfer you to the correct department.

Yes, I have done this and like Tom said, you can call the 800 number. It won't be toll-free; you will pay just like any other international call. If you have a U.S. cell phone, you dial the "+" sign and then the 1-800 number. You would be charged just like any other international call. Some cards have a toll number printed on the back where you can call collect.

From Eileen ..."NOTE TO A SMARTER PERSON THAN I In the USA, the phone number for WF is the same as above except it's only one '7'; should it be an 8-digit number from Europe, or is this a typo?" Eileen, I'm not claiming to be smarter but I did work in the telecom industry for many years. It is likely that the number you are asking about is what is known as a " Universal International Free Phone" number. If the number you dial is "00 800" from Europe (without the "1" country code), then it is one of these.

Thank you everyone. This is a confusing topic and I received some "yes it works" and "it absolutely doesn't work" answers. BTW this is for a "US Bank" ATM with Visa logo. Card nor website lists international number. I will try another Cust Serv agent. I will get my bank local numbers too. Question: I will call from a Mobal world phone. Do I have to start the call with the + sign, and then enter 00 as well, and then 1-800? Any idea why some who answered say calling 1-800 didn't work? Possibly dialing incorrectly without country code or + or something? I will try out Skype stateside before I go, wear a MONEY belt, check out that ATT website, think about getting a calling card, and use european bank ATM's when the bank is open, when possible. This topic is confusing like the electrical outlet topic, where you need Ken to guide you! Thanks to all

"Any idea why some who answered say calling 1-800 didn't work" ... They probably just meant that it would not be toll-free which is different from the call being blocked. I did this all the time when I was living in Europe and never had a problem.

Holly, One point on a different question you raised. We also have a Mobal phone. We like it because it was very inexpensive; we pay only when we make calls; and we don't have to connect to the internet to use it; i.e., we can call from the car. Most of our calls have been to proprietors for help when we couldn't find our lodgings. However, it can be confusing to use. The home base for your phone is the U.K., but we found that we couldn't call our friends who also had U.K. based phones without dialing the local country (Italy) code where we were all staying. I'm not even sure I've explained the problem correctly! It took a lot of experimentation before we could actually make the thing work. I'd advise getting in touch with the Mobal company and getting instructions on using it.

I have had to make a couple of 1-800 numbers from Europe and it was simple. Dial 00 1 800 -...-.... As has been said, it will not be free since you will be paying roaming fees. Our srevice is through AT&T and for a few bucks a month we can get their international service that cuts the roaming fees in half and then cancel it when we get back. I don't know how other providers work but it is worth asking. Then hope you never need to make one of those calls since they usually don't involve happy things.

Holly, another thought. We can call people in our contact list by simply highlighting them and hitting the send button. You might want to put the bank's number in as a contact and try it. It might or might not work. Ain't technoogy grand!! TC

Do I have to start the call with the + sign, and then enter 00 as well, and then 1-800? No. If you want to place an international call, you must "tell" the network that the following is to be interpreted as an international number. The way to do that (i.e. the exit code) differs from network to network, in most of Europe it's '00', in the US it's '011', and so on. That's somewhat inconvenient for cell phones, which after all can be used in many different networks, so the providers established '+', which is shorthand for "dial the exit code of the connected network." So dialing '+00' is effectively dialing '0000', because in a European network the '+' is interpreted as a '00' too.

Just to add a touch of hoped for clarity - If you understand how phone numbers work it may help deciding what to dial. The various parts of a number such as 1-800-123-4567 are, as you would expect 123 (the exchange), 4567 (the number), and 800 (the area code). The prefix 1 is a country code. Every country in world gets a unique or shares a unique country code. The USA and Canada share 1 The UK gets 44 Germany is 49 France 33
Italy 39 and so on. To reach an international number from the US you need (if my memory serves) 011. To reach an international line from most places in Europe you need 00. Mobile phone (cell phone) builders came up with a plan where the + character could tell the phone an international call was to be dialed and it smartly substitutes the international prefix for wherever the phone is at the time when it dials a number prefixed by a +. So, from a European landline to reach that number you would key in 00 1 800 123 4567 and it would ring. From a mobile in Europe you could do the same thing or you could store or dial + 1 800 123 4567. You can see why you wouldn't ever dial +00. In much of Europe the first digit of the exchange is "0". When in the country the "0" needs to be dialed. If dialing most numbers from outside the country the "0" is dropped after the country code. Not everywhere, though, so if dialing a number in France (for example) and it doesn't work, put the 0 back in and try again. Clear as mud?

We go ahead and program the plus sign and 1 and area code into our phones' contacts for any numbers we think we might have to call while traveling. Doing so doesn't affect how the call works even when we're calling from home. Saves on wondering why the call didn't go through when we forget to add the necessary prefixes.

Great suggestions, thank you all. Nigel, your explanation was genius, perfectly clear, you understood exactly my conundrum. Thank you SO so much. I hope others who read will benefit from this information!!