SIM cards for Portugal and Spain

Jerry&Stelly, AFAIK, there are no "common phone companies" in Portugal and Spain. While you may be using the same network in each country, the rates will be set according to the terms in the country of purchase. When you travel to Spain, you'll be roaming, so your bucket of minutes will deplete at a faster rate. I'm assuming you have an unlocked quad-band GSM Phone? You could also use a SIM card from one of the "travel phone" firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Call In Europe, Telestial, Mobal, EuroBuzz, One SIM or Max Roam. You'll have to check their respective websites for more information on rates and other details. Many of these use a U.K.-based number and provide consistent rates across western European (rates are higher in eastern Europe). Some use post-paid billing (calls charged to a credit card) so no worries about topping-up (which can sometimes be more of an issue when outside the country where the SIM was purchased). I've been trying one of these for the past few years, and so far it's worked well (although this is still a "work in progress", as I'm now using an iPhone so have to consider data roaming). Happy travels!

You should be able to use the same SIM in both countries, but you will be roaming once you leave the country of purchase. Rates within the EU are capped, so it shouldn't be too expensive. However, you will have a Portugal number, and you have to make sure that you can refill your Portuguese SIM from Spain. For more information about your options, look at http://www.prepaidgsm.net/. The "National Operators" tab will take you to pages where you can see who operates in Spain and Portugal. The "International Operators" tab will tell you more about the companies Ken mentioned. And the Forums are a place to ask further questions (but be aware that the replies can get very technical, so don't be afraid to ask for clarification).

thanks so much for the info. We are out of pocket in New Orleans taking care of my(stelly) mother while my sister travels to Paris. We will be home soon where we can think straight. My Mom has dementia a little and it has been a rough three weeks/ Thanks again for the info.

Last year I bought a pay as you go sim card from a portuguese company called Optimus. I bought it at a phone store and the clerk was very helpful in getting it set up. You had to call to activate. Rates were reasonable. I think the sim card was 5 euro for a week and about 25 cents a minute for calls.