We purchased an inexpensive pre-paid cell phone in Germany a year and a half ago and will use it again on our visit in September. In addition to visiting in Germany we will also be in other countries where we would like to use the phone—namely Norway, Denmark, Sweden Italy and Switzerland. We want to know if we can purchase a pre-paid chip/card for the phone and use it the countries noted. Will a different chip/card be needed for each country? Can chip/cards be purchased in Train Stations and/or Airports? Thanks for any help
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33755 posts
The card you will be looking for is a prepaid "sim". SIM is a contraction of Subscriber Identity Module.
Some large stations and airports may have a mobile phone provider in which case you can purchase one there, and top it up.
If there is not a mobile store in the airport or train station you will find plenty of stores in the town centres (just about any town centre) in Italy and Switzerland. I can't speak for Scandinavia as I've not visited there yet but I would be very surprised if it is not the same.
Posted by
San Francisco
14925 posts
Hi,
If you need to have the phone unlocked, go to a shop (located in train stations too) that has the sign "Handys entsperren."
Posted by
Myrtle Beach, USA
12313 posts
You won't need a new card in each country. Pick your SIM up from one of the big companies and you can refill it as you go. The first one you pick up will work everywhere as long as it still has value (the old ones die after about a year of inactivity, so the one in the phone is probably gone) but will charge higher roaming costs per minute. Once it runs out, however, I personally prefer to buy a new local SIM card rather than keep adding value to the one I have.
A local SIM card saves you money per minute on calls but also comes with a new phone number each time. The phone number hasn't ever been an issue for me so I don't care. If you want or need to have one phone number, or if you are primarily in one country, it's better to just add value and pay a little more for roaming when outside the country where you purchased the card.
Don't forget to charge the battery before your trip. TSA is apparently making people power up their electronic devices before they carry them on the plane.
Posted by
OP
Cincinnati, OH, USA
768 posts
Thanks for the information from everyone. I'm almost certain the phone we purchased is "unlocked" but we'll have it checked. We'll purchase a few SIM cards (probably Norway and Switzerland) and should be okay. While in Norway we may check lodging reservations in Stockholm and Copenhagen; I assume a couple of 5 minute calls won't eat up too many pre-paid minutes. Thanks also for the reminder about charging the phone; we'd remember this for our US iPhones, netbook, etc. but might not have remembered it for the phone we "haven't used yet this year".
Jon