Using Phones in Europe between fellow travelers

Kathy, Could you clarify that your phones are quad-band GSM models. I've encountered travellers from the U.S. on past trips that were using dual-band phones with only the North American frequency bands, and couldn't understand why their phones wouldn't work in Europe. If your phones do have the European frequency bands, you have two choices: 1.) Purchase a PAYG SIM card in the first country you'll be travelling in, and use that for the duration of the trip. Rates will be cheapest in the country where the card was purchased, but more expensive in other countries since you'll be "roaming". I've noticed that rates seem to be a bit higher in eastern European countries, so your costs might be a bit higher in Budapest and Prague. Berlin will be the same as other western European countries. A "variation" of this would be to purchase a SIM card in each country you travel in, but I find that to be an awkward and annoying solution, as the number changes each time. 2.) Purchase a SIM card from one of the "travel phone" firms such as Cellular Abroad, Roam Simple, Call In Europe, Telestial or Mobal (there are others, but these are the ones that come to mind). These are typically offered on a post-paid basis, with calls charged to a credit card. Rates are usually consistent across much of western Europe, but you'll have to check their websites to determine rates for Budapest and Prague as they may be in "Zone 2". That option would provide you with a working phone as soon as you step off the plane, and no need to "top up" which is the case with PAYG plans. Texting will be the cheapest option, especially as received texts are usually FREE and sent texts only about 60¢ each. Happy travels!

Vodafone gets good reviews and has stores and coverage where you are going. It appears that a SIM card would be very inexpensive. $5-10 at most. FYI, the exchange rate for the Hungarian Forint (HUF) is 100 HUF = $0.45. http://www.vodafone.hu/en/phones-plans/pay-as-you-go-plans/vitamax-standard https://shop.vodafone.hu/lakossagi/keszulek_kereso/elofizeteses#1

Kathy, there is a new option that might fit your situation. T-Mobile now allows its prepaid customers to roam internationally on its "No Annual Contract" plans. Unlike the contract plans, you have to roam on a specific cell company. In the three countries you'll be visiting, they are all T-Mobile companies. The rates aren't cheap (but then they aren't cheap for its contract customers either). As Ken noted, you'll need a phone with the correct frequencies for Europe (900 and 1800 for the Czech Republic and Hungary, 900 for Germany). The advantage of using a U.S. carrier (albeit with a German parent company), is that everything is in English and you can more easily add dollars to the account. The text messaging rates aren't too bad (for international roaming): 50¢ to send, 10¢ to receive. Here is a link to a T-Mobile web site: T-Mobile International Services. Note that you have to clink on the links for "International roaming for T-Mobile No Annual Contract Customers." One of the links explains how you'll need to connect your phone to the right service once outside the U.S. It would be helpful for someone on this forum to try and it out and report back on how it works.

DO NOT get an ekit sim card. I got one and was never able to make an outgoing call. I emailed them and they gave me lengthy instructions in their reply. It still didn't work. What a waste of money. I should have just used my AT&T phone.

Thanks, everyone. Yes, I do have at least one quad band gsm phone as I used it successfully with a prepaid card from eKit in 2007/8. Andrea, my daughter's phone also did not work with the eKit card. I ended up using both of them in my phone to use up the minutes. What I did not like about it, other than hers not working, was the min $30 to top up and the rates for mins and texts are higher than I would like. I bought my eKit cards from eBay for about $4-5 each and they came with $10 prepaid so they start out looking quite inexpensive. Paul, I think you have an excellent suggestion. I believe that's what I will do and I will come back and post about it. I have to investigate the freq on my daughter's phone (it's a different one than the last time) and I need to read through t-mobile's info a bit more carefully, but at first glance it looks like a very good solution for us.

Kathy, I'm not sure what the restrictions or requirements are for the T-Mobile plans. For instance, do you have to have a certain level of credit loaded on the phones before you go? You live in T-Mobile's home area, so maybe you can get some reliable information on how this works. Please keep us posted. Thanks.

I know my issues with the ekit sim card was not that my phone wouldn't work internationally, as I had used that same phone on other trips. I was able to use Italian and German sim cards on one trip, and used just my phone with my AT&T plan on two others. Good luck finding a good solution!