Cellular Abroad or Mobal or something else international phone calling

If all you need is to be able to make phone calls from your smart phone occasionally, the cheapest/easiest thing to do is sign up for Skype + install it on your smart phone. Then you can call (almost) any phone in the world, even a landline, for a few cents a minute. (The cost varies; some European cell phones cost quite a lot per minute to call, but it sounds like you wouldn't be calling them.) When you sign up, add $10 of credit to your Skype account. Then you are set to go.

The only thing you need to do is be on WiFi, if you want to avoid buying a SIM card or using AT&T's roaming plan. You need some internet connection - WiFi, mobile data, etc. - to make a call with Skype. But if you are OK restricting yourself to making while at the hotel or an airport or something, where WiFi is available, this will work fine without a SIM or any mobile service. I've used Skype in this way plenty of times in the past.

(Skype credit is good for up to six months before it expires; simply make one call once every six months to keep it alive.)

You don't have to change your AT&T plan to use Skype in this way. Just leave the phone in Airplane Mode while overseas, but then turn on WiFi.

You can use Google Voice to make calls to phones too like you can with Skype - except Google Voice is free to call US numbers. You can add $10 credit to Google Voice just like you can with Skype, though, if you need to call non-US numbers, for just a few cents a minute. You can sign up for both Skype and Google Voice if you want. There is no cost until you need to call a phone. Skype is not free to call US numbers, but calling 800 numbers with Skype is free as I recall.

If you want to use some other SIM card (like Mobal?). Then you must also make sure the phone is unlocked. AT&T locks their phones by default, if you bought it from them. Prepaid phones must be used for a year(?) I think before AT&T will unlock them.

We have 2 basic Mobal phones. Have used them in Europe for 3 years. We only need to call and text--no data--so they meet our needs. We have had no issues with them at all. The company only bills for exactly what we used. We don't use them a lot, so they end up being very cheap for us, considering that they sit in our closet most of the year. If someone needed to make a lot of calls or texts, they probably wouldn't be the most cost effective option. It sounds like you could just purchase their SIM card as long as your phone is unlocked. I've contacted the Mobal customer service once and received good service.

I researched Mobal and calls are 99 cents a minute which I find too high. I will make very few calls and receive none but I still find the per minute charge too high for me.

I downloaded the Skype app to my iPad and registered. I believe the monthly plan is going to be my best choice. I hope it works as good as it sounds.

I also plan to download the Skype app to my Blu Android.

What's nice about Skype is that you can use it on both the iPad and on your phone - same account login, so just one credit to buy. On the iPad, it will work as a speaker phone unless you have a headset for it.

You can test it out now by calling some 1-800 numbers for free. (Like your bank's automated helpline.)

I think the monthly plan may not be your best option unless you are planning to make a lot of calls. The $2.99/month plan is good only for calling the US I believe. (And you can call the US for free with Google Voice anyway.) The per-minute pay-as-you-go option with say a $10 credit to start lets you call any phone anywhere, and if you don't use the $10 credit, you can hang on to it til next time.

I do need data and I use my iPad for data. I was referring to the phones on Mobal and some other sites that provide international calling. I use my cell phone just for calling and texting. I use my iPad for data and that is when I am travelling,

When at home, I have a desktop and a home landline along with my cell phone and iPad.

I looked into Google F1 and I can not remember why it would not work for me. I think that you have to have a particular phone. It might also be that you need a postpaid plan and I have a prepaid plan.

The $2.99 plan for Skype is for those in the United States and calling from the United States.

I am interested in calling from Copenhagen when I am there and that will cost me me like $4.99 a month which is a great deal. I want to be able to call landlines and cell phones and I believe that I ne3ed a monthly subscription to do so.

Google Fi does indeed work - but there is some small print that makes it a bit less of a no-brainer..
First off, you need a "Fi-ready" phone. Not much of a problem - you can get one from Google store, but even the cheapest one would be about $100.

Second, unless you want to switch to it for good, you'll need to cancel your plan once you get back, otherwise you'll keep paying about $15 a month.

If you do decide to switch to it for good and use it in the States as your primary phone, it is a great plan if you always (or almost always) have access to free WiFi - at $10 per gigabyte, their mobile data is exorbitantly expensive (the silver lining is that the price stays the same in all of those "200 countries").

Finally, "free international calls over WiFi" is a great feature, but it doesn't work in some countries. For instance, in Moscow, which has a comprehensive free WiFi coverage, you will still pay 20 cents a minute for all incoming and outgoing calls even if you're connected to WiFi.

I looked into Google F1 and I can not remember why it would not work for me. I think that you have to have a particular phone. It might also be that you need a postpaid plan and I have a prepaid plan.

Google used to limit Fi only to certain phones, but they have since opened it up to many more Android phones. Not sure about iPhones.

I am interested in calling from Copenhagen when I am there and that will cost me me like $4.99 a month which is a great deal. I want to be able to call landlines and cell phones and I believe that I ne3ed a monthly subscription to do so.

You do not need a subscription to be able to call per-minute to (almost) any number in the world. But...they have a free trial "first month free" ($6.99/month after the first free month) for Denmark, so you might as well just go with that. Not sure if that allowed you to call the US too - but if you buy $10 in credit, you'd be able to make per-minute calls back that way.

Whatsapp lets you make WiFi calls. The app is free as is the service. Works on iPhone in Europe and the States. It's how we talk to our family when THEY are traveling abroad and when WE are abroad and we talk to our friends in Spain and England on this app. Completely free, but must be on WiFi. Yes you can use it for texting and sending photos free also, but if you don't need to text you don't then use that feature.

