Hey all, I'll be in Ireland for Christmas (my second trip there). My first trip, I was unable to use my cell phone except when I managed to find wifi--it's a phone provided by my job and I just didn't want to run the risk of any exhorbitant charges. However, not being able to use my phone when I was out and about was a massive pain and also made me miss a few meetups with people I would have liked to see. Can I rent a smartphone when I'm in Ireland? I'm not worried about getting calls, but I really need to be able to text and use Facebook messenger. Being able to rent a phone with these capabilities would be very helpful. Do any of you know if this is possible? I Googled this question but all the results were over a few years old.
Posted by
317 posts
Greetings from Ireland.
Do you have an iPhone? easiest option will be to unlock it and insert an Irish pay-as-you-go sim card. You'll have unlimited internet data for a month for around €20.
You an also rent the phones and sim cards in the specialist shop at the arrivals area in terminal 1 at Dublin Airport.
You could also consider buying a pay-as-you-go handset, expensive for one with a decent sized screen, but you could always tether it to a larger device like your present smartphone or an iPad or tablet.
Either way we'll get you connected, let me know how you get on!
Slainte/Good health
Stephen McPhilemy
Rick Steves Ireland Tour-Guide
Derry and Dingle
Posted by
Fairfax, Virginia
348 posts
If you cannot unlock your phone, or don't want to try/risk it, you can get an unlocked phone for less than $100 and add a sim card as soon as you arrive. For that price, you'll get an android phone that's a few years old and not the latest, but it should work for your needs.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Renting phones, if you can even find a place that will do it, isn't usually cost effective. If you can make do with calls and text, you can buy a cheap "dumb phone" in Ireland for about €20; a smartphone for Facebook messenger will cost more. As pointed out above, though, you don't need the newest or fanciest model.
Note that if you get a phone or SIM in Ireland, it will have an Irish phone number. Anyone who wants to call or text you from the US will have to know how to dial it correctly, and they will pay for an international call (potentially expensive) or text (usually $0.25-0.50).
If you can get your work phone unlocked, you can just get an Irish SIM card. However, you then won't be able to receive calls or texts on your US number (unless you get a phone that has space for two SIM cards, which US phones don't).
You can also buy an unlocked phone in the US. One advantage of doing that, vs waiting until you get to Ireland, is that you can program in all your numbers. When programming US numbers, do it as +1-area code-number. So, Rick's office is (425) 771-8303; you'd enter that as +14257718303. If you put it in the phone this way, you can call or text it and it will go through correctly, wherever in the world you are (no need to change it when you get home). Similarly, if a Dublin number is shown as +353 1 896 1000, enter all of that (no spaces).
One source of unlocked phones is B&H Photo and Video, but there are others: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/smartphones/ci/24039/N/3955685938. Make sure the phone will work in Europe (for 2G, it needs the 900 and 1800 frequencies; I'm not sure for 3G and 4G). Most smartphones do work in both North America and Europe, but some dumbphones only work in one or the other.
Posted by
Waterville, Ireland
409 posts
Also - there is a LONG posting with many suggestions to help you on this same topic about two weeks ago.
Like Stephen said above - get the phone unlocked (easy to do with a phone call to your carrier) and get a new SIM card for the visit!!
Susan
American in Waterville
Posted by
Maine Coast
35 posts
If you are a Verizon customer, they have a "loaner" program for people traveling abroad for up to 3 weeks. It's called the "World Phone" program and is a free loaner except that you must pay the FedEx delivery charge of about $25.