We'll be traveling in Greece, Spain and Germany. We have a trak phone, which won't work abroad. We'd like to have one while abroad, and many transportation reservations require a mobile phone number. Although we've read some of the posts about phones, we don't know whether to buy one while still in the USA so we can learn how to use it before we go, or if they are so simple to use that we won't waste hours of our vacation trying to figure it out! We don't want to spend $150 on a phone that we could use once we return to the USA b/c we have no need for it.
The purpose of the phone would be to receive messages about flight/train/ferry changes, or to use in case of an emergency. We will have an ipad mini with us, but expect that wifi might be sketchy some places.
Thanks for your help.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8318 posts
We've also got a tracphone and don't really talk that often on a cellphone. But their telephone is such a piece of junk.
This week, I picked up a new phone at T-Mobile with $50 per month service including unlimited voice, data and text in North America.
International service is an additional $15 and it gives me $.20 per minute voice calls in Europe and to the U.S. I'll drop this service and go to a cheaper plan upon return home.
To use your own phone with T-Mobile, you can buy their SIMS card cheap and just use their service for a month or two.
We also got a new Samsung telephone with a bunch of rebates--and free service for a month. The phone ended up costing $120, but we needed a new phone anyway. T-Mobile uses GSM phones--same as AT&T Cellular and many other companies--but not compatible with Verizon.
Posted by
Portland, CT
276 posts
Onesimcard offers rentals very cheaply. I'm thinking of doing this. The simplest phone is on sale right now for less than $3 the first week and around $1 per day after that. The rates for texts are around 15 cents maybe even free in country. You'll need to look at their website for firm information. I used Onesimcard and found them to be quite good.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
thank you!