I'm going to need to replace my cellphone soon and am considering switching from to Google Fi once I have a qualifying phone. During this year's (lengthy) trip to Europe, I used cellular data at a rate of between 1 and 2 GB per month. I use far less when I'm at home, vastly preferring the large screen on my desktop computer for internet activities. I can see that Google Fi could be painfully expensive for people with long commutes via public transportation who spend all that time web-surfing or streaming video on their phones.

acraven, Google Fi is not a bad deal compared to Verizon or AT&T, unless you have some sort of a shared family plan or something. I'm not sure there is a better deal out there for people who don't want to mess with a SIM card when they travel.

But I don't mind using a SIM card, and I look at my entire cell phone cost for the year, not just for a trip overseas. I don't travel overseas much during the year - maybe one trip to Europe, so it's one SIM card to worry about for a few weeks at most. The rest of the year, my mobile costs are much less (Mint Mobile, $15/month unlimited talk and text, 3GB of data) than if I were using Google Fi. We each have different phone needs and preferences.

I have a Blu Android which is partnered with Amazon. I do not have a lot of space. In order to download What's App, I have to disable other apps. it is a problem for me. When I had a software update, I had to disable other apps so as to update.

If I want to call Lyft for a ride to the airport, I will have to disable facebook or another large app. Then after I do not need Lyft any longer, I can disable Lyft and enable facebook again.

I am trying to free up space by deleting very old emails.

I am going to have to test Skype, maybe this weekend.

Does your BLU phone have a slot for a microSD memory card? If so, you can most likely move some of your apps (and files) to the memory card. (If you don't have a memory card, buy the largest size the phone will accept.) My Amazon Fire tablet is similarly low on internal memory, but I was able to move lots of stuff to the memory card, and it works far better - much more room for apps..

If your BLU phone doesn't have have a memory card slot to be expandable, it's time to buy a new phone. They don't cost that much. $100 for a very basic Moto E5 would be a decent phone - perhaps not the best deal but an example. You can add a 128GB microSD card to it.

I do not know very much or understand very much about Sims Cards. I do not know how to insert a Sims card or even where it goes.I do not know very much about this Blu or Android phones.

I am a senior citizen who was trained on Apple. I have an Apple desktop and iPad. I always had an iPhone until my 5C died out of warranty and I could no longer afford a new iPhone. I found this Blu on Amazon for $28 and it is amazingly decent especially given the price but there is limited support. With Apple, I could call AppleCare or go to the store.

Amazon is partnered with this phone and in order to get the low price, you have to be an Amazon Prime member and be willing to have Amazon apps on your phone like Amazon.com. Amazon video, Amazon music , and other Amazon apps. That is what takes up so much space. Still I love Amazon and this phone was perfect for the money.

Some of my friends have Androids but they are very busy people and I can not always get with them to ask questions. I have been learning to go online to get information about my Blu and or Android.. I am beginning to like it better. I hated it in the beginning.

Except in emergencies or when I am on a long trip, I seldom need my cell phone because I also have a landline at home.

I have had this phone for about three years and I think that it is time for an upgrade. I will get another on Amazon after I get home from vacation but with more storage space and other features such as wi fi calling.

My phone takes really good pictures but I can not easily transfer them to iPhoto. I should be able to use a USB and something should come up and make the transfer easily but it does not for whatever reason. it might be due to the version of Blu or Android. I have to use Android transfer or something like that and with a lot of work, I get my pictures transfered. I spent a lot of time on the phone with AppleCare and they were not able to help me transfer using the USB between my phone and computer.

I have Marshmallow 6.0.

So, I researched my BLU. It does have 8 gigabytes. it has dual sims.

One of the pluses mentioned by many reviewers is the low price for what you get but the negatives include all the apps and ads for Amazon and Google. They are installed and can not be deleted. You get lots of Amazon ads which I do not mind while others do but that is why the price for the phone is low.

One reviewer mentioned that it is a great phone for when you break yours and need something fast which was me.

I am trying to link an article to one of the reviews.

https://www.wired.com/2016/07/blu-r1-hd-review/

According to Amazon's page, the phone does allow you to add a microSD card, up to 64GB to expand the built-in 16GB of storage That would make the phone light years better. You could store all your photos, apps, and documents on the microSD card and even move some apps to it, so you won't have to keep deleting stuff whenever you want to use a new app:

https://www.amazon.com/BLU-Unlocked-Smartphone-Warranty-Black/dp/B077QX9TVN

This is the microSD card I would buy (some cost a little less but are slower). $12 to make your existing phone usable seems like a bargain:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MicroSD-Adapter-MB-ME64GA-AM/dp/B06XX29S9Q

As a bonus, if you start saving your photos to the microSD card, you can pop the card out of the phone occasionally, pop it into the adapter that comes with the package, and plug the adapter into your Mac to copy the photos to it. An Android data cable would probably work too and in some ways be easier but might be more complicated and a lot slower. Copying the photos with the SD card adapter should be pretty reliable.

Having a dual SIM phone is nice if you want to use two SIM cards while in Europe. But you can't use your AT&T prepaid service in Europe anyway, so it doesn't help you in this case. Someone who had say T-Mobile and wanted to keep their T-Mobile SIM in the phone but also buy a second SIM to get fast data might get some advantage out of having a dual SIM phone. I have a dual SIM phone too but have never quite had a use for it.