I will be in Germany, Austria, Switzerland in early May. My cell phone won't work there. What is the best/cheapest way to call back to USA while traveling without use of cell phone? Last year we purchased a prepaid phone card, but couldn't get it to work with pay phones. Tried to use it from a hotel room and ran up a $50 bill in a few minutes. Finally found a western union store that had phone booths and allowed calls at very cheap rates (like $0.05 per minute.
Any better ideas?
Will you be bringing along a laptop/netbook? You can install Skype, and make phone calls from your computer for about .02 cents a minute.
If you'll have a netbook or laptop with you the cheapest thing to do is to use Skype. It's under 2 cents per minute. You can also probably Skype from an internet cafe as long as you have a hands free headset- like what you'd use with a cell phone. We brought our netbook to Spain for two weeks and called the US frequently and spent around $15 total.
Not sure just how it worked but we used Skype too and it was practically free. The only problem was you can only use it if you have internet connection in your room, which two of the 5 hotels we stayed in did not.
In Switzerland, it is easy and inexpensive to use the Swisscom payphones. The booths are still all over, and easy to find, especially near train stations and post offices:
http://www.swisscom.ch/res/festnetz/dienstleistungen/telefonkabinen/index.htm
You don't need a phone card; just insert your VISA and the display will show you the running charge. (Yes, it is fair and accurate; I confirmed with my bill when I returned home).
The starting charge is 0,50 CHF and it goes up very slowly.
Most of my calls to the US (to family) ended up no more than 2,40 CHF, which used to be $1.92. These were not short calls---more like 10 to 15 minutes, or more.
Switzerland is the ONLY place I have found where I could do this and trust that there wouldn't be hidden charges.
The phone cards in Germany will allow you to use pay phones at a very cheap cost. The problem that many people run into, is that they are dialing the wrong number on the back of the card and thus end up with huge charges on their hotel bill or use up the card in a minute.
With a 5 euro card, you should be able to call the states for about 1-2 cents per minute. You do need to ask the hotel if they still charge if you use a phone card with a phone in your room. There are some hotels that still do. If you ask your front desk clerks, they will be able to help you with the phone card that you use the correct number. One number on the back is for calling in Germany, and the other is for international.
Most internet cafes also have phone booths to use. They also sell phone cards. I imagine Austria and Switzerland are similar.
I do not recommend buying phone cards in the states to use over here, the AT&T international ones are a total rip-off.
Russ,
I don't use my cell phone while in Europe; to answer what is the easiest, cheapest way to call the US while in Germany get a Telefonkarte worth 10 Euro or even cheaper go to what is called a "Call Shop". They're every where, in Munich there's a Call Shop next to the Wombat's hostel; in Berlin across from Bahnhof Zoo next to the McDonald's is a Call Shop.
I have found that using a prepaid phone card from here won't work on their pay phones. The Telefonkarte has a computer chip for the type of phones you just stick it into.
I've always had good luck with pin cards that are purchased from a local news/tobacco shop. The one-country cards (only work in the country you're in) are the best deal in terms of price per minute. I buy smaller denomination cards (5 euro) so I won't have much left over when I leave the country.
My experience is that they won't work in every phone but they work in enough so it's not too hard to find a phone you can use. When I buy a card, I ask the store clerk to show me a phone I can use. There is usually one visible from the store (especially if I'm in or near a train station).
The best deal I ever had was at an internet cafe in Salzburg. I'm not sure if their system was Skype or other Voice Over Internet system but they charged me practically nothing to call the US.
