Hi,
I am considering buying a cheap phone from Ebay and purchasing a SIM card in Germany for our upcoming trip to call home and check on the kids ects..while we are away. This may seem like a silly question but if my children want to call us from the US from our land line how costly do you think this would be? Or would they be better off calling from there cell phones? If using there cell phone would there be any additional charge? or only minutes used on our plan?
Thanks,
Wendy
There is also a Vonage plan that includes free calls to Germany (but may have to pay for calls to cell), $25 per month. We used to have it but switched to a cheaper T-Mobile at home account that we're not very happy with (too many random service outages that we never experienced with Vonage).
The German cell phone doesn't get charged for incoming calls (only outbound calls) but calling a cell phone does cost more than calling a land line.
I'm still bringing a quad band cell phone from home. At $1 per minute (calling and receiving), however, it's for emergency use only. I use a PIN card most often for regular calls home.
you will want to get a calling plan of some kind at home because the rate if they just pick up the phone and dial will be around $1/min. Same with calling from a US cellphone to a number abroad. Your carrier (landline or cell) will have discounted plans that are a few cents/min, as do many calling card companies.
Look up the rate to call a mobile device since it is often more expensive than calling a landline. Note that incoming calls to your cellphone will be free to your cellphone, so you don't need to load the cell up with lots of money for calls.
Hi Wendy~~I realize this doesn't directly respond to your question but might give you something else to consider. We have 2 phones with UK sim cards which can only be used in Europe...that way I can find my husband when he wonders off on his own. For family at home to call us I purchased a Verizon prepaid phone card at Costco so that phoning Europe--depending on which country--costs 13 or 15 US cents/minute. (But also costs us 79 US cents a minute on the cell so calling the hotel is best.)
Enjoy the planning--it's part of the fun!
It depends entirely on your calling plans for both land line and cell, my hunch is that your land line is friendlier for international calls. Basically, if you get a cell phone and a European SIM, then you will have a European number, and the cost would be just like calling europe from home now.
An option that we use is taking our regular cell phones (We have compatible phones from ATT and international roaming), and while it does cost about $1.25 a minute, the kids just call our normal local number, it costs them nothing, and we restrict them to emergencies or a short daily check-in. We also will buy phone cards there for longer calls, have tried Skype on our netbook (not as easy as it looked).
We have not purchased SIM cards (though we could use them in our phones) and we have not yet tried one of the many VOIP shops springing up in Europe, but then since we rarely call within Europe, and only make limited calls anyway, what we have has worked for us.
Consider getting the Passport SIM card from www.telestial.com. with it, when u r in Europe, u can call anywhere in the US and Europe for $0.49/min and all incoming calls are FREE.
we have Vonage at home and calls to my cell phone was $0.28 per minute.
I found this as the best deal for my needs. YMMV.
Also look into dial around numbers (10-10-???). You may remember them being advertised quite a bit several years ago. If you check out http://1010phonerates.com (among others), you can see rates. Watch out for monthly access and/or connection charges to determine the best numbers. (It might be different for short calls and long calls.) Dialing using these would be simple for them, e.g., picking up the phone and entering 10-10-868-49-1805-996633 would ring the Bahn.
Wendy, if your kids are going to be calling you from the landline, call your service provider and ask about their international plans. Ask if the plan includes calls to wireless as well as wireline. Ask about the terms (e.g. can you cancel subscription when you get back or do you have to subscribe for a minimum period).
A few years back, I made the mistake of calling a friend in Europe without such a plan. My call came to more than $150 (rate was more than $2 per minute). After I called and complained to the phone company about the ridiculous rate, they offered to retroactively switch me to an international plan and adjust my charge. The new bill was around $10 including the monthly fee for the plan.
Thank you all so much for this information! It was really helpful.
I have a question for STEVE. I looked at the onesuite site and think I may set up an account. Can I also use this service to call from Europe to the US if using our unlocked cell phone? How would this work? Would I use this service the same way enter the toll free number then call home?
Thanks,
Wendy
