Calling U.S. 1-800 numbers from Europe on an American cell phone

The calls will not be free from Europe, they wouldn't be free at home either. 800 numbers are toll free from a landline but your cell minutes are still being used. Download Skype (free in the App store) and buy $10 worth of credit. You can call any number back home for pennies a minute. Turn off your phones data (go to settings) and only use Skype on WiFi.

In general, freephone numbers are only free from within the country. From another country you have to put the international prefix and country code (001) before the area code (800) and are charged the normal rate for an international call to that country. The owner of the freephone number is prepared to pay for calls from within the country, but not international call charges.
A French freephone number would be free from within France, but not usually from any other country.

If you have a US phone and are calling from another country, it is still an international call to phone the US and you have to pay for it. And you would not be notified when you make each call.
For the exact price you would have to look at your phone providers list of rates. You probably have some sort of default roaming service.

OK, so I already spent about 30 minutes on hold on a 1-800 number. So I'm probably out a good chunk of change. Hopefully still $$, not $$$ or heaven help me, $$$$.

Also, it is not true that you have to add any special prefixes to make the call go through . I dialed 1-800-whatever from France (on my US cell phone) and the call went through as is. No need for country code, international prefixes, or anything like that.

If your phone is a recent model that allows you to swap out the SIM card , pick up a LEBARA sim and put it in the phone . That will give you per minute rates of about 5 cents per minute . LEBARA operates in France and you should be able to get the sim with little trouble

You are probably paying 90 cents per minute for voice calls.. If you really want to run up your bill leave your data on and search the web for awhile. Advice to buy a sim for your phone is not good at this point. An ATT iphone needs the unlock code from ATT which will take about two days to get from them.

To call a toll free number in the US you must have dialed +1 800 .......
To your US carrier that is equivalent to calling any US based number, since toll free numbers still incur minutes charges.

I think AT&T charges me $1.29/min. for calling any US number from overseas. Less if I had an international plan.
So chances are you were charged about that amount for each minute you were on that call.

The cheapest way to go when you travel to Europe is to buy a local SIM card and insert it in your cell phone. You will need an unlocked phone to do so.

Are these calls to your bank or credit card companies ?? There is usually a number on the back of the card for you to call COLLECT from international locations.

Laura, It doesn't matter if you call collect, the roaming charges still apply.

To use your phone as a cell phone, buying a local sim is the cheapest BUT...to use your phone on wifi with Skype credit is absolutely the cheapest way to talk to someone back home.

Take the advice to download Skype and buy $10 credit. Your 1-800- xxxxxxxxx calls to the U.S. will then be absolutely free. I was on hold for more than 2 hours with an airline via Skype, trying to make my way home during Hurricane Sandy, and it cost nothing.

I also use Skype to call hotels when I'm in Europe. It costs very little and is so handy.

Before I leave home, I add all of my hotel, airline and credit/debit card phone numbers to my iPhone contact list. Then, to call them, just click the Skype app, go to your contacts from the keypad page and call. They don't need to have Skype.

There's even free text messaging to other Skype users (handy for family members).

My experience is contrary to the first paragraph of Chris's reply. From European phones and SIM cards, 1-800 numbers often don't work at all. They're not just free only in the US/Canada but usable only in the US/Canada. For years, I have understood that to be the reason that banks provided separate numbers for calling from abroad. Similarly, I have tried European free phone numbers (such as to the railways) from the US and could not get the calls through, with proper international codes.

Janet,
You might want to download the fairly new AT&T program Passport.

Now when I entered AT&T Passport in the search engine, I saw a link to "Download Passport." $30/30 days & your calls (on this pkg) are $1/min.

I like the Skype idea better if you are able to hold off on calls until you have WiFi.

Enjoy!

We returned last Friday from our trip to Europe. We also have AT&T - added the Passport package - however, when we arrived in France we had no cell service!! Started to panic a little, because we were renting an apartment through Airbnb and needed to contact our host. Couldn't call or text him.

When we arrived at the Colmar train station, I kindly asked a man who was walking his dog I could pay him to make a phone call for me. He refused to take any money and called our host.

Luckily the apartment had WiFi, so I e:mailed my Son in the U.S. who suggested I download Skype. I did and it worked like a charm - allowing us to contact the AT&T 1-800 number to see what in the heck was going on. They fixed our problem.

Long story short - if you have WiFi - use Skype for your 1-800 numbers. It sure helped us and didn't cost anything.

Yes, I can confirm that US 1-800 numbers will not work if you call from a foreign telephone number.
Buying a SIM card overseas will not help you in that regard, however it will allow you to have a data plan with 1Gb at very cheap price (about €10 or 15+ the cost of the SIM card, which is about 10€ ) . With that, you can access the internet, including Skype, from anywhere, even if you are not within a Wifi hot spot (for example at your hotel.)

My experience is that US toll free numbers won't work outside the U.S. and Ones from other countries don't work outside their countries either. That's why companies like Go to Meeting are flourishing I this age of global business. There is a different number to call depending on your country! In addition to the calling collect option, airlines often have a local number and it's worth getting it. It was a life saver when Air Canada went on strike!

Pam

In addition to using Skype for Wi-Fi calls, another option to consider is VIBER. I haven't tried it for calls yet, but it works great for text messaging.

I regularly call 800 numbers in the US from the UK, using Skype. If you have any Skype credit, all calls to 800 (or related 8XX) are completely free to the caller. It works well, is super easy, and effective.

For it to be free, it must be on wifi.