T-Mobile Simple Choice Plan costs in Europe - anyone with experience?

do forum search, this has been discussed (likely in tech)

Thanks phred. I did do a search before posting, but I'm probably not the most experienced searcher around. I did not see an answer to my specific question. Should I post this under "Technology Tips" rather than "General Europe"? If so, I don't know how to do that, and don't want to post the same question twice.

The cost would be 20 cents per minute. I used my TMobile phone with the Simple Choice plan to call from 1) Turkey to Greece and 2) Turkey to Turkey. The calls were 20 cents per minute. This was October 2014 so I would think it's still accurate. And just FYI, all texting and all data was free. When I could login via WiFi and do WiFi calling, those calls were completely free.

The information Valerie gave you in the previous reply was still current as of the end of March 2015. I used my iPhone extensively while in Istanbul for just over a week for phone calls, texts and data. Not always on WiFi. I also am on T Mobile's Simple Choice plan.

Thank you both! That's wonderful. A little unnerving that T-Mobile doesn't know their own plans, but we''ll give it a whirl. As always, I am so appreciative of the folks on this forum who are so generous with their knowledge and experience.

It has often been posted here that the customer service reps at various companies (banks, cell phones, etc) know very little about travel. Yours is yet another example.

Here is T-Mobile's own website on the subject. It clearly says that if you have a Simple Choice Plan (not all T-Mobile plans are Simple Choice) and are going to one of the over 100 covered countries, calls are $0.20 per minute and texts and slower data are free. So, the RS posters are correct.

It used to be that the data was 2G, but I just got 3G in Israel, and have heard this is true in other countries as well.

http://www.t-mobile.com/optional-services/roaming.html

Thanks Harold. I had several T-Mobile reps insist that the 20 cents a minute was only for calling the USA from a covered country and did not apply when abroad and calling within that same country (including when I called and asked my question to be escalated to someone who was an expert in their international plans). It is reassuring to hear from people who have actually used the plan. Pretty sad though, and frustrating, that their own employees not only don't know these details, but they have no reliable way of finding out either.

The 20 cent rate is from anywhere to anywhere. T Mobile works seamlessly in Europe, as they're the national cell carrier in some countries. What I like about it is that you can sign up for the plan and cancel it when you get home--no 2 year contracts.

We were in Budapest last year, and our 2 1/2 year old granddaughter kept calling us at 3:30 a.m. on her mother's speed dial in the U.S. We were glad to hear from her.

As long as you're in a post-billed Simple Choice plan (there's a similar plan that doesn't have a credit check but it's actually prepaid each month) the cost is 20 cents per minute from anywhere to anywhere in most of Europe (some eastern European countries such as Montenegro aren't on the list). Verified personally in Ireland within the past month. The no-credit-check equivalent plans don't have the calling benefits as far as I know.

What's even better about Simple Choice is the unlimited Internet. While not fast it's perfect for maps, Facebook posts and uploading an occasional photo.

Thanks Peter and David. Hearing recent experiences really helps. And one of the major selling points was the unlimited data. We don't plan on using the phone much, except for a few required phone calls and quite a bit of googlemaps. Wonderful!

Also, if I can say so in his forum, the TripAdvisor app integrates well with location/maps and the phone calling features, although the mapped location or telephone number format might be incorrect. Become familiar with the correct dialing format for an in-country call in your particular country - like the optional zeros in the city code....

"Become familiar with the correct dialing format for an in-country call in your particular country - like the optional zeros in the city code."

The easiest way to deal with this is to use the "plus system" (my term, not an official term). Store each phone number as though you were dialing it internationally, with the plus sign, then the country code, then the number as it's dialed from abroad. If you do this, the number will dial correctly from anywhere simply by pressing "send" on your phone.

For US numbers, enter +1 - area code - number, leaving out the dashes and spaces (although my phone somehow "knows" where the spaces go!). So, the Rick Steves office is +1-425-771-8303 (again, don't enter the dashes).

For France (since that's the country the OP mentioned), enter +33 - nine digit phone number (omitting the initial zero). So, the contact number for Versailles is listed on their website as (33) 01 30 83 78 00; enter this on your phone as +33 1 30 83 78 00 (again, don't enter spaces, although it's fine if the phone puts them in itself).

The only potential problem with this is that the European phone numbers will work from the US too; if you don't have a plan to reduce the cost of these, a "pocket call" could be pricey!

PS: I got my bill for my first trip abroad using Simple Choice (to Israel) and can confirm that all calls (to the US, within Israel, and to my voice mail, carried on two different local networks) were all 20 US cents each!